The hunt
Whaleboats usually contained a crew of six men. One man, the boatheader, steered and commanded the crew. In Chapter 61 of Moby Dick, Stubb is the boatheader and presides over the crew, who eventually kills a sperm whale. The rest of the crew includes a harpooneer (who doubles as the main oarsman) and four to five men who row the boat. In this passage, Stubb orders the crew as they approach the whale and instructs Tashtego, the harpooneer, as to how to direct the bow oar:
"Start her, start her, my men! Don't hurry yourselves; take plenty of time- but start her; start her like thunder-claps, that's all," cried Stubb, spluttering out the smoke as he spoke. "Start her, now; give 'em the long and strong stroke, Tashtego. Start her, Tash, my boy- start her, all; but keep cool, keep cool- cucumbers is the word- easy, easy- only start her like grim death and grinning devils, and raise the buried dead perpendicular out of their graves, boys- that's all. Start her!"
Whaleboats were usually about 30 feet long and 6 feet wide. Both ends of the whaleboat were pointed so as to increase its speed and decrease air and water resistance. The following images show the basic design and layout of a typical whaleboat.
This view of the whaleboat shows some of the tools that were essential to the crew for a successful hunt.
During the 1850’s, the whaleboat’s design changed slightly in order to increase its efficiency. As this image shows, the boats of the second half of the 19th century were built using carvel construction, as opposed to clinker-built construction.
This made the boat more limber and resistant. The hull was usually constructed of cedar with oak or ash ribs for extra strength and durability.
When a whale was spotted, the whaleboats would be lowered as quickly as possible. Once the crew was ready, the line tubs were also lowered down into the whaleboats. Line tubs were large and heavy, and since they made it much more difficult to lower the whaleboat from the davit, they were lowered separately.
The crew would then row or sail towards the whale, “within a hundred yards or so.” This process was called “going on the whale,” and had to be done efficiently in order to keep the whale in close proximity.
Once the boat was in close range to the whale, the crew would stow their oars in peaking cleats.
At this point, a harpooner would use an iron, with one or two “flues,” attached to the line, and strike the whale.
When hit, the whale would immediately “run, breach or sound.” The unpredictability of the whale’s next move caused danger on board the small boat. Breaching could cause it to capsize, sounding could literally pull the boat underwater, and running took the boat at a violently fast speed.
If the whale ran, the boat could be towed on what was called a “Nantucket Sleigh Ride” for very long distances. For this reason, small provisions and a compass were kept on board in case the boat became separated from the ship over a great area.
In Chapter 60 of Moby Dick, Melville discusses the hazards of being on a whaleboat with an unpredictable line:
"The
whale-line is only two thirds of an inch in thickness. At first sight,
you would not think it so strong as it really is. By experiment its one
and fifty yarns will each suspend a weight of one hundred and twenty
pounds; so that the whole rope will bear a strain nearly equal to three
tons. In length, the common sperm whale-line measures something over two
hundred fathoms. Towards the stern of the boat it is spirally coiled
away in the tub, not like the worm-pipe of a still though, but so as to
form one round, cheese-shaped mass of densely bedded "sheaves," or
layers of concentric spiralizations, without any hollow but the "heart,"
or minute vertical tube formed at the axis of the cheese. As the least
tangle or kink in the coiling would, in running out, infallibly take
somebody's arm, leg, or entire body off, the utmost precaution is used
in stowing the line in its tub. Some harpooneers will consume almost an
entire morning in this business, carrying the line high aloft and then
reeving it downwards through a block towards the tub, so as in the act
of coiling to free it from all possible wrinkles and twists."
Melville continues with a description of the logistics of the whale line, and how it is employed during the hunt itself:
"Both
ends of the line are exposed; the lower end terminating in an
eye-splice or loop coming up from the bottom against the side of the
tub, and hanging over its edge completely disengaged from everything.
This arrangement of the lower end is necessary on two accounts. First:
In order to facilitate the fastening to it of an additional line from a
neighboring boat, in case the stricken whale should sound so deep as to
threaten to carry off the entire line originally attached to the
harpoon. In these instances, the whale of course is shifted like a mug
of ale, as it were, from the one boat to the other; though the first
boat always hovers at hand to assist its consort. Second: This
arrangement is indispensable for common safety's sake; for were the
lower end of the line in any way attached to the boat, and were the
whale then to run the line out to the end almost in a single, smoking
minute as he sometimes does, he would not stop there, for the doomed
boat would infallibly be dragged down after him into the profundity of
the sea; and in that case no town-crier would ever find her again.
Before
lowering the boat for the chase, the upper end of the line is taken aft
from the tub, and passing round the loggerhead there, is again carried
forward the entire length of the boat, resting crosswise upon the loom
or handle of every man's oar, so that it jogs against his wrist in
rowing; and also passing between the men, as they alternately sit at the
opposite gunwales, to the leaded chocks or grooves in the extreme
pointed prow of the boat, where a wooden pin or skewer the size of a
common squill, prevents it from slipping out. From the chocks it hangs
in a slight festoon over the bows, and is then passed inside the boat
again; and some ten or twenty fathoms (called box-line) being coiled
upon the box in the bows, it continues its way to the gunwale still a
little further aft, and is then attached to the short-warp- the rope
which is immediately connected with the harpoon; but previous to that
connexion, the short-warp goes through sundry mystifications too tedious
to detail."
The
intricate placement of the line is designed to be the least dangerous
possible, yet still many sailors become victims of this practice. At the
end of the novel, Melville’s forewarnings of the line’s dangers come to
fruition, when Captain Ahab, who has descended into a whaleboat in
order to kill Moby Dick, is caught on the line and killed.
"The
harpoon was darted; the stricken whale flew forward; with igniting
velocity the line ran through the groove; – ran foul. Ahab stopped to
clear it; he did clear it; but the flying turn caught him round the
neck, and voicelessly as Turkish mutes bowstring their victim, he was
shot out of the boat, ere the crew knew he was gone."
After the dangers of the hunt had passed, the crew either marked the
carcass with a waif or began the exhausting process of hauling it back
to the ship. Although the crew worked in several boats, the task of
towing the whale while contending with nature, including “sea-vultures”
as Melville calls them, sharks, and the weather, must have been an
extremely demanding chore. Due to the many hazards of whaling, the
whaleboat, in its layout and design, tried to contend with these dangers
and difficulties.
Lancing the whale after a long run
Whaleboats destroyed during the hunt
