Whilst every article of the requisite apparatus was yet in the place of its ordinary lodgment,—harpoons and lances being in the places appropriated for them in the ’tween decks, and whale-lines in the gunroom,—the time for commencing was noted, and my Father proceeded, as I very well recollect witnessing, to the proof of this new feat of activity and management.
To the several hands of the “watch,” now gathered round him, was distinctly apportioned his part of the undertaking; first of all in bringing promptly on deck the requisite quantity of whale-lines and fishing apparatus, and then in placing them fit for service. Several lines (I think about four in number) were stowed away in different compartments of the boat, with the interior cavity of each upward. The inner end of the line of one of the coils, in the most favourable position for running, was rapidly “spliced” to the “foreganger” of the harpoon by my Father, whilst the officers about him were set to the splicing properly together of the alternate outside end of one coil with the inner end of another, so as to constitute an appropriate running series. Everything being accomplished, and the boat got ready for lowering, the time was again noted, when, to the astonishment of all on board, the interval expended was found only to have been _twelve_ minutes!
The rebuke of the officer of the morning watch, thus experimentally justified, occasioned, very naturally, a desire to question, if questioning could in any one particular be maintained, the effectiveness or safety of the preparations thus hastily made. And it _was_ questioned whether lines so disposed, for being run off the ropemaker’s coils, would be safe to trust to their running clear in the case of actual service. This matter was soon settled by a most satisfactory experiment. As a whale when harpooned does not go faster away than a man can run, it was proposed to run off the whole of the lines out of the boat by hand, in order to prove that the arrangements that had been made were adequate, both for ordinary service and safety.
The decks were forthwith cleared, fore and aft, and the men arranged to run with the line, from the boat to the forecastle, in unceasing succession,—a service which they performed, after the word was given to start, with a hearty goodwill and their utmost activity; and the experiment was admirably successful. The whole of the lines went out of the boat, by the usual notch over the stem, without hitch or failure of the slightest kind interrupting their free progress from beginning to end!