Lances and spare harpoons are stowed between the thwarts and the gunwale, the iron shanks held in a little brass frame—at least, on the boats of the Clearchus—with a sliding wire to lock them in, and the wooden hafts held in marline. Lances are to starboard, and harpoons to port; and on each, whether lance or harpoon, is a wooden sheath covering the sharp edge. It is one of the duties of the bow oar to remove the sheath, and to get out the lance. He has certain other duties which are important, and which make the bow oar next in line of promotion to the harpooner or boatsteerer. When fast to the whale, the boatsteerer makes his way aft, and takes the steering oar, changing places with the boatheader, who is usually one of the mates, while the mate takes his position in the bow, a lance in his hand, ready to lance the whale and finish the business. A harpoon or a lance is a poor bedfellow in a seaway, for they are kept very sharp. In fact, they are often a source of danger even when out of the boat. The second harpoon has to be thrown out of the boat in any case, whether there is a chance of getting it into the whale or not, for it is fast to the whale line, and if it were not thrown out there would be trouble. This second iron, when not in the whale, where it belongs, goes jumping and skittering over the waves after the fleeing whale, ahead of the boat or even abreast of it when the boat is hauled up close, or afoul of it. The placing of the loggerhead at the stem accomplishes three things: it gives the boat-steerer easy control {41} of the line, which the mate, in the bow, would have no time to attend to when they were at close quarters; incidentally it avoids the possibility of pulling the boat to pieces by a towing whale in which the harpoon is fast; but the controlling reason for it is that the men can heave on the line without leaving their places, which they must be able to do to get the boat up to the whale, so that the mate can lance. But to come back to the boats, which had been making progress according to the natures of the men in charge of them. They were no nearer than they had been at first, and we drifted on, Mr. Wallet’s boat just abeam of us. The farther we went, the farther we were behind the whales, which were wandering directly away from us. The sun was near setting, and after an hour of a losing chase, signals were made for the boats to come aboard again. I cast another look about the horizon, and ran aft. There was nothing to be seen of whales—from the deck, at any rate—only a beautiful pearl-gray softness on the water. My dreams that night were a queer mixture of whales and home, and of my father working on a staging beside a whale in a dock, and removing several of his ribs. {42} CHAPTER V