fore ganger (for gang"er)

[ IMG:content-1668.png:[blocks in formation] 2. In whaling, a piece of rope, of the same kind as the tow-line, made fast to the shank of a toggle-iron or harpoon, with an eye-splice in one end: so called by English and Scotch whalemen, more frequently by Americans the strap or iron - strap. The proce of adjusting this rope to the iron is known to the latter as strapping, to the former as spanning.