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1The allusion to the waif and waif-poles in the last chapter but one, necessitates some account of the laws and
2regulations of the whale fishery, of which the waif may be deemed the grand symbol and badge. It frequently happens that
3when several ships are cruising in company, a whale may be struck by one vessel, then escape, and be finally killed and
4captured by another vessel; and herein are indirectly comprised many minor contingencies, all partaking of this one
5grand feature. For example,--after a weary and perilous chase and capture of a whale, the body may get loose from the
6ship by reason of a violent storm; and drifting far away to leeward, be retaken by a second whaler, who, in a calm,
7snugly tows it alongside, without risk of life or line. Thus the most vexatious and violent disputes would often arise
8between the fishermen, were there not some written or unwritten, universal, undisputed law applicable to all cases.
9Perhaps the only formal whaling code authorized by legislative enactment, was that of Holland. It was decreed by the
10States-General in A.D. 1695. But though no other nation has ever had any written whaling law, yet the American fishermen
11have been their own legislators and lawyers in this matter. They have provided a system which for terse
12comprehensiveness surpasses Justinian's Pandects and the By-laws of the Chinese Society for the Suppression of Meddling
13with other People's Business. Yes; these laws might be engraven on a Queen Anne's farthing, or the barb of a harpoon,
14and worn round the neck, so small are they. I. A Fast-Fish belongs to the party fast to it. II. A Loose-Fish is fair
15game for anybody who can soonest catch it. But what plays the mischief with this masterly code is the admirable brevity
16of it, which necessitates a vast volume of commentaries to expound it. First: What is a Fast-Fish? Alive or dead a fish
17is technically fast, when it is connected with an occupied ship or boat, by any medium at all controllable by the
18occupant or occupants,--a mast, an oar, a nine-inch cable, a telegraph wire, or a strand of cobweb, it is all the same.
19Likewise a fish is technically fast when it bears a waif, or any other recognised symbol of possession; so long as the
20party waifing it plainly evince their ability at any time to take it alongside, as well as their intention so to do.
21These are scientific commentaries; but the commentaries of the whalemen themselves sometimes consist in hard words and
22harder knocks--the Coke-upon-Littleton of the fist. True, among the more upright and honorable whalemen allowances are
23always made for peculiar cases, where it would be an outrageous moral injustice for one party to claim possession of a
24whale previously chased or killed by another party. But others are by no means so scrupulous. Some fifty years ago there
25was a curious case of whale-trover litigated in England, wherein the plaintiffs set forth that after a hard chase of a
26whale in the Northern seas; and when indeed they (the plaintiffs) had succeeded in harpooning the fish; they were at
27last, through peril of their lives, obliged to forsake not only their lines, but their boat itself. Ultimately the
28defendants (the crew of another ship) came up with the whale, struck, killed, seized, and finally appropriated it before
29the very eyes of the plaintiffs. And when those defendants were remonstrated with, their captain snapped his fingers in
30the plaintiffs' teeth, and assured them that by way of doxology to the deed he had done, he would now retain their line,
31harpoons, and boat, which had remained attached to the whale at the time of the seizure. Wherefore the plaintiffs now
32sued for the recovery of the value of their whale, line, harpoons, and boat. Mr. Erskine was counsel for the defendants;
33Lord Ellenborough was the judge. In the course of the defence, the witty Erskine went on to illustrate his position, by
34alluding to a recent crim. con. case, wherein a gentleman, after in vain trying to bridle his wife's viciousness, had at
35last abandoned her upon the seas of life; but in the course of years, repenting of that step, he instituted an action to
36recover possession of her. Erskine was on the other side; and he then supported it by saying, that though the gentleman
37had originally harpooned the lady, and had once had her fast, and only by reason of the great stress of her plunging
38viciousness, had at last abandoned her; yet abandon her he did, so that she became a loose-fish; and therefore when a
39subsequent gentleman re-harpooned her, the lady then became that subsequent gentleman's property, along with whatever
40harpoon might have been found sticking in her. Now in the present case Erskine contended that the examples of the whale
41and the lady were reciprocally illustrative of each other. These pleadings, and the counter pleadings, being duly heard,
42the very learned judge in set terms decided, to wit,--That as for the boat, he awarded it to the plaintiffs, because
43they had merely abandoned it to save their lives; but that with regard to the controverted whale, harpoons, and line,
44they belonged to the defendants; the whale, because it was a Loose-Fish at the time of the final capture; and the
45harpoons and line because when the fish made off with them, it (the fish) acquired a property in those articles; and
46hence anybody who afterwards took the fish had a right to them. Now the defendants afterwards took the fish; ergo, the
47aforesaid articles were theirs. A common man looking at this decision of the very learned Judge, might possibly object
48to it. But ploughed up to the primary rock of the matter, the two great principles laid down in the twin whaling laws
49previously quoted, and applied and elucidated by Lord Ellenborough in the above cited case; these two laws touching
50Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish, I say, will, on reflection, be found the fundamentals of all human jurisprudence; for
51notwithstanding its complicated tracery of sculpture, the Temple of the Law, like the Temple of the Philistines, has but
52two props to stand on. Is it not a saying in every one's mouth, Possession is half of the law: that is, regardless of
53how the thing came into possession? But often possession is the whole of the law. What are the sinews and souls of
54Russian serfs and Republican slaves but Fast-Fish, whereof possession is the whole of the law? What to the rapacious
55landlord is the widow's last mite but a Fast-Fish? What is yonder undetected villain's marble mansion with a door-plate
56for a waif; what is that but a Fast-Fish? What is the ruinous discount which Mordecai, the broker, gets from poor
57Woebegone, the bankrupt, on a loan to keep Woebegone's family from starvation; what is that ruinous discount but a
58Fast-Fish? What is the Archbishop of Savesoul's income of £100,000 seized from the scant bread and cheese of hundreds of
59thousands of broken-backed laborers (all sure of heaven without any of Savesoul's help) what is that globular £100,000
60but a Fast-Fish? What are the Duke of Dunder's hereditary towns and hamlets but Fast-Fish? What to that redoubted
61harpooneer, John Bull, is poor Ireland, but a Fast-Fish? What to that apostolic lancer, Brother Jonathan, is Texas but a
62Fast-Fish? And concerning all these, is not Possession the whole of the law? But if the doctrine of Fast-Fish be pretty
63generally applicable, the kindred doctrine of Loose-Fish is still more widely so. That is internationally and
64universally applicable. What was America in 1492 but a Loose-Fish, in which Columbus struck the Spanish standard by way
65of waifing it for his royal master and mistress? What was Poland to the Czar? What Greece to the Turk? What India to
66England? What at last will Mexico be to the United States? All Loose-Fish. What are the Rights of Man and the Liberties
67of the World but Loose-Fish? What all men's minds and opinions but Loose-Fish? What is the principle of religious belief
68in them but a Loose-Fish? What to the ostentatious smuggling verbalists are the thoughts of thinkers but Loose-Fish?
69What is the great globe itself but a Loose-Fish? And what are you, reader, but a Loose-Fish and a Fast-Fish, too?
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