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CHAPTER 89 . Fast - Fish and Loose - Fish . The allusion to the waif and waif - poles in the last chapter but one , necessitates some account of the laws and regulations of the whale fishery , of which the waif may be deemed the grand symbol and badge . It frequently happens that when several ships are cruising in company , a whale may be struck by one vessel , then escape , and be finally killed and captured by another vessel ; and herein are indirectly comprised many minor contingencies , all partaking of this one grand feature . For example , — after a weary and perilous chase and capture of a whale , the body may get loose from the ship by reason of a violent storm ; and drifting far away to leeward , be retaken by a second whaler , who , in a calm , snugly tows it alongside , without risk of life or line . Thus the most vexatious and violent disputes would often arise between the fishermen , were there not some written or unwritten , universal , undisputed law applicable to all cases . Perhaps the only formal whaling code authorized by legislative enactment , was that of Holland . It was decreed by the States - General in A . D . 1695 . But though no other nation has ever had any written whaling law , yet the American fishermen have been their own legislators and lawyers in this matter . They have provided a system which for terse comprehensiveness surpasses Justinian’s Pandects and the By - laws of the Chinese Society for the Suppression of Meddling with other People’s Business . Yes ; these laws might be engraven on a Queen Anne’s farthing , or the barb of a harpoon , and worn round the neck , so small are they . I . A Fast - Fish belongs to the party fast to it . II . A Loose - Fish is fair game for anybody who can soonest catch it . But what plays the mischief with this masterly code is the admirable brevity of it , which necessitates a vast volume of commentaries to expound it . First : What is a Fast - Fish ? Alive or dead a fish is technically fast , when it is connected with an occupied ship or boat , by any medium at all controllable by the occupant or occupants , — a mast , an oar , a nine - inch cable , a telegraph wire , or a strand of cobweb , it is all the same . Likewise a fish is technically fast when it bears a waif , or any other recognised symbol of possession ; so long as the party waifing it plainly evince their ability at any time to take it alongside , as well as their intention so to do . These are scientific commentaries ; but the commentaries of the whalemen themselves sometimes consist in hard words and harder knocks — the Coke - upon - Littleton of the fist . True , among the more upright and honorable whalemen allowances are always made for peculiar cases , where it would be an outrageous moral injustice for one party to claim possession of a whale previously chased or killed by another party . But others are by no means so scrupulous . Some fifty years ago there was a curious case of whale - trover litigated in England , wherein the plaintiffs set forth that after a hard chase of a whale in the Northern seas ; and when indeed they ( the plaintiffs ) had succeeded in harpooning the fish ; they were at last , through peril of their lives , obliged to forsake not only their lines , but their boat itself . Ultimately the defendants ( the crew of another ship ) came up with the whale , struck , killed , seized , and finally appropriated it before the very eyes of the plaintiffs .
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