The men now 'peaked' their oars,
as it is termed; or they placed the handles in cleets made to receive
them, leaving the blades elevated in the air, so as to be quite clear of
the water. This was done to get rid of the oars, in readiness for other
duty, while the instruments were left in the tholes, to be resorted to in
emergencies. This gives a whale-boat a peculiar appearance, with its five
long oars raised in the air, at angles approaching forty-five degrees. In
the mean time, as the bull approached the herd, or school,[*] as the
whalers term it, the boats' crew began to haul in line, the boat-steerer
coiling it away carefully, in a tub placed in the stern-sheets purposely
to receive it. Any one can understand how important it was that this part
of the duty should be well performed, since bights of line running out of
a boat, dragged by a whale, would prove so many snares to the men's legs,
unless previously disposed of in a place proper to let it escape without
this risk. For this reason it is, that the end of a line is never
permitted to run out at the bow of a boat at all. It might do some injury
in its passage, and an axe is always applied near the bows, when it is
found necessary to cut from a whale.
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