There remained only the main body of foremast hands, differentiated ordinarily into seamen and green hands. At first the former were assigned to the work requiring previous experience, and the latter were entrusted only with the simpler routine jobs. But as the voyage wore on and the green hands improved through repetition and observation the functions of the two were gradually merged. When pursuing whales the foremast hands, four in a boat and with their backs turned to the game, did the rowing; in transforming the carcasses into oil and whalebone they again performed the more laborious tasks; while the duties which fell to them in the ordinary routine of shipboard life were legion.*