Part 7

J--The harpoon--with slot and travelling ring--fired from the Greener gun.

THE WHEEL

This type of steering wheel known as “shin cracker” was peculiar to the Yankee whaleships. The wheel was mounted on the tiller and the helm was moved by means of tackle which ran around the drum, through sheaves and blocks to the bulwarks. Consequently, when the steersman turned the wheel he walked back and forward with it across the deck.

In the deck over him there was a small hatch through which he could watch the sails.

THE FOC’S’LE

The foc’s’le was reached by a hatch, forward of the mainmast, which also served as the only inlet for daylight and fresh air.

In some cases the ceiling was so low that any man above average height could not stand upright. In heavy weather the deck was never dry, due to leaky hawse pipes and dripping oilskins, and in the tropics it was a furnace. Altogether, the combined odours of unwashed bodies, unwashed clothes, bilge water, tobacco and oil lanterns, made it a noisome habitation.

The men’s bunks were ranged in a double tier along the sides and their sea chests, lashed to the deck, served as benches.

THE WINDLASS

This ancient contrivance known as a log windlass was only a slight improvement over its predecessor in which the barrel was laboriously turned by wooden bars or “handspikes” inserted in holes.

In the one shown a ratchet mechanism was added, and when weighing anchor or cutting in a whale, four or five men on each side pumped the brake handles up and down.

One has but to compare this heartbreaking relic to the modern steam or electric winch to appreciate the truth of the captain’s allusion to a yachting cruise.

THE GALLEY

Here the cook, or “doctor” as he was called, prepared the food for officers and crew. The galley was located aft on the starboard side, abreast of the wheel, where the steersman might get an occasional cup of coffee from the cook to ease his trick at the wheel.

How different to the case of the man at the wheel in merchant ships, stamping his feet and blowing on his fingers in the roaring forties, and looking with wistful eyes towards the galley at the far end of the deck.

TYPES

The crews of Yankee whalers up to, and including, the fifties were made up mostly of Americans drawn from the neighbourhood of the ships’ home port.

As the great West opened up, the movement overland diverted the native American from the sea, and in the declining years of the industry crews were composed mainly of Portuguese, Negroes, and Bravas from the Cape Verde Islands.

Whaling crews were not paid wages but were given a “lay,” or share in the profits at the end of the voyage.

The lay scale was graded down from 1/16th for the captain to 1/200th for a green hand--and even less to the cabin boy.

At the end of a long voyage, when the ship was credited with oil valued at $250,000, or more, the sailors’ share was quite worth while.

THE BLACKSMITH

The blacksmith’s duties lay in the care of all the harpoons, spades, lances, boarding and mincing knives, and kindred gear.

When whales were being killed and brought alongside he was a busy man, straightening and repairing irons, and keeping the cutting-in stage supplied with keen-edged spades.

THE COOPER

When a whaleship set out on a voyage she was loaded from keel to deck with casks of various sizes, from the largest, of fourteen barrel capacity, to long, narrow ones, known as “ryers,” used to fill empty spaces and odd corners. Many of them were filled with fresh water to serve as ballast, and all the spare sails, food, clothing (slops) and other reserve articles were headed up in casks.

In due course they were emptied and filled with oil, and the cooper’s task was to keep them in good condition, and, if need arose, to construct new ones from the staves, heads and hoops which he had in reserve.

The term “barrel” was only used as a unit of measure:--a cask was spoken of as an eight barrel cask or a whale’s size was reckoned in so many barrels.