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1. 1 2022-08-12T18:03:31+00:00 Jordan Goffin 051e893d1adf4975a3ccfe543e6b32c8bf77482d Secondary Sources Jordan Goffin 4 Secondary sources referenced on this website plain 2024-03-26T17:05:08+00:00 Jordan Goffin 051e893d1adf4975a3ccfe543e6b32c8bf77482d

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• 1 2024-03-26T17:07:44+00:00 Master 4 plain 2024-03-26T17:35:14+00:00

  The captain was given full responsibility and supreme authority over every detail of the cruise and every member of the crew. Although answerable for his conduct to courts and owners ashore, he was the most unbounded of autocrats while at sea. Sometimes he headed a boat in the pursuit of whales: at other times he remained aboard to direct the strategy of the chase more effectively.*

• 1 2024-03-26T17:07:58+00:00 First Mate 4 plain 2024-03-26T17:36:20+00:00

  The duties of the three or four mates (according to the size of the vessel) were manifold. When lowering for whales each mate commanded a boat, directed the pursuit, and at-tacked the prey with his lance; and he also performed the tasks requiring the greatest skill and experience in the long, arduous process of converting the carcasses into oil and whalebone. On shipboard these officers were responsible for the maintenance of discipline and efficiency, exercised general supervision over the work of the crew, performed the most skilled and delicate tasks themselves, and stood watches which placed them successively in charge of the deck.
  
  The first mate was usually the busiest man on board. For in addition to being foremost inaction every time whales were sighted, he was directly responsible for the proper conduct of all routine affairs, as wellas for carrying out the captain’s orders, keeping the log-book, and directing the navigation of the vessel.*

• 1 2024-03-26T17:08:46+00:00 Ordinary Seaman and Seaman 3 plain 2024-03-26T19:26:27+00:00

  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.*

• 1 2024-03-26T17:09:33+00:00 Shipkeeper 2 plain 2024-03-26T17:53:59+00:00

  The shipkeeper took charge of the vessel and manoeuvred it, with the aid of a few other hands, while the boats were down in pursuit of whales. Many whalers, however, did not carry a special ship-keeper. In such cases either the captain remained aboard or some regular member of the crew, usually the cooper, directed the movements of the vessel while the boats were away.*

• 1 2024-03-26T19:05:26+00:00 Cooper 2 plain 2024-03-26T19:07:01+00:00

  The cooper, as his name implies, devoted himself mainly to the task of making and keeping in repair the casks in which the oil was stowed. In an industry in which leakage was so costly, his function was extremely important.*

• 1 2024-03-26T17:08:14+00:00 Second and Third Mates 2 plain 2024-03-26T17:37:43+00:00

  The duties of the three or four mates (according to the size of the vessel) were manifold. When lowering for whales each mate commanded a boat, directed the pursuit, and at-tacked the prey with his lance; and he also performed the tasks requiring the greatest skill and experience in the long, arduous process of converting the carcasses into oil and whalebone. On shipboard these officers were responsible for the maintenance of discipline and efficiency, exercised general supervision over the work of the crew, performed the most skilled and delicate tasks themselves, and stood watches which placed them successively in charge of the deck.*

• 1 2024-03-26T17:08:24+00:00 Steward 2 plain 2024-03-26T17:40:57+00:00

  The steward acted as the personal servant of the captain, waited on the officers’ table, and was in charge of the officers’ and boatsteerers’ provisions.*

• 1 2024-03-26T17:41:53+00:00 Boatsteerer 2 plain 2024-03-26T17:52:52+00:00

  After the mates, the most important group of men on board consisted of the boatsteerers, or harpooners—one for each boat. These were skilled and experienced whalemen who were given the posts of greatest danger and responsibility in performing the actual labor of a cruise. Their alternative names grew out of their two most important functions — those of flinging the harpoon and thereupon going aft to steer the whaleboat while the mate came forward to wield the lance. Together with the steward, and sometimes the cooper or shipkeeper, they lived in separate quarters amidships, known as the steerage. In location as well as in rank, therefore, they were half-way between the officers, whose quarters were aft in the cabin, and the foremast hands, who were housed forward in the forecastle. Roughly, their position was analogous to that of petty officers in the navy or of non-commissioned officers in the army.*