The harpoon-gun on the Rex Maru. The gun is loaded and the harpoon is shown projecting from the muzzle; coiled on the iron pan below is the rope which is carried with the iron in its flight. The winch may be seen in front of the bridge at the left of the picture.
A large ring slides easily along the double shaft of the harpoon, and to this one end of a five-inch rope is fastened. Forty or fifty fathoms of a somewhat smaller line, called the “forerunner,” are coiled on a heavy iron pan just under the gun, giving slack to be carried with the harpoon as it flies through the air.
From the pan the rope passes backward over a roller in the bow of the ship to a double winch just in front of the bridge and down into the hold, where a thousand fathoms (6,000 feet), or more, are carried. By means of the winch the whale is “played” as one would use a reel on a fishing rod, and after the animal has been killed it is hauled to the surface and fastened to the side of the ship.
The harpoon lines are made of the finest Italian hemp and tested for a breaking point of eighteen tons, but the forerunner is tested for only fifteen or sixteen tons. Some, made especially for use in hunting the giant blue whale, will resist a strain of twenty-eight tons. If a tight line is kept and there are no sudden jerks the ropes seldom break.
Not far beyond the winch the mast is stepped, bearing near its peak a small barrel, called the “crow’s nest,” from which the whales are sighted.
The vessels carry a crew of ten or twelve men beside the captain, who is usually also the gunner. In Japan vessels are required by the coasting laws to have a Japanese in command, and consequently a native captain is employed who takes the ship in and out of the harbor. He is really the pilot, and the vessel is turned over to the Norwegian gunner as soon as the open sea is reached.
The harpoon is tipped with a hollow point called the “bomb,” which is filled with powder and ignited by a time fuse. The barbs, or flukes, are tied to the shaft of the iron.
The harpoon after it has been fired into the body of a whale. The bomb has exploded and the shaft is bent.