They All
Remain Still And Silent Until He Repeats PAWANA, A Whale, When In
Less Than Six Minutes The Two Boats Are Launched, Filled With Every
Implement Necessary For The Attack.
They row toward the whale with
astonishing velocity; and as the Indians early became their fellow-
labourers in this
New warfare, you can easily conceive how the
Nattick expressions became familiar on board the whale-boats.
Formerly it often happened that whale vessels were manned with none
but Indians and the master; recollect also that the Nantucket people
understand the Nattick, and that there are always five of these
people on board. There are various ways of approaching the whale,
according to their peculiar species; and this previous knowledge is
of the utmost consequence. When these boats are arrived at a
reasonable distance, one of them rests on its oars and stands off,
as a witness of the approaching engagement; near the bows of the
other the harpooner stands up, and on him principally depends the
success of the enterprise. He wears a jacket closely buttoned, and
round his head a handkerchief tightly bound: in his hands he holds
the dreadful weapon, made of the best steel, marked sometimes with
the name of their town, and sometimes with that of their vessel; to
the shaft of which the end of a cord of due length, coiled up with
the utmost care in the middle of the boat, is firmly tied; the other
end is fastened to the bottom of the boat.
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