A harpoon is a sort of a spear, to which a long rope is attached. This
spear is hurled at the whale by a sailor who stands in the bow of the
boat; it has a barbed end, like that of a fish-hook, and if it once gets
into the flesh of a whale it will hold fast, and the struggles of the
great fish cannot pull it out.

The line attached to the harpoon is held fast by the men in the boat, and
as the whale, in his pain and fright, plunges, dives, and swims about to
get away from the spear that is hurting him, the boat and the men in it
are dragged after him wherever he goes.

The men of Amagansett were at first very proud that three boats had
succeeded in getting near enough for their occupants to strike the whale.

But their pride did not last long. Ere two minutes had passed, each
boat-load was wishing that they had left the whale to the other, and
everybody was as busy as could be blaming his neighbor.

The trouble was that the harpoons had all been well thrown, and all had
stuck fast--too fast, for when the whale gave a mighty plunge, and set off
for the North Pole, at the rate of sixty miles an hour, all the three
boats, which were attached to him by their harpoon ropes, went bumping
along after him, in a terrible confusion of ropes, reproaches, and bad
language.

The whale sped along. The bows of the boats which were flying in his wake
were lifted high in the air, and the spray flew on every side, till it was
like a morning mist.

No one would let go his rope. Each man was sure his harpoon was the first