Now it needs
a strong, nervous arm to strike the first iron into the fish;
for often, in what is called a long dart, the heavy implement
has to be flung to the distance of twenty or thirty feet.
But however prolonged and exhausting the chase, the harpooneer is
expected to pull his oar meanwhile to the uttermost; indeed, he is
expected to set an example of superhuman activity to the rest, not only
by incredible rowing, but by repeated loud and intrepid exclamations;
and what it is to keep shouting at the top of one's compass,
while all the other muscles are strained and half started--
what that is none know but those who have tried it.
For one, I cannot bawl very heartily and work very recklessly
at one and the same time. In this straining, bawling state,
then, with his back to the fish, all at once the exhausted
harpooneer hears the exciting cry--"Stand up, and give it to him!"
He now has to drop and secure his oar, turn round on his centre
half way, seize his harpoon from the crotch, and with what little
strength may remain, he essays to pitch it somehow into the whale.
No wonder, taking the whole fleet of whalemen in a body, that out
of fifty fair chances for a dart, not five are successful; no wonder
that so many hapless harpooneers are madly cursed and disrated;
no wonder that some of them actually burst their blood-vessels
in the boat; no wonder that some sperm whalemen are absent four
years with four barrels; no wonder that to many ship owners,
whaling is but a losing concern; for it is the harpooneer that makes
the voyage, and if you take the breath out of his body how can
you expect to find it there when most wanted!
Again, if the dart be successful, then at the second critical instant,
that is, when the whale starts to run, the boatheader and harpooneer
likewise start to running fore and aft, to the imminent jeopardy
of themselves and every one else.
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