The Dart — Moby-Dick

Ishmael pauses after Stubb's kill to explain a custom that shaped it. By invariable usage the headsman steers the boat while the harpooneer rows the foremost oar and must also throw the first iron, sometimes across twenty or thirty feet of open water. Through the whole exhausting chase that striker is still expected to pull his utmost and shout encouragement at the top of his compass. Ishmael says he cannot bawl heartily and row recklessly at once, and he doubts many men can.

Then the cry comes: Stand up, and give it to him. The harpooneer must drop the oar, turn halfway round, seize the harpoon from the crotch, and throw with whatever strength is left. No wonder, Ishmael adds, that only about five fair darts succeed in fifty across the fleet. Harpooneers are cursed and disrated. Some burst blood vessels in the boat. Ships return after four years with four barrels while owners call the fishery a losing concern, because the breath is gone before the moment that needs it.

If the iron holds, headsman and harpooneer run fore and aft and swap places while the whale runs. Ishmael calls the whole arrangement foolish. The headsman should stay in the bows and throw both harpoon and lance while the striker rises from idleness, not from toil. Who on your team is still rowing when they should have a clean throw left?