In a pirate,
man-of-war, or slave ship, when the captain is rowed anywhere
in his boat, he always sits in the stern sheets on a comfortable,
sometimes cushioned seat there, and often steers himself with a pretty
little milliner's tiller decorated with gay cords and ribbons.
But the whale-boat has no seat astern, no sofa of that sort whatever,
and no tiller at all. High times indeed, if whaling captains were wheeled
about the water on castors like gouty old aldermen in patent chairs.
And as for a tiller, the whale-boat never admits of any such effeminacy;
and therefore as in gamming a complete boat's crew must leave the ship,
and hence as the boat steerer or harpooneer is of the number,
that subordinate is the steersman upon the occasion, and the captain,
having no place to sit in, is pulled off to his visit all standing
like a pine tree. And often you will notice that being conscious
of the eyes of the whole visible world resting on him from
the sides of the two ships, this standing captain is all alive
to the importance of sustaining his dignity by maintaining his legs.
Nor is this any very easy matter; for in his rear is the immense
projecting steering oar hitting him now and then in the small of
his back, the after-oar reciprocating by rapping his knees in front.
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