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CHAPTER 62 . The Dart . A word concerning an incident in the last chapter . According to the invariable usage of the fishery , the whale - boat pushes off from the ship , with the headsman or whale - killer as temporary steersman , and the harpooneer or whale - fastener pulling the foremost oar , the one known as the harpooneer - oar . 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 . It is then they change places ; and the headsman , the chief officer of the little craft , takes his proper station in the bows of the boat .
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