Chapter XXXIII of Herman Melville's Classic, Moby Dick, gives us the most
eloquent definition of the Specksynder.
From Chapter xxxiii - THE SPECKSYNDER
...the command of a whale ship was
not wholly lodged in the person now called the captain, but was
divided between him and an officer called the Specksynder.
Literally this word means Fat-Cutter; usage, however, in time made
it equivalent to Chief Harpooneer. In those days, the captain's
authority was restricted to the navigation and general management
of the vessel: while over the whale-hunting department and all its
concerns, the Specksynder or Chief Harpooneer reigned supreme. In
the British Greenland Fishery, under the corrupted title of
Specksioneer, this old Dutch official is still retained, but his
former dignity is sadly abridged. At present he ranks simply as
senior Harpooneer; and as such, is but one of the captain's more
inferior subalterns. Nevertheless, as upon the good conduct of
the harpooneers the success of a whaling voyage largely depends,
and since in the American Fishery he is not only an important
officer in the boat, but under certain circumstances (night watches
on a whaling ground) the command of the ship's deck is also his;
therefore the grand political maxim of the sea demands, that he
should nominally live apart from the men before the mast, and be
in some way distinguished as their professional superior; though
always, by them, familiarly regarded as their social equal...
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