Service in the Fishery._
In the celerity with which he accomplished complex or tedious operations
pertaining to seamanship or the whale-fishery, my Father stood quite
unrivalled. We have elucidated this characteristic in a former section, in
respect to the flensing of a young whale with extraordinary rapidity, and
we now adduce another example of a more incidental nature.
During the outward passage towards the fishing-stations, the boats,
designed for the fishery, are carried out in an entirely dismantled
state,--some being stowed away upon deck, and some, perhaps, below. On
reaching the ice it is usual to suspend a couple of boats, or more, by
their davits, at the quarters of the ship, to be ready for sealing, or any
occasional purpose. But the whale-lines and other fishing apparatus are not
wont to be put into them until the ship reaches, or approaches near to,
some of the accustomed fishing-stations.
The boats of the Resolution were in this second condition on the 11th of
April, 1808, when the ship, in her progress northward, had reached the 71st
degree of latitude,--a parallel in which whales were not expected to be met
with. It happened, however, on the occasion alluded to, (as I find it noted
in my log-book, kept at the time,) that a whale made its appearance very
near to the ship. It was in the morning, early, whilst my Father was yet in
bed; but he was not called, because, in the unprepared condition of the
boats, the officer of the watch, and indeed all the people on deck,
considered the pursuit of it to be utterly impracticable.
My Father, however, as little trammelled in judgment by ordinary usages as
he was in the habit of being guided by popular ideas of the limits of
practicability, was much annoyed by the officer's assumption, which had
prevented his being called. "It was no use disturbing you," the officer
pleaded, "as there was not a boat in readiness for the fishery." "But a
boat might have been got ready," was the confidently asserted rebuke. That
this could have been done, however, within the short period of time in
which a solitary whale might be expected to remain within sight, seemed to
the officers as utterly impossible; for whilst a whale, under such
circumstances, would seldom be found to remain within sight for half an
hour, the preparing of the boats with lines, harpoons, and other requisites
for the fishery, would, as they conceived, occupy several hours.
My Father maintained, however, the practicability of a boat being fitted
out, in a manner sufficient for efficiency, in the course of a quarter of
an hour; and, when the idea was unhesitatingly objected to as an
_impossibility_, he undertook to prove his assertion. A boat then hanging
at the larboard quarter, empty, except as to oars, he selected for an
experiment, and undertook, with the help only of the watch upon
deck,--about sixteen hands,--to have that boat ready for active service
within the space of fifteen minutes.
To the due apprehending of this unprecedented undertaking, it will be
proper to describe what is ordinarily deemed needful for fitting out a boat
for the harpooning and capturing of the whale. The loose furniture of oars,
harpoons, lances, etc., present no particular difficulty; but the supplying
of an adequate quantity of lines, and placing them in a condition for being
safely run out, is, as ordinarily practised, a long and tedious operation.
The lines, it may be mentioned, are taken on board from their winter
storehouse, in coils made up by the ropemaker, in the shape of a short
drum, each coil weighing a little more than a hundred-weight, and measuring
120 fathoms in length. They are so coiled, in regular layers, commencing
with that of the slender square or cylindrical centre on which they are
wound, that they may be either unwound, by reversing the original motion
of the coil from the exterior, or by taking up the inner end left loose in
the open centre, the line may be drawn out thence whilst the coil remains
at rest. For the lodgment of the lines, when deliberately preparing for the
fishery, they are _unrolled_ from the cylindrical mass, and coiled in
compartments in the boats as they come off; but as this could not be done
under a period of some hours, the running of the lines out of the centre of
the coils was the plan alone available for my Father's object.
Whilst every article of the requisite apparatus was yet in the place of its
ordinary lodgment,--harpoons and lances being in the places appropriated
for them in the 'tween decks, and whale-lines in the gunroom,--the time for
commencing was noted, and my Father proceeded, as I very well recollect
witnessing, to the proof of this new feat of activity and management.
To the several hands of the "watch," now gathered round him, was distinctly
apportioned his part of the undertaking; first of all in bringing promptly
on deck the requisite quantity of whale-lines and fishing apparatus, and
then in placing them fit for service. Several lines (I think about four in
number) were stowed away in different compartments of the boat, with the
interior cavity of each upward. The inner end of the line of one of the
coils, in the most favourable position for running, was rapidly "spliced"
to the "foreganger" of the harpoon by my Father, whilst the officers about
him were set to the splicing properly together of the alternate outside end
of one coil with the inner end of another, so as to constitute an
appropriate running series. Everything being accomplished, and the boat got
ready for lowering, the time was again noted, when, to the astonishment of
all on board, the interval expended was found only to have been _twelve_
minutes!
The rebuke of the officer of the morning watch, thus experimentally
justified, occasioned, very naturally, a desire to question, if questioning
could in any one particular be maintained, the effectiveness or safety of
the preparations thus hastily made. And it _was_ questioned whether lines
so disposed, for being run off the ropemaker's coils, would be safe to
trust to their running clear in the case of actual service. This matter was
soon settled by a most satisfactory experiment. As a whale when harpooned
does not go faster away than a man can run, it was proposed to run off the
whole of the lines out of the boat by hand, in order to prove that the
arrangements that had been made were adequate, both for ordinary service
and safety.
The decks were forthwith cleared, fore and aft, and the men arranged to run
with the line, from the boat to the forecastle, in unceasing succession,--a
service which they performed, after the word was given to start, with a
hearty goodwill and their utmost activity; and the experiment was admirably
successful. The whole of the lines went out of the boat, by the usual
notch over the stem, without hitch or failure of the slightest kind
interrupting their free progress from beginning to end!