whaleboat

noun

1. A long narrow rowing boat, formerly used in whaling, which is pointed at both ends so that it can move either forwards or backwards equally well.

   “Before we had gone fifty yards we perceived that all hopes of getting further up the stream in the whale-boat were at an end, for not two hundred yards above where we had stopped were a succession of shallows and mudbanks, with not six inches of water over them.”

2. A boat resembling this and carried on a warship or other ship.