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M. Ballantyne</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Fighting the Whales</p> +<p>Author: R. M. Ballantyne</p> +<p>Release Date: April 22, 2007 [eBook #21202]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIGHTING THE WHALES***</p> +<br><br><center><h3>E-text prepared by Al Haines</h3></center><br><br> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<p> </p> + +<A NAME="img-cover"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-cover.jpg" ALT="Cover Art" BORDER="2" WIDTH="355" HEIGHT="543"> +<H3 CLASS="h3center" STYLE="width: 355px"> +Cover Art +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +Fighting the Whales +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +By +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +R. M. Ballantyne +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Blackie & Son Ltd. +<BR> +London —— Glasgow —— Bombay +<BR> +1915 +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<BR> + +<CENTER> + +<TABLE WIDTH="100%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAP.</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">IN TROUBLE, TO BEGIN WITH</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">AT SEA</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">OUR FIRST BATTLE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">"CUTTING IN" THE BLUBBER AND "TRYING OUT" THE OIL</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">A STORM, A MAN OVERBOARD, AND A RESCUE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">THE WHALE—FIGHTING BULLS, ETC.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">TOM'S WISDOM—ANOTHER GREAT BATTLE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">DEATH ON THE SEA</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">NEWS FROM HOME—A GAM</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">RETURN HOME</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +ILLUSTRATIONS +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-cover"> +Fighting the Whales . . . . . . <I>Cover Art</I> +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-014"> +"Tom Lokins raised the harpoon" +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-065"> +"Hurled it blazing into the sea" +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-080"> +"In a moment I was overboard" +</A> +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +FIGHTING THE WHALES +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IN TROUBLE, TO BEGIN WITH +</H3> + +<P> +There are few things in this world that have filled me with so much +astonishment as the fact that man can kill a whale! That a fish, more +than sixty feet long, and thirty feet round the body; with the bulk of +three hundred fat oxen rolled into one; with the strength of many +hundreds of horses; able to swim at a rate that would carry it right +round the world in twenty-three days; that can smash a boat to atoms +with one slap of its tail, and stave in the planks of a ship with one +blow of its thick skull;—that such a monster can be caught and killed +by man, is most wonderful to hear of, but I can tell from experience +that it is much more wonderful to see. +</P> + +<P> +There is a wise saying which I have often thought much upon. It is +this: "Knowledge is power". Man is but a feeble creature, and if he +had to depend on his own bodily strength alone he could make no head +against even the ordinary brutes in this world. But the knowledge +which has been given to him by his Maker has clothed man with great +power, so that he is more than a match for the fiercest beast in the +forest, or the largest fish in the sea. Yet, with all his knowledge, +with all his experience, and all his power, the killing of a great old +sperm whale costs man a long, tough battle, sometimes it even costs him +his life. +</P> + +<P> +It is a long time now since I took to fighting the whales. I have been +at it, man and boy, for nigh forty years, and many a wonderful sight +have I seen; many a desperate battle have I fought in the fisheries of +the North and South Seas. +</P> + +<P> +Sometimes, when I sit in the chimney-corner of a winter evening, +smoking my pipe with my old messmate Tom Lokins, I stare into the fire +and think of the days gone by till I forget where I am, and go on +thinking so hard that the flames seem to turn into melting fires, and +the bars of the grate into dead fish, and the smoke into sails and +rigging, and I go to work cutting up the blubber and stirring the +oil-pots, or pulling the bow-oar and driving the harpoon at such a rate +that I can't help giving a shout, which causes Tom to start and cry: +</P> + +<P> +"Hallo! Bob" (my name is Bob Ledbury, you see). "Hallo! Bob, wot's +the matter?" +</P> + +<P> +To which I reply, "Tom, can it all be true?" +</P> + +<P> +"Can <I>wot</I> be true?" says he, with a stare of surprise—for Tom is +getting into his dotage now. +</P> + +<P> +And then I chuckle and tell him I was only thinking of old times, and +so he falls to smoking again, and I to staring at the fire, and +thinking as hard as ever. +</P> + +<P> +The way in which I was first led to go after the whales was curious. +This is how it happened. +</P> + +<P> +About forty years ago, when I was a boy of nearly fifteen years of age, +I lived with my mother in one of the seaport towns of England. There +was great distress in the town at that time, and many of the hands were +out of work. My employer, a blacksmith, had just died, and for more +than six weeks I had not been able to get employment or to earn a +farthing. This caused me great distress, for my father had died +without leaving a penny in the world, and my mother depended on me +entirely. The money I had saved out of my wages was soon spent, and +one morning when I sat down to breakfast, my mother looked across the +table and said, in a thoughtful voice: +</P> + +<P> +"Robert, dear, this meal has cost us our last halfpenny." +</P> + +<P> +My mother was old and frail, and her voice very gentle; she was the +most trustful, uncomplaining woman I ever knew. +</P> + +<P> +I looked up quickly into her face as she spoke. "All the money gone, +Mother?" +</P> + +<P> +"Aye, all. It will be hard for you to go without your dinner, Robert, +dear." +</P> + +<P> +"It will be harder for <I>you</I>, Mother," I cried, striking the table with +my fist; then a lump rose in my throat and almost choked me. I could +not utter another word. +</P> + +<P> +It was with difficulty I managed to eat the little food that was before +me. After breakfast I rose hastily and rushed out of the house, +determined that I would get my mother her dinner, even if I should have +to beg for it. But I must confess that a sick feeling came over me +when I thought of begging. +</P> + +<P> +Hurrying along the crowded streets without knowing very well what I +meant to do, I at last came to an abrupt halt at the end of the pier. +Here I went up to several people and offered my services in a wild sort +of way. They must have thought that I was drunk, for nearly all of +them said gruffly that they did not want me. +</P> + +<P> +Dinner-time drew near, but no one had given me a job, and no wonder, +for the way in which I tried to get one was not likely to be +successful. At last I resolved to beg. Observing a fat, red-faced old +gentleman coming along the pier, I made up to him boldly. He carried a +cane with a large gold knob on the top of it. That gave me hope, "for +of course," thought I, "he must be rich." His nose, which was exactly +the colour and shape of the gold knob on his cane, was stuck in the +centre of a round, good-natured countenance, the mouth of which was +large and firm; the eyes bright and blue. He frowned as I went forward +hat in hand; but I was not to be driven back; the thought of my +starving mother gave me power to crush down my rising shame. Yet I had +no reason to be ashamed. I was willing to work, if only I could have +got employment. +</P> + +<P> +Stopping in front of the old gentleman, I was about to speak when I +observed him quietly button up his breeches pocket. The blood rushed +to my face, and, turning quickly on my heel, I walked away without +uttering a word. +</P> + +<P> +"Hallo!" shouted a gruff voice just as I was moving away. +</P> + +<P> +I turned, and observed that the shout was uttered by a broad +rough-looking jack-tar, a man of about two or three and thirty, who had +been sitting all the forenoon on an old cask smoking his pipe and +basking in the sun. +</P> + +<P> +"Hallo!" said he again. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said I. +</P> + +<P> +"Wot d'ye mean, youngster, by goin' on in that there fashion all the +mornin', a-botherin' everybody, and makin' a fool o' yourself like +that? eh!" +</P> + +<P> +"What's that to you?" said I savagely, for my heart was sore and heavy, +and I could not stand the interference of a stranger. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! it's nothin' to me of course," said the sailor, picking his pipe +quietly with his clasp-knife; "but come here, boy, I've somethin' to +say to ye." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what is it?" said I, going up to him somewhat sulkily. +</P> + +<P> +The man looked at me gravely through the smoke of his pipe, and said, +"You're in a passion, my young buck, that's all; and, in case you +didn't know it, I thought I'd tell ye." +</P> + +<P> +I burst into a fit of laughter. "Well, I believe you're not far wrong; +but I'm better now." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! that's right," said the sailor, with an approving nod of his head; +"always confess when you're in the wrong. Now, younker, let me give +you a bit of advice. Never get into a passion if you can help it, and +if you can't help it get out of it as fast as possible, and if you +can't get out of it, just give a great roar to let off the steam and +turn about and run. There's nothing like that. Passion han't got +legs. It can't hold on to a feller when he's runnin'. If you keep it +up till you a'most split your timbers, passion has no chance. It +<I>must</I> go a-starn. Now, lad, I've been watchin' ye all the mornin', +and I see there's a screw loose somewhere. If you'll tell me wot it +is, see if I don't help you!" +</P> + +<P> +The kind frank way in which this was said quite won my heart, so I sat +down on the old cask, and told the sailor all my sorrows. +</P> + +<P> +"Boy," said he, when I had finished, "I'll put you in the way o' +helpin' your mother. I can get you a berth in my ship, if you're +willin' to take a trip to the whale fishery of the South Seas." +</P> + +<P> +"And who will look after my mother when I'm away?" said I. +</P> + +<P> +The sailor looked perplexed at the question. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! that's a puzzler," he replied, knocking the ashes out of his pipe. +"Will you take me to your mother's house, lad?" +</P> + +<P> +"Willingly," said I, and, jumping up, I led the way. As we turned to +go, I observed that the old gentleman with the gold-headed cane was +leaning over the rail of the pier at a short distance from us. A +feeling of anger instantly rose within me, and I exclaimed, loud enough +for him to hear: +</P> + +<P> +"I do believe that stingy old chap has been listening to every word +we've been saying!" +</P> + +<P> +I thought I observed a frown on the sailor's brow as I said this, but +he made no remark, and in a few minutes we were walking rapidly through +the streets. My companion stopped at one of those stores so common in +seaport towns, where one can buy almost anything, from a tallow candle +to a brass cannon. Here he +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +[Transcriber's note: two pages missing from book] +</P> + +<P> +I've got neither family nor friends, and I'm bound for the South Seas +in six days; so, if you'll take it, you're welcome to it, and if your +son Bob can manage to cast loose from you without leaving you to sink, +I'll take him aboard the ship that I sail in. He'll always find me at +the Bull and Griffin, in the High Street, or at the end o' the pier." +</P> + +<P> +While the sailor was speaking, I observed a figure standing in a dark +corner of the room near the door, and, on looking more closely, I found +that it was the old gentleman with the nose like his cane knob. Seeing +that he was observed, he came forward and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I trust that you will forgive my coming here without invitation; but I +happened to overhear part of the conversation between your son and this +seaman, and I am willing to help you over your little difficulty, if +you will allow me." +</P> + +<P> +The old gentleman said this in a very quick, abrupt way, and looked as +if he were afraid his offer might be refused. He was much heated, with +climbing our long stair no doubt, and as he stood in the middle of the +room, puffing and wiping his bald head with a handkerchief, my mother +rose hastily and offered him a chair. +</P> + +<P> +"You are very kind, sir," she said; "do sit down, sir. I'm sure I +don't know why you should take so much trouble. But, dear me, you are +very warm; will you take a cup of tea to cool you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, thank you. With much pleasure, unless, indeed, your son +objects to a '<I>stingy old chap</I>' sitting beside him." +</P> + +<P> +I blushed when he repeated my words, and attempted to make some +apology; but the old gentleman stopped me by commencing to explain his +intentions in short, rapid sentences. +</P> + +<P> +To make a long story short, he offered to look after my mother while I +was away, and, to prove his sincerity, laid down five shillings, and +said he would call with that sum every week as long as I was absent. +My mother, after some trouble, agreed to let me go, and, before that +evening closed, everything was arranged, and the gentleman, leaving his +address, went away. +</P> + +<P> +The sailor had been so much filled with surprise at the suddenness of +all this, that he could scarcely speak. Immediately after the +departure of the old gentleman, he said, "Well, good-bye, mistress, +good-bye, Bob," and throwing on his hat in a careless way, left the +room. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop!" I shouted after him, when he had got about half-way down stair. +</P> + +<P> +"Hallo! wot's wrong now?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing; I only forgot to ask your name." +</P> + +<P> +"Tom Lokins," he bellowed, in the hoarse voice of a regular boatswain, +"w'ich wos my father's name before me." +</P> + +<P> +So saying, he departed, whistling "Rule, Britannia," with all his might. +</P> + +<P> +Thus the matter was settled. Six days afterwards, I rigged myself out +in a blue jacket, white ducks, and a straw hat, and went to sea. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +AT SEA +</H3> + +<P> +My first few days on the ocean were so miserable that I oftentimes +repented of having left my native land. I was, as my new friend Tom +Lokins said, as sick as a dog. But in course of time I grew well, and +began to rejoice in the cool fresh breezes and the great rolling +billows of the sea. +</P> + +<P> +Many and many a time I used to creep out to the end of the bowsprit, +when the weather was calm, and sit with my legs dangling over the deep +blue water, and my eyes fixed on the great masses of rolling clouds in +the sky, thinking of the new course of life I had just begun. At such +times the thought of my mother was sure to come into my mind, and I +thought of her parting words, "Put your trust in the Lord, Robert, and +read His Word." I resolved to try to obey her, but this I found was no +easy matter, for the sailors were a rough lot of fellows, who cared +little for the Bible. But, I must say, they were a hearty, +good-natured set, and much better, upon the whole, than many a ship's +crew that I afterwards sailed with. +</P> + +<P> +We were fortunate in having fair winds this voyage, and soon found +ourselves on the other side of the <I>line</I>, as we jack-tars call the +Equator. +</P> + +<P> +Of course the crew did not forget the old custom of shaving all the men +who had never crossed the line before. Our captain was a jolly old +man, and uncommonly fond of "sky-larking". He gave us leave to do what +we liked the day we crossed the line; so, as there were a number of +wild spirits among us, we broke through all the ordinary rules, or, +rather, we added on new rules to them. +</P> + +<P> +The old hands had kept the matter quiet from us greenhorns, so that, +although we knew they were going to do some sort of mischief, we didn't +exactly understand what it was to be. +</P> + +<P> +About noon of that day I was called on deck and told that old father +Neptune was coming aboard, and we were to be ready to receive him. A +minute after I saw a tremendous monster come up over the side of the +ship and jump on the deck. He was crowned with seaweed, and painted in +a wonderful fashion; his clothes were dripping wet, as if he had just +come from the bottom of the sea. After him came another monster with a +petticoat made of sailcloth and a tippet of a bit of old tarpaulin. +This was Neptune's wife, and these two carried on the most remarkable +antics I ever saw. I laughed heartily, and soon discovered, from the +tones of their voices, which of my shipmates Neptune and his wife were. +But my mirth was quickly stopped when I was suddenly seized by several +men, and my face was covered over with a horrible mixture of tar and +grease! +</P> + +<P> +Six of us youngsters were treated in this way; then the lather was +scraped off with a piece of old hoop-iron, and, after being thus +shaved, buckets of cold water were thrown over us. +</P> + +<P> +At last, after a prosperous voyage, we arrived at our fishing-ground in +the South Seas, and a feeling of excitement and expectation began to +show itself among the men, insomuch that our very eyes seemed brighter +than usual. +</P> + +<P> +One night those of us who had just been relieved from watch on deck +were sitting on the lockers down below telling ghost stories. +</P> + +<P> +It was a dead calm, and one of those intensely dark, hot nights, that +cause sailors to feel uneasy, they scarce know why. I began to feel so +uncomfortable at last, listening to the horrible tales which Tom Lokins +was relating to the men, that I slipt away from them with the intention +of going on deck. I moved so quietly that no one observed me; besides, +every eye was fixed earnestly on Tom, whose deep low voice was the only +sound that broke the stillness of all around. As I was going very +cautiously up the ladder leading to the deck, Tom had reached that part +of his story where the ghost was just appearing in a dark churchyard, +dressed in white, and coming slowly forward, one step at a time, +towards the terrified man who saw it. The men held their breath, and +one or two of their faces turned pale as Tom went on with his +description, lowering his voice to a hoarse whisper. Just as I put my +head up the hatchway the sheet of one of the sails, which was hanging +loose in the still air, passed gently over my head and knocked my hat +off. At any other time I would have thought nothing of this, but Tom's +story had thrown me into such an excited and nervous condition that I +gave a start, missed my footing, uttered a loud cry, and fell down the +ladder right in among the men with a tremendous crash, knocking over +two or three oil-cans and a tin bread-basket in my fall, and upsetting +the lantern, so that the place was instantly pitch-dark. +</P> + +<P> +I never heard such a howl of terror as these men gave vent to when this +misfortune befell me. They rushed upon deck with their hearts in their +mouths, tumbling, and peeling the skin off their shins and knuckles in +their haste; and it was not until they heard the laughter of the watch +on deck that they breathed freely, and, joining in the laugh, called +themselves fools for being frightened by a ghost story. I noticed, +however, that, for all their pretended indifference, there was not one +man among them—not even Tom Lokins himself—who would go down below to +relight the lantern for at least a quarter of an hour afterwards! +</P> + +<P> +Feeling none the worse for my fall, I went forward and leaned over the +bow of the ship, where I was much astonished by the appearance of the +sea. It seemed as if the water was on fire. Every time the ship's bow +rose and fell, the little belt of foam made in the water seemed like a +belt of blue flame with bright sparkles in it, like stars or diamonds. +I had seen this curious appearance before, but never so bright as it +was on that night. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it, Tom?" said I, as my friend came forward and leaned over +the ship's bulwark beside me. +</P> + +<P> +"It's blue fire, Bob," replied Tom, as he smoked his pipe calmly. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, you know I can't swallow that," said I; "everybody knows that +fire, either blue or red, can't burn in the water." +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe not," returned Tom; "but it's blue fire for all that. Leastwise +if it's not, I don't know wot else it is." +</P> + +<P> +Tom had often seen this light before, no doubt, but he had never given +himself the trouble to find out what it could be. Fortunately the +captain came up just as I put the question, and he enlightened me on +the subject. +</P> + +<P> +"It is caused by small animals," said he, leaning over the side. +</P> + +<P> +"Small animals!" said I, in astonishment. +</P> + +<P> +"Aye; many parts of the sea are full of creatures so small and so thin +and colourless, that you can hardly see them even in a clear glass +tumbler. Many of them are larger than others, but the most of them are +very small." +</P> + +<P> +"But how do they shine like that, sir?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"That I do not know, boy. God has given them the power to shine, just +as he has given us the power to walk or speak; and they do shine +brightly, as you see; but how they do it is more than I can tell. I +think, myself, it must be anger that makes them shine, for they +generally do it when they are stirred up or knocked about by oars, or +ships' keels, or tumbling waves. But I am not sure that that's the +reason either, because, you know, we often sail through them without +seeing the light, though of course they must be there." +</P> + +<P> +"P'r'aps, sir," said Tom Lokins; "p'r'aps, sir, they're sleepy +sometimes, an' can't be bothered gettin' angry." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps!" answered the captain, laughing. "But then again, at other +times, I have seen them shining over the whole sea when it was quite +calm, making it like an ocean of milk; and nothing was disturbing them +at that time, d'ye see." +</P> + +<P> +"I don' know <I>that</I>," objected Tom; "they might have bin a-fightin' +among theirselves." +</P> + +<P> +"Or playing, maybe," said I. +</P> + +<P> +The captain laughed, and, looking up at the sky, said: "I don't like +the look of the weather, Tom Lokins. You're a sharp fellow, and have +been in these seas before; what say you?" +</P> + +<P> +"We'll have a breeze," replied Tom, briefly. +</P> + +<P> +"More than a breeze," muttered the captain, while a look of grave +anxiety overspread his countenance; "I'll go below and take a squint at +the glass." +</P> + +<P> +"What does he mean by that, Tom?" said I, when the captain was gone; "I +never saw a calmer or a finer night. Surely there is no chance of a +storm just now." +</P> + +<P> +"Aye, that shows that you're a young feller, and han't got much +experience o' them seas," replied my companion. "Why, boy, sometimes +the fiercest storm is brewin' behind the greatest calm. An' the worst +o' the thing is that it comes so sudden at times, that the masts are +torn out o' the ship before you can say Jack Robinson." +</P> + +<P> +"What! and without any warning?" said I. +</P> + +<P> +"Aye, <I>almost</I> without warnin'; but not <I>altogether</I> without it. You +heer'd the captain say he'd go an' take a squint at the glass?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; what is the glass?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's not a glass o' grog, you may be sure; nor yet a lookin'-glass. +It's the weather-glass, boy. Shore-goin' chaps call it a barometer." +</P> + +<P> +"And what's the meaning of barometer?" I enquired earnestly. +</P> + +<P> +Tom Lokins stared at me in stupid amazement. "Why, boy," said he, +"you're too inquisitive. I once asked the doctor o' a ship that +question, and says he to me, 'Tom,' says he, 'a barometer is a glass +tube filled with quicksilver or mercury, which is a metal in a soft or +fluid state, like water, you know, and it's meant for tellin' the state +o' the weather.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Yes, sir,' I answers, 'I know that well enough.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Then why did you ask?' says he, gettin' into a passion. +</P> + +<P> +"'I asked what was the meanin' o' the <I>word</I> barometer, sir,' said I. +</P> + +<P> +"The doctor he looked grave at that, and shook his head. 'Tom,' says +he, 'if I was to go for to explain that word, and all about the +instrument, in a scientific sort o' way, d'ye see, I'd have to sit here +an' speak to you right on end for six hours or more.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Oh, sir,' says I, 'don't do it, then. <I>Please</I>, don't do it.' +</P> + +<P> +"'No more I will,' says he; 'but it'll serve your turn to know that a +barometer is a glass for measurin' the weight o' the air, and, <I>somehow +or other</I>, that lets ye know wot's a-coming. If the mercury in the +glass rises high, all's right. If it falls uncommon low very sudden, +look out for squalls; that's all. No matter how smooth the sea may be, +or how sweetly all natur' may smile, don't you believe it; take in +every inch o' canvas at once.'" +</P> + +<P> +"That was a queer explanation, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"Aye, but it was a true one, as you shall see before long." +</P> + +<P> +As I looked out upon the calm sea, which lay like a sheet of glass, +without a ripple on its surface, I could scarcely believe what he had +said. But before many minutes had passed I was convinced of my error. +</P> + +<P> +While I was standing talking to my messmate, the captain rushed on +deck, and shouted: +</P> + +<P> +"All hands tumble up! Shorten sail! Take in every rag! Look alive, +boys, look alive." +</P> + +<P> +I was quite stunned for a moment by this, and by the sudden tumult that +followed. The men, who seemed never to take thought about anything, +and who had but one duty, namely, to <I>obey orders</I>, ran upon deck, and +leaped up the rigging like cats; the sheets of nearly all the principal +sails were clewed up, and, ere long, the canvas was made fast to the +yards. A few of the smaller sails only were left exposed, and even +these were close-reefed. Before long a loud roar was heard, and in +another minute the storm burst upon us with terrific violence. The +ship at first lay over so much that the masts were almost in the water, +and it was as impossible for anyone to walk the deck as to walk along +the side of a wall. At the same time, the sea was lashed into white +foam, and the blinding spray flew over us in bitter fury. +</P> + +<P> +"Take in the topsails!" roared the captain. But his voice was drowned +in the shriek of the gale. The men were saved the risk of going out on +the yards, however, for in a few moments more all the sails, except the +storm-trysail, were burst and blown to ribbons. +</P> + +<P> +We now tried to put the ship's head to the wind and "lay to", by which +landsmen will understand that we tried to face the storm, and remain +stationary. But the gale was so fierce that this was impossible. The +last rag of sail was blown away, and then there was nothing left for us +but to show our stern to the gale, and "scud under bare poles". +</P> + +<P> +The great danger now was that we might be "pooped", which means that a +huge wave might curl over our stern, fall with terrible fury on our +deck, and sink us. +</P> + +<P> +Many and many a good ship has gone down in this way; but we were +mercifully spared. As our safety depended very much on good steering, +the captain himself took the wheel, and managed the ship so well, that +we weathered the gale without damage, further than the loss of a few +sails and light spars. For two days the storm howled furiously, the +sky and sea were like ink, with sheets of rain and foam driving through +the air, and raging billows tossing our ship about like a cork. +</P> + +<P> +During all this time my shipmates were quiet and grave, but active and +full of energy, so that every order was at once obeyed without noise or +confusion. Every man watched the slightest motion of the captain. We +all felt that everything depended on him. +</P> + +<P> +As for me, I gave up all hope of being saved. It seemed impossible to +me that anything that man could build could withstand so terrible a +storm. I do not pretend to say that I was not afraid. The near +prospect of a violent death caused my heart to sink more than once; but +my feelings did not unman me. I did my duty quietly, but quickly, like +the rest; and when I had no work to do, I stood holding on to the +weather stanchions, looking at the raging sea, and thinking of my +mother, and of the words of kindness and counsel she had so often +bestowed upon me in vain. +</P> + +<P> +The storm ceased almost as quickly as it began, and although the sea +did not all at once stop the heavings of its angry bosom, the wind fell +entirely in the course of a few hours, the dark clouds broke up into +great masses that were piled up high into the sky, and out of the midst +of these the glorious sun shone in bright rays down on the ocean, like +comfort from heaven, gladdening our hearts as we busily repaired the +damage that we had suffered from the storm. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +OUR FIRST BATTLE +</H3> + +<P> +I shall never forget the surprise I got the first time I saw a whale. +</P> + +<P> +It was in the forenoon of a most splendid day, about a week after we +arrived at that part of the ocean where we might expect to find fish. +A light nor'-east breeze was blowing, but it scarcely ruffled the sea, +as we crept slowly through the water with every stitch of canvas set. +</P> + +<P> +As we had been looking out for fish for some time past, everything was +in readiness for them. The boats were hanging over the side ready to +lower, tubs for coiling away the ropes, harpoons, lances, &c., all were +ready to throw in, and start away at a moment's notice. The man in the +"crow's-nest", as they call the cask fixed up at the masthead, was +looking anxiously out for whales, and the crew were idling about the +deck. Tom Lokins was seated on the windlass smoking his pipe, and I +was sitting beside him on an empty cask, sharpening a blubber-knife. +</P> + +<P> +"Tom," said I, "what like is a whale?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, it's like nothin' but itself," replied Tom, looking puzzled. +"Why, wot a queer feller you are to ax questions." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure you've seen plenty of them. You might be able to tell what a +whale is like." +</P> + +<P> +"Wot it's like! Well, it's like a tremendous big bolster with a head +and a tail to it." +</P> + +<P> +"And how big is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"They're of all sizes, lad. I've seen one that was exactly equal to +three hundred fat bulls, and its rate of goin' would take it round the +whole world in twenty-three days." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe you," said I, laughing. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you?" cried Tom; "it's a fact notwithstandin', for the captain +himself said so, and that's how I came to know it." +</P> + +<P> +Just as Tom finished speaking, the man in the crow's-nest roared at the +top of his voice, "There she blows!" +</P> + +<P> +That was the signal that a whale was in sight, and as it was the first +time we had heard it that season, every man in the ship was thrown into +a state of tremendous excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"There she blows!" roared the man again. +</P> + +<P> +"Where away?" shouted the captain. +</P> + +<P> +"About two miles right ahead." +</P> + +<P> +In another moment the utmost excitement prevailed on board. Suddenly, +while I was looking over the side, straining my eyes to catch a sight +of the whale, which could not yet be seen by the men on deck, I saw a +brown object appear in the sea, not twenty yards from the side of the +ship; before I had time to ask what it was, a whale's head rose to the +surface, and shot up out of the water. The part of the fish that was +visible above water could not have been less then thirty feet in +length. It just looked as if our longboat had jumped out of the sea, +and he was so near that I could see his great mouth quite plainly. I +could have tossed a biscuit on his back easily. Sending two thick +spouts of frothy water out of his blow-holes forty feet into the air +with tremendous noise, he fell flat upon the sea with a clap like +thunder, tossed his flukes or tail high into the air, and disappeared. +</P> + +<P> +I was so amazed at this sight that I could not speak. I could only +stare at the place where the huge monster had gone down. +</P> + +<P> +"Stand by to lower," shouted the captain. +</P> + +<P> +"Aye, aye, sir," replied the men, leaping to their appointed stations; +for every man in a whale-ship has his post of duty appointed to him, +and knows what to do when an order is given. +</P> + +<P> +"Lower away," cried the captain, whose face was now blazing with +excitement. +</P> + +<P> +In a moment more three boats were in the water; the tubs, harpoons, +&c., were thrown in, the men seized the oars, and away they went with a +cheer. I was in such a state of flutter that I scarce knew what I did; +but I managed somehow or other to get into a boat, and as I was a +strong fellow, and a good rower, I was allowed to pull. +</P> + +<P> +"There she blows!" cried the man in the crow's-nest, just as we shot +from the side of the ship. There was no need to ask, "where away" this +time. Another whale rose and spouted not more than three hundred yards +off, and before we could speak a third fish rose in another direction, +and we found ourselves in the middle of what is called a "school of +whales". +</P> + +<P> +"Now, lads," said the captain, who steered the boat in which I rowed, +"bend your backs, my hearties; that fish right ahead of us is a +hundred-barrel whale for certain. Give way, boys; we <I>must</I> have that +fish." +</P> + +<P> +There was no need to urge the men, for their backs were strained to the +utmost, their faces were flushed, and the big veins in their necks +swelled almost to bursting, with the tremendous exertion. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold hard," said the captain in a low voice, for now that we were +getting near our prey we made as little noise as possible. +</P> + +<P> +The men at once threw their oars "apeak", as they say; that is, raised +them straight, up in the air, and waited for further orders. We +expected the whale would rise near to where we were, and thought it +best to rest and look out. +</P> + +<P> +While we were waiting, Tom Lokins, who was harpooner of the boat, sat +just behind me with all his irons ready. He took this opportunity to +explain to me that by a "hundred-barrel fish" is meant a fish that will +yield a hundred barrels of oil. He further informed me that such a +fish was a big one, though he had seen a few in the North-West Seas +that had produced upwards of two hundred barrels. +</P> + +<P> +I now observed that the other boats had separated, and each had gone +after a different whale. In a few minutes the fish we were in chase of +rose a short distance off, and sent up two splendid water-spouts high +into the air, thus showing that he was what the whalers call a "right" +whale. It is different from the sperm whale, which has only one +blowhole, and that a little one. +</P> + +<P> +We rowed towards it with all our might, and as we drew near, the +captain ordered Tom Lokins to "stand up", so he at once laid in his +oar, and took up the harpoon. The harpoon is an iron lance with a +barbed point. A whale-line is attached to it, and this line is coiled +away in a tub. When we were within a few yards of the fish, which was +going slowly through the water, all ignorant of the terrible foes who +were pursuing him, Tom Lokins raised the harpoon high above his head, +and darted it deep into its fat side just behind the left fin, and next +moment the boat ran aground on the whale's back. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-014"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-014.jpg" ALT=""TOM LOKINS RAISED THE HARPOON"" BORDER="2" WIDTH="395" HEIGHT="617"> +<H3 CLASS="h3center" STYLE="width: 395px"> +"TOM LOKINS RAISED THE HARPOON" +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"Stern all, for your lives!" roared the captain, who, before his order +was obeyed, managed to give the creature two deep wounds with his +lance. The lance has no barbs to its point, and is used only for +wounding after the harpoon is fixed. +</P> + +<P> +The boat was backed off at once, but it had scarcely got a few yards +away when the astonished fish whirled its huge body half out of the +water, and, coming down with a tremendous clap, made off like lightning. +</P> + +<P> +The line was passed round a strong piece of wood called the +"logger-head", and, in running out, it began to smoke, and nearly set +the wood on fire. Indeed, it would have done so, if a man had not kept +constantly pouring water upon it. It was needful to be very cautious +in managing the line, for the duty is attended with great danger. If +any hitch should take place, the line is apt to catch the boat and drag +it down bodily under the waves. Sometimes a coil of it gets round a +leg or an arm of the man who attends to it, in which case his +destruction is almost certain. Many a poor fellow has lost his life in +this way. +</P> + +<P> +The order was now given to "hold on line". This was done, and in a +moment our boat was cleaving the blue water like an arrow, while the +white foam curled from her bows. I thought every moment we should be +dragged under; but whenever this seemed likely to happen, the line was +let run a bit, and the strain eased. At last the fish grew tired of +dragging us, the line ceased to run out, and Tom hauled in the slack, +which another man coiled away in its tub. Presently the fish rose to +the surface, a short distance off our weather bow. +</P> + +<P> +"Give way, boys! spring your oars," cried the captain; "another touch +or two with the lance, and that fish is ours." +</P> + +<P> +The boat shot ahead, and we were about to dart a second harpoon into +the whale's side, when it took to "sounding",—which means, that it +went straight down, head foremost, into the depths of the sea. At that +moment Tom Lokins uttered a cry of mingled anger and disappointment. +We all turned round and saw our shipmate standing with the slack line +in his hand, and such an expression on his weather-beaten face, that I +could scarce help laughing. The harpoon had not been well fixed; it +had lost its hold, and the fish was now free! +</P> + +<P> +"Gone!" exclaimed the captain with a groan. +</P> + +<P> +I remember even yet the feeling of awful disappointment that came over +me when I understood that we had lost the fish after all our trouble! +I could almost have wept with bitter vexation. As for my comrades, +they sat staring at each other for some moments quite speechless. +Before we could recover from the state into which this misfortune had +thrown us, one of the men suddenly shouted, "Hallo! there's the mate's +boat in distress." +</P> + +<P> +We turned at once, and, truly, there was no doubt of the truth of this, +for, about half a mile off, we beheld our first mate's boat tearing +over the sea like a small steamer. It was fast to a fish, and two oars +were set up on end to attract our attention. +</P> + +<P> +When a whale is struck, it sometimes happens that the whole of the line +in a boat is run out. When this is about to occur, it becomes +necessary to hold on as much as can be done without running the boat +under the water, and an oar is set up on end to show that assistance is +required, either from the ship or from the other boats. As the line +grows less and less, another and another oar is hoisted to show that +help must be sent quickly. If no assistance can be sent, the only +thing that remains to be done is to cut the line and lose the fish; but +a whale-line, with its harpoon, is a very heavy loss, in addition to +that of the fish, so that whalers are tempted to hold on a little too +long sometimes. +</P> + +<P> +When we saw the mate's boat dashing away in this style, we forgot our +grief at the loss of our whale in anxiety to render assistance to our +comrades, and we rowed towards them as fast as we could. Fortunately +the whale changed its course and came straight towards us, so that we +ceased pulling, and waited till they came up. As the boat came on I +saw the foam curling up on her bows as she leaped and flew over the +sea. I could scarcely believe it possible that wood and iron could +bear such a strain. In a few minutes they were almost abreast of us. +</P> + +<P> +"You're holding too hard!" shouted the captain. +</P> + +<P> +"Lines all out!" roared the mate. +</P> + +<P> +They were past almost before these short sentences could be spoken. +But they had not gone twenty yards ahead of us when the water rushed in +over the bow, and before we could utter a word the boat and crew were +gone. Not a trace of them remained! The horror of the moment had not +been fully felt, however, when the boat rose to the surface keel up, +and, one after another, the heads of the men appeared. The line had +fortunately broken, otherwise the boat would have been lost, and the +entire crew probably would have gone to the bottom with her. +</P> + +<P> +We instantly pulled to the rescue, and were thankful to find that not a +man was killed, though some of them were a little hurt, and all had +received a terrible fright. We next set to work to right the upset +boat, an operation which was not accomplished without much labour and +difficulty. +</P> + +<P> +Now, while we were thus employed, our third boat, which was in charge +of the second mate, had gone after the whale that had caused us so much +trouble, and when we had got the boat righted and began to look about +us, we found that she was fast to the fish about a mile to leeward. +</P> + +<P> +"Hurrah, lads!" cried the captain, "luck has not left us yet. Give +way, my hearties, pull like Britons! we'll get that fish yet." +</P> + +<P> +We were all dreadfully done up by this time, but the sight of a boat +fast to a whale restored us at once, and we pulled away as stoutly as +if we had only begun the day's work. The whale was heading in the +direction of the ship, and when we came up to the scene of action the +second mate had just "touched the life"; in other words, he had driven +the lance deep down into the whale's vitals. This was quickly known by +jets of blood being spouted up through the blowholes. Soon after, our +victim went into its dying agonies, or, as whalemen say, "his flurry ". +</P> + +<P> +This did not last long. In a short time he rolled over dead. We +fastened a line to his tail, the three boats took the carcass in tow, +and, singing a lively song, we rowed away to the ship. +</P> + +<P> +Thus ended our first battle with the whales. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +"CUTTING IN" THE BLUBBER AND "TRYING OUT" THE OIL +</H3> + +<P> +The scene that took place on board ship after we caught our first fish +was most wonderful. We commenced the operation of what is called +"cutting in", that is, cutting up the whale, and getting the fat or +blubber hoisted in. The next thing we did was to "try out" the oil, or +melt down the fat in large iron pots brought with us for this purpose; +and the change that took place in the appearance of the ship and the +men when this began was very remarkable. +</P> + +<P> +When we left port our decks were clean, our sails white, our masts well +scraped; the brass-work about the quarter-deck was well polished, and +the men looked tidy and clean. A few hours after our first whale had +been secured alongside all this was changed. The cutting up of the +huge carcass covered the decks with oil and blood, making them so +slippery that they had to be covered with sand to enable the men to +walk about. Then the smoke of the great fires under the melting pots +begrimed the masts, sails, and cordage with soot. The faces and hands +of the men got so covered with oil and soot that it would have puzzled +anyone to say whether they were white or black. Their clothes, too, +became so dirty that it was impossible to clean them. But, indeed, +whalemen do not much mind this. In fact, they take a pleasure in all +the dirt that surrounds them, because it is a sign of success in the +main object of their voyage. The men in a <I>clean</I> whale ship are never +happy. When everything is filthy, and dirty, and greasy, and smoky, +and black—decks, rigging, clothes, and person—it is then that the +hearty laugh and jest and song are heard as the crew work busily, night +and day, at their rough but profitable labour. +</P> + +<P> +The operations of "cutting in" and "trying out" were matters of great +interest to me the first time I saw them. +</P> + +<P> +After having towed our whale to the ship, cutting in was immediately +begun. First, the carcass was secured near the head and tail with +chains, and made fast to the ship; then the great blocks and ropes +fastened to the main and fore mast for hoisting in the blubber were +brought into play. When all was ready, the captain and the two mates +with Tom Lokins got upon the whale's body, with long-handled sharp +spades or digging-knives. With these they fell to work cutting off the +blubber. +</P> + +<P> +I was stationed at one of the hoisting ropes, and while we were waiting +for the signal to "hoist away", I peeped over the side, and for the +first time had a good look at the great fish. When we killed it, so +much of its body was down in the water that I could not see it very +clearly, but now that it was lashed at full length alongside the ship, +and I could look right down upon it, I began to understand more clearly +what a large creature it was. One thing surprised me much; the top of +its head, which was rough and knotty like the bark of an old tree, was +swarming with little crabs and barnacles, and other small creatures. +The whale's head seemed to be their regular home! This fish was by no +means one of the largest kind, but being the first I had seen, I +fancied it must be the largest fish in the sea. +</P> + +<P> +Its body was forty feet long, and twenty feet round at the thickest +part. Its head, which seemed to me a great, blunt, shapeless thing, +like a clumsy old boat, was eight feet long from the tip to the +blowholes or nostrils; and these holes were situated on the back of the +head, which at that part was nearly four feet broad. The entire head +measured about twenty-one feet round. Its ears were two small holes, +so small that it was difficult to discover them, and the eyes were also +very small for so large a body, being about the same size as those of +an ox. The mouth was very large, and the under jaw had great ugly +lips. When it was dying, I saw these lips close in once or twice on +its fat cheeks, which it bulged out like the leather sides of a pair of +gigantic bellows. It had two fins, one on each side, just behind the +head. With these, and with its tail, the whale swims and fights. Its +tail is its most deadly weapon. The flukes of this one measured +thirteen feet across, and with one stroke of this it could have smashed +our largest boat in pieces. Many a boat has been sent to the bottom in +this way. +</P> + +<P> +I remember hearing our first mate tell of a wonderful escape a comrade +of his had in the Greenland Sea Fishery. A whale had been struck, and, +after its first run, they hauled up to it again, and rowed so hard that +they ran the boat right against it. The harpooner was standing on the +bow all ready, and sent his iron cleverly into the blubber. In its +agony the whale reared its tail high out of the water, and the flukes +whirled for a moment like a great fan just above the harpooner's head. +One glance up was enough to show him that certain death was descending. +In an instant he dived over the side and disappeared. Next moment the +flukes came down on the part of the boat he had just left, and cut it +clean off; the other part was driven into the waves, and the men were +left swimming in the water. They were all picked up, however, by +another boat that was in company, and the harpooner was recovered with +the rest. His quick dive had been the saving of his life. +</P> + +<P> +I had not much time given me to study the appearance of this whale +before the order was given to "hoist away!" so we went to work with a +will. The first part that came up was the huge lip, fastened to a +large iron hook, called the blubber hook. It was lowered into the +blubber-room between decks, where a couple of men were stationed to +stow the blubber away. Then came the fins, and after them the upper +jaw, with the whalebone attached to it. The "right" whale has no teeth +like the sperm whale. In place of teeth it has the well-known +substance called whalebone, which grows from the roof of its mouth in a +number of broad thin plates, extending from the back of the head to the +snout. The lower edges of these plates of whalebone are split into +thousands of hairs like bristles, so that the inside roof of a whale's +mouth resembles an enormous blacking brush! The object of this curious +arrangement is to enable the whale to catch the little shrimps and +small sea-blubbers, called "medusa;", on which it feeds. I have spoken +before of these last as being the little creatures that gave out such a +beautiful pale-blue light at night. The whale feeds on them. When he +desires a meal he opens his great mouth and rushes into the midst of a +shoal of medusae; the little things get entangled in thousands among +the hairy ends of the whalebone, and when the monster has got a large +enough mouthful, he shuts his lower jaw and swallows what his net has +caught. +</P> + +<P> +The wisdom as well as the necessity of this arrangement is very plain. +Of course, while dashing through the sea in this fashion, with his +mouth agape, the whale must keep his throat closed, else the water +would rush down it and choke him. Shutting his throat then, as he +does, the water is obliged to flow out of his mouth as fast as it flows +in; it is also spouted up through his blowholes, and this with such +violence that many of the little creatures would be swept out along +with it but for the hairy-ended whalebone which lets the sea-water out, +but keeps the medusae in. +</P> + +<P> +Well, let us return to our "cutting in". After the upper jaw came the +lower jaw and throat, with the tongue. This last was an enormous mass +of fat, about as large as an ox, and it weighed fifteen hundred or two +thousand pounds. After this was got in, the rest of the work was +simple. The blubber of the body was peeled off in great strips, +beginning at the neck and being cut spirally towards the tail. It was +hoisted on board by the blocks, the captain and mates cutting, and the +men at the windlass hoisting, and the carcass slowly turning round +until we got an unbroken piece of blubber, reaching from the water to +nearly as high as the mainyard-arm. This mass was nearly a foot thick, +and it looked like fat pork. It was cut off close to the deck, and +lowered into the blubber-room, where the two men stationed there +attacked it with knives, cut it into smaller pieces, and stowed it +away. Then another piece was hoisted on board in the same fashion, and +so on we went till every bit of blubber was cut off; and I heard the +captain remark to the mate when the work was done, that the fish was a +good fat one, and he wouldn't wonder if it turned out to be worth 300 +pounds. +</P> + +<P> +Now, when this process was going on, a new point of interest arose +which I had not thought of before, although my messmate, Tom Lokins, +had often spoken of it on the voyage out. This was the arrival of +great numbers of sea-birds. +</P> + +<P> +Tom had often told me of the birds that always keep company with +whalers; but I had forgotten all about it until I saw an enormous +albatross come sailing majestically through the air towards us. This +was the largest bird I ever saw, and no wonder, for it is the largest +bird that flies. Soon after that, another arrived, and although we +were more than a thousand miles from any shore, we were speedily +scented out and surrounded by hosts of gonies, stinkards, haglets, +gulls, pigeons, petrels, and other sea-birds, which commenced to feed +on pieces of the whale's carcass with the most savage gluttony. These +birds were dreadfully greedy. They had stuffed themselves so full in +the course of a short time, that they flew heavily and with great +difficulty. No doubt they would have to take three or four days to +digest that meal! +</P> + +<P> +Sharks, too, came to get their share of what was going. But these +savage monsters did not content themselves with what was thrown away; +they were so bold as to come before our faces and take bites out of the +whale's body. Some of these sharks were eight and nine feet long, and +when I saw them open their horrid jaws, armed with three rows of +glistening white sharp teeth, I could well understand how easily they +could bite off the leg of a man, as they often do when they get the +chance. Sometimes they would come right up on the whale's body with a +wave, bite out great pieces of the flesh, turn over on their bellies, +and roll off. +</P> + +<P> +While I was looking over the side during the early part of that day, I +saw a very large shark come rolling up in this way close to Tom +Lokins's legs. Tom made a cut at him with his blubber-spade, but the +shark rolled off in time to escape the blow. And after all it would +not have done him much damage, for it is not easy to frighten or take +the life out of a shark. +</P> + +<P> +"Hand me an iron and line, Bob," said Tom, looking up at me. "I've got +a spite agin that feller. He's been up twice already. Ah! hand it +down here, and two or three of ye stand by to hold on by the line. +There he comes, the big villain!" +</P> + +<P> +The shark came close to the side of the whale at that moment, and Tom +sent the harpoon right down his throat. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold on hard," shouted Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"Aye, aye," replied several of the men as they held on to the line, +their arms jerking violently as the savage fish tried to free itself. +We quickly reeved a line through a block at the fore yard-arm, and +hauled it on deck with much difficulty. The scene that followed was +very horrible, for there was no killing the brute. It threshed the +deck with its tail, and snapped so fiercely with its tremendous jaws, +that we had to keep a sharp look-out lest it should catch hold of a +leg. At last its tail was cut off, the body cut open, and all the +entrails' taken out, yet even after this it continued to flap and +thresh about the deck for some time, and the heart continued to +contract for twenty minutes after it was taken out and pierced with a +knife. +</P> + +<P> +I would not have believed this had I not seen it with my own eyes. In +case some of my readers may doubt its truth, I would remind them how +difficult it is to kill some of those creatures with which we are all +familiar. The common worm, for instance, may be cut into a number of +small pieces, and yet each piece remains alive for some time after. +</P> + +<P> +The skin of the shark is valued by the whalemen, because, when cleaned +and dry, it is as good as sand-paper, and is much used in polishing the +various things they make out of whales' bones and teeth. +</P> + +<P> +When the last piece of blubber had been cut off our whale, the great +chain that held it to the ship's side was cast off, and the now useless +carcass sank like a stone, much to the sorrow of some of the smaller +birds, which, having been driven away by their bigger comrades, had not +fed so heartily as they wished perhaps! But what was loss to the gulls +was gain to the sharks, which could follow the carcass down into the +deep and devour it at their leisure. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, lads," cried the mate, when the remains had vanished, "rouse up +the fires, look alive, my hearties!" +</P> + +<P> +"Aye, aye, sir," was the ready reply, cheerfully given, as every man +sprang to his appointed duty. +</P> + +<P> +And so, having "cut in" our whale, we next proceeded to "try out" the +oil. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A STORM, A MAN OVERBOARD, AND A RESCUE +</H3> + +<P> +The scenes in a whaleman's life are varied and very stirring. +Sometimes he is floating on the calm ocean, idling about the deck and +whistling for a breeze, when all of a sudden the loud cry is heard, +"There she blows!" and in a moment the boats are in the water, and he +is engaged in all the toils of an exciting chase. Then comes the +battle with the great leviathan of the deep, with all its risks and +dangers. Sometimes he is unfortunate, the decks are clean, he has +nothing to do. At other times he is lucky, "cutting in" and "trying +out" engage all his energies and attention. Frequently storms toss him +on the angry deep, and show him, if he will but learn the lesson, how +helpless a creature he is, and how thoroughly dependent at all times +for life, safety, and success, upon the arm of God. +</P> + +<P> +"Trying out" the oil, although not so thrilling a scene as many a one +in his career, is, nevertheless, extremely interesting, especially at +night, when the glare of the fires in the try-works casts a deep-red +glow on the faces of the men, on the masts and sails, and even out upon +the sea. +</P> + +<P> +The try-works consisted of two huge melting-pots fixed upon brick-work +fireplaces between the fore and main masts. While some of the men were +down in the blubber-room cutting the "blanket-pieces", as the largest +masses are called, others were pitching the smaller pieces on deck, +where they were seized by two men who stood near a block of wood, +called a "horse", with a mincing knife, to slash the junks so as to +make them melt easily. These were then thrown into the melting-pots by +one of the mates, who kept feeding the fires with such "scraps" of +blubber as remain after the oil is taken out. Once the fires were +fairly set agoing no other kind of fuel was required than "scraps" of +blubber. As the boiling oil rose it was baled into copper +cooling-tanks. It was the duty of two other men to dip it out of these +tanks into casks, which were then headed up by our cooper, and stowed +away in the hold. +</P> + +<P> +As the night advanced the fires became redder and brighter by contrast, +the light shone and glittered on the bloody decks, and, as we plied our +dirty work, I could not help thinking, "what would my mother say, if +she could get a peep at me now?" +</P> + +<P> +The ship's crew worked and slept by watches, for the fires were not +allowed to go out all night. About midnight I sat down on the windlass +to take a short rest, and began talking to one of the men, Fred Borders +by name. He was one of the quietest and most active men in the ship, +and, being quite a young man, not more than nineteen, he and I drew to +one another, and became very intimate. +</P> + +<P> +"I think we're goin' to have a breeze, Bob," said he, as a sharp puff +of wind crossed the deck, driving the black smoke to leeward, and +making the fire flare up in the try-works. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope it won't be a storm, then," said I, "for it will oblige us to +put out the fires." +</P> + +<P> +Just then Tom Lokins came up, ordered Fred to go and attend to the +fires, sat down opposite to me on the windlass, and began to "lay down +the law" in regard to storms. +</P> + +<P> +"You see, Bob Ledbury," said he, beginning to fill his pipe, "young +fellers like you don't know nothin' about the weather—'cause why? +you've got no experience. Now, I'll put you up to a dodge consarning +this very thing." +</P> + +<P> +I never found out what was the dodge that Tom, in his wisdom, was to +have put me up to, for at that moment the captain came on deck, and +gave orders to furl the top-gallant sails. +</P> + +<P> +Three or four of us ran up the rigging like monkeys, and in a few +minutes the sails were lashed to the yards. +</P> + +<P> +The wind now began to blow steadily from the nor'-west; but not so hard +as to stop our tryworks for more than an hour. After that it blew +stiff enough to raise a heavy sea, and we were compelled to slack the +fires. This was all the harm it did to us, however, for although the +breeze was stiffish, it was nothing like a gale. +</P> + +<P> +As the captain and the first mate walked the quarter-deck together, I +heard the former say to the latter, "I think we had as well take in a +reef in the topsails. All hereabouts the fishing-ground is good, we +don't need to carry on." +</P> + +<P> +The order was given to reduce sail, and the men lay out on the topsail +yards. I noticed that my friend Fred Borders was the first man to +spring up the shrouds and lay out on the main-topsail yard. It was so +dark that I could scarcely see the masts. While I was gazing up, I +thought I observed a dark object drop from the yard; at the same moment +there was a loud shriek, followed by a plunge in the sea. This was +succeeded by the sudden cry, "man overboard!" and instantly the whole +ship was in an uproar. +</P> + +<P> +No one who has not heard that cry can understand the dreadful feelings +that are raised in the human breast by it. My heart at first seemed to +leap into my mouth and almost choke me. Then a terrible fear, which I +cannot describe, shot through me, when I thought it might be my comrade +Fred Borders. But these thoughts and feelings passed like +lightning—in a far shorter time than it takes to write them down. The +shriek was still ringing in my ears when the captain roared— +</P> + +<P> +"Down your helm! stand by to lower away the boats." +</P> + +<P> +At the same moment he seized a light hen-coop and tossed it overboard, +and the mate did the same with an oar in the twinkling of an eye. +Almost without knowing what I did, or why I did it, I seized a great +mass of oakum and rubbish that lay on the deck saturated with oil, I +thrust it into the embers of the fire in the try-works, and hurled it +blazing into the sea. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-065"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-065.jpg" ALT=""HURLED IT BLAZING INTO THE SEA"" BORDER="2" WIDTH="408" HEIGHT="619"> +<H3 CLASS="h3center" STYLE="width: 408px"> +"HURLED IT BLAZING INTO THE SEA" +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +The ship's head was thrown into the wind, and we were brought to as +quickly as possible. A gleam of hope arose within me on observing that +the mass I had thrown overboard continued still to burn; but when I saw +how quickly it went astern, notwithstanding our vigorous efforts to +stop the ship, my heart began to sink, and when, a few moments after, +the light suddenly disappeared, despair seized upon me, and I gave my +friend up for lost. +</P> + +<P> +At that moment, strange to say, thoughts of my mother came into my +mind, I remembered her words, "Call upon the Lord, my dear boy, when +you are in trouble." Although I had given but little heed to prayer, +or to my Maker, up to that time, I did pray, then and there, most +earnestly that my messmate might be saved. I cannot say that I had +much hope that my prayer would be answered—indeed I think I had +none,—still, the mere act of crying in my distress to the Almighty +afforded me a little relief, and it was with a good deal of energy that +I threw myself into the first boat that was lowered, and pulled at the +oar as if my own life depended on it. +</P> + +<P> +A lantern had been fastened to the end of an oar and set up in the +boat, and by its faint light I could see that the men looked very +grave. Tom Lokins was steering, and I sat near him, pulling the aft +oar. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think we've any chance, Tom?" said I. +</P> + +<P> +A shake of the head was his only reply. +</P> + +<P> +"It must have been here away," said the mate, who stood up in the bow +with a coil of rope at his feet, and a boat-hook in his hand. "Hold +on, lads, did anyone hear a cry?" +</P> + +<P> +No one answered. We all ceased pulling, and listened intently; but the +noise of the waves and the whistling of the winds were all the sounds +we heard. +</P> + +<P> +"What's that floating on the water?" said one of the men, suddenly. +</P> + +<P> +"Where away?" cried everyone eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"Right off the lee-bow—there, don't you see it?" +</P> + +<P> +At that moment a faint cry came floating over the black water, and died +away in the breeze. +</P> + +<P> +The single word "Hurrah!" burst from our throats with all the power of +our lungs, and we bent to our oars till we wellnigh tore the rollicks +out of the boat. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold hard! stern all!" roared the mate, as we went flying down to +leeward, and almost ran over the hen-coop, to which a human form was +seen to be clinging with the tenacity of a drowning man. We had swept +down so quickly, that we shot past it. In an agony of fear lest my +friend should be again lost in the darkness, I leaped up and sprang +into the sea. Tom Lokins, however, had noticed what I was about; he +seized me by the collar of my jacket just as I reached the water, and +held me with a grip like a vice till one of the men came to his +assistance, and dragged me back into the boat. In a few moments more +we reached the hen-coop, and Fred was saved! +</P> + +<P> +He was half dead with cold and exhaustion, poor fellow, but in a few +minutes he began to recover, and before we reached the ship he could +speak. His first words were to thank God for his deliverance. Then he +added: +</P> + +<P> +"And, thanks to the man that flung that light overboard. I should have +gone down but for that. It showed me where the hen-coop was." +</P> + +<P> +I cannot describe the feeling of joy that filled my heart when he said +this. +</P> + +<P> +"Aye, who wos it that throw'd that fire overboard?" enquired one of the +men. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't know," replied another, "I think it wos the cap'n." +</P> + +<P> +"You'll find that out when we get aboard," cried the mate; "pull away, +lads." +</P> + +<P> +In five minutes Fred Borders was passed up the side and taken down +below. In two minutes more we had him stripped naked, rubbed dry, +wrapped in hot blankets, and set down on one of the lockers, with a hot +brick at his feet, and a stiff can of hot rum and water in his hand. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE WHALE—FIGHTING BULLS, ETC. +</H3> + +<P> +As the reader may, perhaps, have been asking a few questions about the +whale in his own mind, I shall try to answer them, by telling a few +things concerning that creature which, I think, are worth knowing. +</P> + +<P> +In the first place, the whale is not a fish! I have applied that name +to it, no doubt, because it is the custom to do so; but there are great +differences between the whales and the fishes. The mere fact that the +whale lives in water is not sufficient to prove it to be a fish. The +frog lives very much in water—he is born in the water, and, when very +young, he lives in it altogether—would die, in fact, if he were taken +out of it; yet a frog is not a fish. +</P> + +<P> +The following are some of the differences existing between a whale and +a fish:—The whale is a warm-blooded animal; the fish is cold-blooded. +The whale brings forth its young alive; while most fishes lay eggs or +spawn. Moreover, the fish lives entirely under water, but the whale +cannot do so. He breathes air through enormous lungs, not gills. If +you were to hold a whale's head under water for much longer than an +hour, it would certainly be drowned; and this is the reason why it +comes so frequently to the surface of the sea to take breath. Whales +seldom stay more than an hour under water, and when they come up to +breathe, they discharge the last breath they took through their +nostrils or blowholes, mixed with large quantities of water which they +have taken in while feeding. But the most remarkable point of +difference between the whale and fishes of all kinds is, that it +suckles its young. +</P> + +<P> +The calf of one kind of whale is about fourteen feet long when it is +born, and it weighs about a ton. The cow-whale usually brings forth +only one calf at a time, and the manner in which she behaves to her +gigantic baby shows that she is affected by feelings of anxiety and +affection such as are never seen in fishes, which heartless creatures +forsake their eggs when they are laid, and I am pretty sure they would +not know their own children if they happened to meet with them. +</P> + +<P> +The whale, on the contrary, takes care of her little one, gives it +suck, and sports playfully with it in the waves; its enormous heart +throbbing all the while, no doubt, with satisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +I have heard of a whale which was once driven into shoal water with its +calf and nearly stranded. The huge dam seemed to become anxious for +the safety of her child, for she was seen to swim eagerly round it, +embrace it with her fins, and roll it over in the waves, trying to make +it follow her into deep water. But the calf was obstinate; it would +not go, and the result was that the boat of a whaler pulled up and +harpooned it. The poor little whale darted away like lightning on +receiving the terrible iron, and ran out a hundred fathoms of line; but +it was soon overhauled and killed. All this time the dam kept close to +the side of its calf, and not until a harpoon was plunged into her own +side would she move away. Two boats were after her. With a single rap +of her tail she cut one of the boats in two, and then darted off. But +in a short time she turned and came back. Her feelings of anxiety had +returned, no doubt, after the first sting of pain was over, and she +died at last close to the side of her young one. +</P> + +<P> +There are various kinds of whales, but the two sorts that are most +sought after are the common whale of the Greenland Seas, which is +called the "right whale", and the sperm whale of the South Sea. Both +kinds are found in the south; but the sperm whale never goes to the +North Seas. Both kinds grow to an enormous size—sometimes to seventy +feet in length, but there is considerable difference in their +appearance, especially about the head. In a former chapter I have +partly described the head of a <I>right</I> whale, which has whalebone +instead of teeth, with its blowholes on the back of the head. The +sperm whale has large white teeth in its lower jaw and none at all in +the upper. It has only one blowhole, and that a little one, much +farther forward on its head, so that sailors can tell, at a great +distance, what kind of whales they see simply by their manner of +spouting. +</P> + +<P> +The most remarkable feature about the sperm whale is the bluntness of +its clumsy head, which looks somewhat like a big log with the end sawn +square off, and this head is about one-third of its entire body. +</P> + +<P> +The sperm whale feeds differently from the right whale. He seizes his +prey with his powerful teeth, and lives, to a great extent, on large +cuttle-fish. Some of them have been seen to vomit lumps of these +cuttle-fish as long as a whale-boat. He is much fiercer, too, than the +right whale, which almost always takes to flight when struck, but the +sperm whale will sometimes turn on its foes and smash their boat with a +blow of his blunt head or tail. +</P> + +<P> +Fighting-whales, as they are called, are not uncommon. These are +generally old bulls, which have become wise from experience, and give +the whalers great trouble—sometimes carrying away several harpoons and +lines. The lower jaw of one old bull of this kind was found to be +sixteen feet long, and it had forty-eight teeth, some of them a foot +long. A number of scars about his head showed that this fellow had +been in the wars. When two bull-whales take to fighting, their great +effort is to catch each other by the lower jaw, and, when locked +together, they struggle with a degree of fury that cannot be described. +</P> + +<P> +It is not often that the sperm whale actually attacks a ship; but there +are a few cases of this kind which cannot be doubted. The following +story is certainly true; and while it shows how powerful a creature the +whale is, it also shows what terrible risk and sufferings the whaleman +has frequently to encounter. +</P> + +<P> +In the month of August, 1819, the American whaleship <I>Essex</I> sailed +from Nantucket for the Pacific Ocean. She was commanded by Captain +Pollard. Late in the autumn of the same year, when in latitude 40 +degrees of the South Pacific, a shoal, or "school", of sperm whales was +discovered, and three boats were immediately lowered and sent in +pursuit. The mate's boat was struck by one of the fish during the +chase, and it was found necessary to return to the ship to repair +damages. +</P> + +<P> +While the men were employed at this, an enormous whale suddenly rose +quite close to the ship. He was going at nearly the same rate with the +ship—about three miles an hour; and the men, who were good judges of +the size of whales, thought that it could not have been less than +eighty-five feet long. All at once he ran against the ship, striking +her bows, and causing her to tremble like a leaf. The whale +immediately dived and passed under the ship, and grazed her keel in +doing so. This evidently hurt his back, for he suddenly rose to the +surface about fifty yards off, and commenced lashing the sea with his +tail and fins as if suffering great agony. It was truly an awful sight +to behold that great monster lashing the sea into foam at so short a +distance. +</P> + +<P> +In a short time he seemed to recover, and started off at great speed to +windward. Meanwhile the men discovered that the blow received by the +ship had done her so much damage, that she began to fill and settle +down at the bows; so they rigged the pumps as quickly as possible. +While working them one of the men cried out: +</P> + +<P> +"God have mercy! he comes again!" +</P> + +<P> +This was too true. The whale had turned, and was now bearing down on +them at full speed, leaving a white track of foam behind him. Rushing +at the ship like a battering-ram, he hit her fair on the weather bow +and stove it in, after which he dived and disappeared. The horrified +men took to their boats at once, and in <I>ten minutes</I> the ship went +down. +</P> + +<P> +The condition of the men thus left in three open boats far out upon the +sea, without provisions or shelter, was terrible indeed. Some of them +perished, and the rest, after suffering the severest hardships, reached +a low island called Ducies on the 20th of December. It was a mere +sand-bank, which supplied them only with water and sea-fowl. Still +even this was a mercy, for which they had reason to thank God; for in +cases of this kind one of the evils that seamen have most cause to +dread is the want of water. +</P> + +<P> +Three of the men resolved to remain on this sand-bank, for dreary and +uninhabited though it was, they preferred to take their chance of being +picked up by a passing ship rather than run the risks of crossing the +wide ocean in open boats, so their companions bade them a sorrowful +farewell, and left them. But this island is far out of the usual track +of ships. The poor fellows have never since been heard of. +</P> + +<P> +It was the 27th of December when the three boats left the sand-bank +with the remainder of the men, and began a voyage of two thousand +miles, towards the island of Juan Fernandez. The mate's boat was +picked up, about three months after, by the ship <I>Indian</I> of London, +with only three living men in it. About the same time the captain's +boat was discovered, by the <I>Dauphin</I> of Nantucket, with only two men +living; and these unhappy beings had only sustained life by feeding on +the flesh of their dead comrades. The third boat must have been lost, +for it was never heard of; and out of the whole crew of twenty men, +only five returned home to tell their eventful story. +</P> + +<P> +Before resuming the thread of my narrative, I must not omit to mention, +that in the head of the sperm whale there is a large cavity or hole +called the "case", which contains pure oil that does not require to be +melted, but can be baled at once into casks and stowed away. This is +the valuable spermaceti from which the finest candles are made. One +whale will sometimes yield fifteen barrels of spermaceti oil from the +"case" of its head. A large fish will produce from eighty to a hundred +barrels of oil altogether, sometimes much more; and when whalemen +converse with each other about the size of whales, they speak of +"eighty-barrel fish", and so on. +</P> + +<P> +Although I have written much about the fighting powers of the sperm +whale, it must not be supposed that whales are by nature fond of +fighting. On the contrary, the "right" whale is a timid creature, and +never shows fight except in defence of its young. And the sperm whale +generally takes to flight when pursued. In fact, most of the accidents +that happen to whalemen occur when the wounded monster is lashing the +water in blind terror and agony. +</P> + +<P> +The whale has three bitter enemies, much smaller, but much bolder than +himself, and of these he is terribly afraid. They are: the swordfish, +the thrasher, and the killer. The first of these, the sword-fish, has +a strong straight horn or sword projecting from his snout, with which +he boldly attacks and pierces the whale. The thrasher is a strong +fish, twenty feet long, and of great weight. Its method of attack is +to leap out of the water on the whale's back, and deal it a tremendous +blow with its powerful tail. +</P> + +<P> +The sword-fish and thrasher sometimes act together in the attack; the +first stabbing him below, and the second belabouring him above, while +the whale, unable, or too frightened to fight, rushes through the +water, and even leaps its whole gigantic length into the air in its +endeavours to escape. When a whale thus leaps his whole length out of +the water, the sailors say he "breaches", and breaching is a common +practice. They seem to do it often for amusement as well as from +terror. +</P> + +<P> +But the most deadly of the three enemies is the killer. This is itself +a kind of small whale, but it is wonderfully strong, swift, and bold. +When one of the killers gets into the middle of a school of whales, the +frightened creatures are seen flying in all directions. His mode of +attack is to seize his big enemy by the jaw, and hold on until he is +exhausted and dies. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TOM'S WISDOM—ANOTHER GREAT BATTLE +</H3> + +<P> +One day I was standing beside the windlass, listening to the +conversation of five or six of the men, who were busy sharpening +harpoons and cutting-knives, or making all kinds of toys and things out +of whales' bones. We had just finished cutting in and trying out our +third whale, and as it was not long since we reached the +fishing-ground, we were in high hopes of making a good thing of it that +season; so that everyone was in good spirits, from the captain down to +the youngest man in the ship. +</P> + +<P> +Tom Lokins was smoking his pipe, and Tom's pipe was an uncommonly black +one, for he smoked it very often. Moreover, Tom's pipe was uncommonly +short, so short that I always wondered how he escaped burning the end +of his nose. Indeed, some of the men said that the redness of the end +of Tom's nose was owing to its being baked like a brick by the heat of +his pipe. Tom took this pipe from his mouth, and while he was pushing +down the tobacco with the end of his little finger, he said: +</P> + +<P> +"D'ye know, lads, I've been thinkin'——" +</P> + +<P> +"No, have ye?" cried one of the men, interrupting him with a look of +pretended surprise. "Well now, I do think, messmates, that we should +ax the mate to make a note o' that in the log, for it's not often that +Tom Lokins takes to thinkin'." +</P> + +<P> +There was a laugh at this, but Tom, turning with a look of contempt to +the man who interrupted him, replied: +</P> + +<P> +"I'll tell you wot it is, Bill Blunt, if all the thoughts that <I>you</I> +think, and especially the jokes that you utter, wos put down in the +log, they'd be so heavy that I do believe they would sink the ship!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well," cried Bill, joining in the laugh against himself, "if +they did, <I>your</I> jokes would be so light and triflin' that I do believe +they'd float her again. But what have you been a-thinkin' of, Tom?" +</P> + +<P> +"I've been thinkin'," said Tom slowly, "that if a whale makes his +breakfast entirely off them little things that you can hardly see when +you get 'em into a tumbler—I forget how the captain calls 'em—wot a +<I>tree-mendous</I> heap of 'em he must eat in the course of a year!" +</P> + +<P> +"Thousands of 'em, I suppose," said one of the men. +</P> + +<P> +"Thousands!" cried Tom, "I should rather say billions of them." +</P> + +<P> +"How much is billions, mate?" enquired Bill. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," answered Tom. "Never could find out. You see it's +heaps upon heaps of thousands, for the thousands come first and the +billions afterwards; but when I've thought uncommon hard, for a long +spell at a time, I always get confused, because millions comes in +between, d'ye see, and that's puzzlin'." +</P> + +<P> +"I think I could give you some notion about these things," said Fred +Borders, who had been quietly listening all the time, but never putting +in a word, for, as I have said, Fred was a modest bashful man and +seldom spoke much. But we had all come to notice that when Fred spoke, +he had always something to say worth hearing; and when he did speak he +spoke out boldly enough. We had come to have feelings of respect for +our young shipmate, for he was a kind-hearted lad, and we saw by his +conversation that he had been better educated than the most of us, so +all our tongues stopped as the eyes of the party turned on him. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, Fred, let's hear it then," said Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"It's not much I have to tell," began Fred, "but it may help to make +your minds clearer on this subject. On my first voyage to the whale +fishery (you know, lads, this is my second voyage) I went to the +Greenland Seas. We had a young doctor aboard with us—quite a youth; +indeed he had not finished his studies at college, but he was cleverer, +for all that, than many an older man that had gone through his whole +course. I do believe that the reason of his being so clever was, that +he was for ever observing things, and studying them, and making notes, +and trying to find out reasons. He was never satisfied with knowing a +thing; he must always find out <I>why</I> it was. One day I heard him ask +the captain what it was that made the sea so green in some parts of +those seas. Our captain was an awfully stupid man. So long as he got +plenty oil he didn't care two straws for the reason of anything. The +young doctor had been bothering him that morning with a good many +questions, so when he asked him what made the sea green, he answered +sharply, 'I suppose it makes itself green, young man,' and then he +turned from him with a fling. +</P> + +<P> +"The doctor laughed, and came forward among the men, and began to tell +us stories and ask questions. Ah! he was a real hearty fellow; he +would tell you all kinds of queer things, and would pump you dry of all +you knew in no time. Well, but the thing I was going to tell you was +this. One of the men said to him he had heard that the greenness of +the Greenland Sea was caused by the little things like small bits of +jelly on which the whales feed. As soon as he heard this he got a +bucket and hauled some sea-water aboard, and for the next ten days he +was never done working away with the sea-water; pouring it into +tumblers and glasses; looking through it by daylight and by lamplight; +tasting it, and boiling it, and examining it with a microscope." +</P> + +<P> +"What's a microscope?" enquired one of the men. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you know?" said Tom Lokins, "why, it's a glass that makes little +things seem big, when ye look through it. I've heerd that say beasts +that are so uncommon small you that can't see them at all are made to +come into sight and look quite big by means o' this glass. But I can't +myself say that it's true." +</P> + +<P> +"But I can," said Fred, "for I have seen it with my own eyes. Well, +after a good while, I made bold to ask the young doctor what he had +found out. +</P> + +<P> +"'I've found,' said he, 'that the greenness of these seas is in truth +caused by uncountable numbers of medusae——'" +</P> + +<P> +"Ha! that's the word," shouted Tom Lokins, "Medoosy, that's wot the +captain calls 'em. Heave ahead, Fred." +</P> + +<P> +"Well then," continued Fred, "the young doctor went on to tell me that +he had been counting the matter to himself very carefully, and he found +that in every square mile of sea-water there were living about eleven +quadrillions, nine hundred and ninety-nine trillions of these little +creatures!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! hallo! come now!" we all cried, opening our eyes very wide indeed. +</P> + +<P> +"But, I say, how much is that?" enquired Tom Lokins. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! that's just what I said to the young doctor, and he said to me, +'I'll tell you what, Fred Borders, no man alive understands how much +that is, and what's more, no man ever will; but I'll give you <I>some +notion</I> of what it means'; and so he told me how long it would take +forty thousand men to count that number of eleven quadrillions, nine +hundred and ninety-nine trillions, each man of the forty thousand +beginning 'one ', 'two', 'three', and going on till the sum of the +whole added together would make it up. Now, how long d'ye think it +would take them?—guess." +</P> + +<P> +Fred Borders smiled as he said this, and looked round the circle of men. +</P> + +<P> +"I know," cried one; "it would take the whole forty thousand <I>a week</I> +to do it." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! nonsense, they could do it easy in two days," said another. +</P> + +<P> +"That shows how little you know about big numbers," observed Tom +Lokins, knocking the ashes out of his pipe. "I'm pretty sure it +couldn't be done in much less than six months; workin' hard all day, +and makin' allowance for only one hour off for dinner." +</P> + +<P> +"You're all wrong, shipmates," said Fred Borders. "That young doctor +told me that if they'd begun work at the day of creation they would +only have just finished the job last year!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! gammon, you're jokin'," cried Bill Blunt. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I'm not," said Fred, "for I was told afterwards by an old +clergyman that the young doctor was quite right, and that anyone who +was good at 'rithmetic could work the thing out for himself in less +than half an hour." +</P> + +<P> +Just as Fred said this there came a loud cry from the mast-head that +made us all spring to our feet like lightning. +</P> + +<P> +"There she blows! There she breaches!" +</P> + +<P> +The captain was on deck in a moment. +</P> + +<P> +"Where away?" he cried. +</P> + +<P> +"On the lee beam, sir. Sperm whale, about two miles off. There she +blows!" +</P> + +<P> +Every man was at his station in a moment; for, after being some months +out, we became so used to the work, that we acted together like a piece +of machinery. But our excitement never abated in the least. +</P> + +<P> +"Sing out when the ship heads for her." +</P> + +<P> +"Aye, aye, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Keep her away!" said the captain to the man at the helm. "Bob +Ledbury, hand me the spy-glass." +</P> + +<P> +"Steady," from the mast-head. +</P> + +<P> +"Steady it is," answered the man at the helm. +</P> + +<P> +While we were all looking eagerly out ahead we heard a thundering snore +behind us, followed by a heavy splash. Turning quickly round, we saw +the flukes of an enormous whale sweeping through the air not more than +six hundred yards astern of us. +</P> + +<P> +"Down your helm," roared the captain; "haul up the mainsail, and square +the yards. Call all hands." +</P> + +<P> +"All hands, ahoy!" roared Bill Blunt, in a voice of thunder, and in +another moment every man in the ship was on deck. +</P> + +<P> +"Hoist and swing the boats," cried the captain. "Lower away." +</P> + +<P> +Down went the boats into the water; the men were into their places +almost before you could wink, and we pulled away from the ship just as +the whale rose the second time, about half a mile away to leeward. +</P> + +<P> +From the appearance of this whale we felt certain that it was one of +the largest we had yet seen, so we pulled after it with right good +will. I occupied my usual place in the captain's boat, next the bow +oar, just beside Tom Lokins, who was ready with his harpoons in the +bow. Young Borders pulled the oar directly in front of me. The +captain himself steered, and, as our crew was a picked one, we soon +left the other two boats behind us. +</P> + +<P> +Presently a small whale rose close beside us, and, sending a shower of +spray over the boat, went down in a pool of foam. Before we had time +to speak, another whale rose on the opposite side of the boat, and then +another on our starboard bow. We had got into the middle of a shoal of +whales, which commenced leaping and spouting all round us, little aware +of the dangerous enemy that was so near. +</P> + +<P> +In a few minutes more up comes the big one again that we had first +seen. He seemed very active and wild. After blowing on the surface +once or twice, about a quarter of a mile off, he peaked his flukes, and +pitched down head foremost. +</P> + +<P> +"Now then, lads, he's down for a long dive," said the captain; "spring +your oars like men, we'll get that fish for certain, if you'll only +pull." +</P> + +<P> +The captain was mistaken; the whale had only gone down deep in order to +come up and breach, or spring out of the water, for the next minute he +came up not a hundred yards from us, and leaped his whole length into +the air. +</P> + +<P> +A shout of surprise broke from the men, and no wonder, for this was the +largest fish I ever saw or heard of, and he came up so clear of the +water that we could see him from head to tail as he turned over in the +air, exposing his white belly to view, and came down on his great side +with a crash like thunder, that might have been heard six miles off. A +splendid mass of pure white spray burst from the spot where he fell, +and in another moment he was gone. +</P> + +<P> +"I do believe it's <I>New Zealand Tom</I>," cried Bill Blunt, referring to +an old bull whale that had become famous among the men who frequented +these seas for its immense size and fierceness, and for the great +trouble it had given them, smashing some of their boats, and carrying +away many of their harpoons. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know whether it's New Zealand Tom or not," said the captain, +"but it's pretty clear that he's an old sperm bull. Give way, lads, we +must get that whale whatever it should cost us." +</P> + +<P> +We did not need a second bidding; the size of the fish was so great +that we felt more excited than we had yet been during the voyage, so we +bent our oars till we almost pulled the boat out of the water. The +other boats had got separated, chasing the little whales, so we had +this one all to ourselves. +</P> + +<P> +"There she blows!" said Tom Lokins, in a low voice, as the fish came up +a short distance astern of us. +</P> + +<P> +We had overshot our mark, so, turning about, we made for the whale, +which kept for a considerable time near the top of the water, spouting +now and then, and going slowly to windward. We at last got within a +few feet of the monster, and the captain suddenly gave the word, "Stand +up." +</P> + +<P> +This was to our harpooner, Tom Lokins, who jumped up on the instant, +and buried two harpoons deep in the blubber. +</P> + +<P> +"Stern all!" was the next word, and we backed off with all our might. +It was just in time, for, in his agony, the whale tossed his tail right +over our heads, the flukes were so big that they could have completely +covered the boat, and he brought them down flat on the sea with a clap +that made our ears tingle, while a shower of spray drenched us to the +skin. For one moment I thought it was all over with us, but we were +soon out of immediate danger, and lay on our oars watching the +writhings of the wounded monster as he lashed the ocean into foam. The +water all round us soon became white like milk, and the foam near the +whale was red with blood. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly this ceased, and, before we could pull up to lance him, he +went down, taking the line out at such a rate that the boat spun round, +and sparks of fire flew from the loggerhead from the chafing of the +rope. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold on!" cried the captain, and next moment we were tearing over the +sea at a fearful rate, with a bank of white foam rolling before us, +high above our bows, and away on each side of us like the track of a +steamer, so that we expected it every moment to rush inboard and swamp +us. I had never seen anything like this before. From the first I had +a kind of feeling that some evil would befall us. +</P> + +<P> +While we were tearing over the water in this way, we saw the other +whales coming up every now and then and blowing quite near to us, and +presently we passed close enough to the first mate's boat to see that +he was fast to a fish, and unable, therefore, to render us help if we +should need it. +</P> + +<P> +In a short time the line began to slack, so we hauled it in hand over +hand, and Tom Lokins coiled it away in the tub in the stern of the +boat, while the captain took his place in the bow to be ready with the +lance. The whale soon came up, and we pulled with all our might +towards him. Instead of making off again, however, he turned round and +made straight at the boat. I now thought that destruction was certain, +for, when I saw his great blunt forehead coming down on us like a +steamboat, I felt that we could not escape. I was mistaken. The +captain received him on the point of his lance, and the whale has such +a dislike to pain, that even a small prick will sometimes turn him. +</P> + +<P> +For some time we kept dodging round this fellow; but he was so old and +wise, that he always turned his head to us, and prevented us from +getting a chance to lance him. At last he turned a little to one side, +and the captain plunged the lance deep into his vitals. +</P> + +<P> +"Ha! that's touched his life," cried Tom, as a stream of blood flew up +from his blowholes, a sure sign that he was mortally wounded. But he +was not yet conquered. After receiving the cruel stab with the lance, +he pitched right down, head foremost, and once more the line began to +fly out over the bow. We tried to hold on, but he was going so +straight down that the boat was almost swamped, and we had to slack off +to prevent our being pulled under water. +</P> + +<P> +Before many yards of the line had run out, one of the coils in the tub +became entangled. +</P> + +<P> +"Look out, lads!" cried Tom, and at once throwing the turn off the +logger-head, he made an attempt to clear it. The captain, in trying to +do the same thing, slipped and fell. Seeing this, I sprang up, and, +grasping the coil as it flew past, tried to clear it. Before I could +think, a turn whipped round my left wrist. I felt a wrench as if my +arm had been torn out of the socket, and in a moment I was overboard, +going down with almost lightning speed into the depths of the sea. +Strange to say, I did not lose my presence of mind. I knew exactly +what had happened. I felt myself rushing down, down, down with +terrific speed; a stream of fire seemed to be whizzing past my eyes; +there was a dreadful pressure on my brain, and a roaring as if of +thunder in my ears. Yet, even in that dread moment, thoughts of +eternity, of my sins, and of meeting with my God, flashed into my mind, +for thought is quicker than the lightning flash. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-080"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-080.jpg" ALT=""IN A MOMENT I WAS OVERBOARD"" BORDER="2" WIDTH="419" HEIGHT="629"> +<H3 CLASS="h3center" STYLE="width: 419px"> +"IN A MOMENT I WAS OVERBOARD" +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +Of a sudden the roaring ceased, and I felt myself buffeting the water +fiercely in my efforts to reach the surface. I know not how I got +free, but I suppose the turn of the line must have slackened off +somehow. All this happened within the space of a few brief moments; +but oh! they seemed fearfully long to me. I do not think I could have +held my breath a second longer. +</P> + +<P> +When I came to the surface, and tried to look about me, I saw the boat +not more than fifty yards off, and, being a good swimmer, I struck out +for it, although I felt terribly exhausted. In a few minutes my +comrades saw me, and, with a cheer, put out the oars and began to row +towards me. I saw that the line was slack, and that they were hauling +it in—a sign that the whale had ceased running and would soon come to +the surface again. Before they had pulled half-a-dozen strokes I saw +the water open close beside the boat, and the monstrous head of the +whale shot up like a great rock rising out of the deep. +</P> + +<P> +He was not more than three feet from the boat, and he came up with such +force, that more than half his gigantic length came out of the water +right over the boat. I heard the captain's loud cry—"<I>Stern all!</I>" +But it was too late, the whole weight of the monster's body fell upon +the boat; there was a crash and a terrible cry, as the whale and boat +went down together. +</P> + +<P> +For a few moments he continued to lash the sea in his fury, and the +fragments of the boat floated all round him. I thought that every man, +of course, had been killed; but one after another their heads appeared +in the midst of blood and foam, and they struck out for oars and pieces +of the wreck. +</P> + +<P> +Providentially, the whale, in his tossings, had shot a little away from +the spot, else every man must certainly have been killed. +</P> + +<P> +A feeling of horror filled my heart, as I beheld all this, and thought +upon my position. Fortunately, I had succeeded in reaching a broken +plank; for my strength was now so much exhausted, that I could not have +kept my head above water any longer without its assistance. Just then +I heard a cheer, and the next time I rose on the swell, I looked +quickly round and saw the mate's boat making for the scene of action as +fast as a stout and willing crew could pull. In a few minutes more I +was clutched by the arm and hauled into it. My comrades were next +rescued, and we thanked God when we found that none were killed, +although one of them had got a leg broken, and another an arm twisted +out of joint. They all, however, seemed to think that my escape was +much more wonderful than theirs; but I cannot say that I agreed with +them in this. +</P> + +<P> +We now turned our attention to the whale, which had dived again. As it +was now loose, we did not know, of course, where it would come up: so +we lay still awhile. Very soon up he came, not far from us, and as +fierce as ever. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, lads, we <I>must</I> get that whale," cried the mate; "give way with a +will." +</P> + +<P> +The order was obeyed. The boat almost leaped over the swell, and, +before long, another harpoon was in the whale's back. +</P> + +<P> +"Fast again, hurrah!" shouted the mate, "now for the lance." +</P> + +<P> +He gave the monster two deep stabs while he spoke, and it vomited up +great clots of blood, besides spouting the red stream of life as it +rolled on the sea in its agony, obliging us to keep well out of its way. +</P> + +<P> +I could not look upon the dying struggles of this enormous fish without +feelings of regret and self-reproach for helping to destroy it. I felt +almost as if I were a murderer, and that the Creator would call me to +account for taking part in the destruction of one of His grandest +living creatures. But the thought passed quickly from my mind as the +whale became more violent and went into its flurry. It began to lash +the sea with such astonishing violence, that all the previous struggles +seemed as nothing. The water all round became white like milk, with +great streaks of red blood running through it, and the sound of the +quick blows of its tail and fins resembled that of dull hollow thunder. +We gazed at this scene in deep silence and with beating hearts. +</P> + +<P> +All at once the struggles ceased. The great carcass rolled over belly +up, and lay extended on the sea in death. To me it seemed as if a dead +calm had suddenly fallen around us, after a long and furious storm, so +great was the change when that whale at length parted with its huge +life. The silence was suddenly broken by three hearty cheers, and +then, fastening a rope to our prize, we commenced towing it to the +ship, which operation occupied us the greater part of the night, for we +had no fewer than eight miles to pull. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +DEATH ON THE SEA +</H3> + +<P> +The whale which we had taken, as I have related in the last chapter, +was our largest fish of that season. It produced ninety barrels of +oil, and was worth about 500 pounds, so that we did not grieve much +over the loss of our boat. +</P> + +<P> +But our next loss was of a kind that could not be made up for by oil or +money, for it was the loss of a human life. In the whale-fishery men +must, like soldiers, expect to risk their lives frequently, and they +have too often, alas! to mourn over the loss of a shipmate or friend. +Up to this time our voyage had gone prosperously. We had caught so +many fish that nearly half our cargo was already completed, and if we +should be as lucky the remainder of the voyage, we should be able to +return home to Old England much sooner than we had expected. +</P> + +<P> +Of course, during all this time we had met with some disappointments, +for I am not describing everything that happened on that voyage. It +would require a much thicker volume than this to tell the half of our +adventures. We lost five or six fish by their sinking before we could +get them made fast to the ship, and one or two bolted so fast that they +broke loose and carried away a number of harpoons and many a fathom of +line. But such misfortunes were what we had to look for. Every whaler +meets with similar changes of luck, and we did not expect to fare +differently from our neighbours. These things did not cause us much +regret beyond the time of their occurrence. But it was far otherwise +with the loss that now befell us. +</P> + +<P> +It happened on a Sunday forenoon. I was standing close to the +starboard gangway early that morning, looking over the side into the +calm water, for there was not a breath of wind, and talking to the +first mate, who was a gruff, surly man, but a good officer, and kind +enough in his way when everything went smooth with him. But things +don't go very smooth generally in whaling life, so the mate was oftener +gruff than sweet. +</P> + +<P> +"Bob Ledbury," said he, "have you got your cutting-in gear in order? +I've got a notion that we'll 'raise the oil' this day." +</P> + +<P> +"All right, sir," said I; "you might shave yourself with the +blubber-spades. That was a good fish we got last, sir, wasn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Pretty good, though I've seen bigger." +</P> + +<P> +"He gave us a deal of trouble too," said I. +</P> + +<P> +"Not so much as I've seen others give," said he. "When I was fishing +in the Greenland Seas we made fast to a whale that cost us I don't know +how many hundred dollars." (You must know the first mate was a Yankee, +and he reckoned everything in dollars.) +</P> + +<P> +"How was that, sir?" asked I. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it was something in this fashion. We were floating about in the +North Atlantic one calm, hot day, just something like this, only it was +the afternoon, not the morning. We were doing nothing, and whistling +for a breeze, when, all of a sudden, up comes five or six whales all +round the ship, as if they had spied her from the bottom of the sea, +and had come up to have a squint at her. Of course the boats were +manned at once, and in less than no time we were tearing after them +like all alive. But them whales were pretty wildish, I guess. They +kept us pullin' the best part of five hours before we got a chance at +them. My boat was out of sight of the ship before we made fast to a +regular snorer, a hundred-barreller at the least. The moment he felt +the iron, away he went like the shot out of a gun; but he didn't keep +it up long, for soon after another of our boats came up and made fast. +Well, for some two or three hours we held fast, but could not haul on +to him to use the lance, for the moment we came close up alongside of +his tail he peaked flukes and dived, then up again, and away as fast as +ever. It was about noon before we touched him again; but by that time +two more harpoons were made fast, and two other boats cast tow-lines +aboard of us, and were hauled along. That was four boats, and more +than sixteen hundred fathoms of line, besides four harpoons that was +fast to that whale, and yet, for all that, he went ahead as fast as we +could have rowed, takin' us along with him quite easy. +</P> + +<P> +"A breeze having sprung up, our ship overhauled us in the course of the +afternoon, and towards evening we sent a line on board, to see if that +would stop the big fish, and the topsails were lowered, so as to throw +some of the ship's weight on him, but the irons drew out with the +strain. However, we determined to try it again. Another line was sent +aboard about eight o'clock, and the topsails were lowered, but the line +snapped immediately. Well, we held on to that whale the whole of that +night, and at four o'clock next morning, just thirty-six hours after he +was first struck, two fast lines were taken aboard the ship. The +breeze was fresh, and against us, so the top-gallant sails were taken +in, the courses hauled up, and the topsails clewed down, yet, I assure +you, that whale towed the ship dead against the wind for an hour and a +half at the rate of two miles an hour, and all the while beating the +water with his fins and tail, so that the sea was in a continual foam. +We did not kill that fish till after forty hours of the hardest work I +ever went through." +</P> + +<P> +Some of my shipmates seemed to doubt the truth of this story; but, for +my part, I believed it, because the mate was a grave, truthful man, +though he was gruff, and never told lies, as far as I knew. Moreover, +a case of the same kind happened some years afterwards, to a messmate +of mine, while he was serving aboard the <I>Royal Bounty</I>, on the 28th of +May, 1817. +</P> + +<P> +I know that some of the stories which I now tell must seem very wild +and unlikely to landsmen; but those who have been to the whale-fishery +will admit that I tell nothing but the truth, and if there are any of +my readers who are still doubtful, I would say, go and read the works +of Captain Scoresby. It is well known that this whaling captain was a +truly religious man, who gave up the fishing, though it turned him in +plenty of money, and became a minister of the gospel with a small +income, so it is not likely that he would have told what was untrue. +Well, in his works we find stories that are quite as remarkable as the +one I have just told, some of them more so. +</P> + +<P> +For instance, he tells us of one whale, in the Greenland Seas, which +was not killed till it had drawn out ten thousand four hundred and +forty yards, or about <I>six miles</I> of line, fastened to fifteen +harpoons, besides taking one of the boats entirely under water, which +boat was never seen again. +</P> + +<P> +The mate told us two or three more stories, and a lot of us were +gathered round him, listening eagerly, for there is nothing Jack likes +so much as a <I>good yarn</I>, when all of a sudden, the man at the +mast-head sang out that a large sperm whale was spouting away two +points off the lee-bow. Of course we were at our posts in a moment. +</P> + +<P> +"There she blows! there she breaches!" sung the look-out. +</P> + +<P> +"Lower away!" roared the captain. +</P> + +<P> +The boats were in the water, and the men on their seats in a moment. +</P> + +<P> +The whale we were after was a very large one, we could see that, for +after two hours' hard pulling we got near enough to throw a harpoon, +and after it was fixed he jumped clean out of the water. Then there +was the usual battle. It was fierce and long; so long that I began to +fear we would have to return empty-handed to the ship. We put ten +harpoons into him, one after another, and had a stiff run between the +fixing of each. +</P> + +<P> +It is astonishing the difference between the fish. One will give you +no trouble at all. I have often seen a good big fellow killed in half +an hour. Another will take you half a day, and perhaps you may lose +him after all. The whale we were now after at last took to showing +fight. He made two or three runs at the boat, but the mate, who was in +command, pricked him off with the lance cleverly. At last we gave him +a severe wound, and immediately he dived. +</P> + +<P> +"That was into his life," remarked Tom Lokins, as we sat waiting for +him to come up again. The captain's boat was close to ours, about ten +yards off. We had not to wait long. The sudden stoppage and slacking +off of all the lines showed that the whale was coming up. All at once +I saw a dark object rising directly under the captain's boat. Before I +could make out what it was, almost before I could think, the boat flew +up into the air, as if a powder magazine had exploded beneath it. The +whale had come up, and hit it with his head right on the keel, so that +it was knocked into pieces, and the men, oars, harpoons, lances, and +tackle shot up in confusion into the air. +</P> + +<P> +Immediately after that the whale went into his flurry, but we paid no +attention to him, in our anxiety to pick up our companions. They all +came to the surface quickly enough, but while some made for the boats +vigorously, others swam slowly and with pain, showing that they were +hurt, while one or two floated, as if dead, upon the water. +</P> + +<P> +Most of the men had escaped with only a few cuts and bruises, but one +poor fellow was hauled out of the water with a leg broken, and another +was so badly knocked about the head that it was a long time before he +was again fit for duty. The worst case, however, was that of poor Fred +Borders. He had a leg broken, and a severe wound in the side from a +harpoon which had been forced into the flesh over the barbs, so that we +could hardly get it drawn out. We laid him in the stern of the boat, +where he lay for some time insensible; but in a short time he revived, +and spoke to us in a faint voice. His first words were: +</P> + +<P> +"I'm dying, messmates. It is into my life, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't say that, Fred," said I, while my heart sank within me. "Cheer +up, my boy, you'll live to be the death of many a whale yet. See, put +your lips to this can—it will do you good." +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head gently, being too weak to reply. +</P> + +<P> +We had killed a big fish that day, and we knew that when he was "tried +in" we should have completed our cargo; but there was no cheer given +when the monster turned over on his side, and the pull to the ship that +evening seemed to us the longest and heaviest we ever had, for our +hearts were very sad. +</P> + +<P> +Next day Fred was worse, and we all saw that his words would come +true—he was dying; and before the sun had again set poor Fred had left +us for ever. +</P> + +<P> +We buried our shipmate in the usual sailor fashion. We wrapped him in +his hammock, with a cannon-ball at his feet to sink him. The captain +read the burial-service at the gangway, and then, in deep silence, we +committed his corpse to the deep. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NEWS FROM HOME—A GAM +</H3> + +<P> +Shoregoing people have but little notion of the ease with which the +heart of a jack-tar is made to rejoice when he is out on a long voyage. +His pleasures and amusements are so few that he is thankful to make the +most of whatever is thrown in his way. In the whale-fisheries, no +doubt, he has more than enough of excitement, but after a time he gets +used to this, and begins to long for a little variety—and of all the +pleasures that fall to his lot, that which delights him most is to have +a GAM with another ship. +</P> + +<P> +Now, a gam is the meeting of two or more whale-ships, their keeping +company for a time, and the exchanging of visits by the crews. It is +neither more nor less than a jollification on the sea—the inviting of +your friends to feast and make merry in your floating house. There is +this difference, however, between a gam at sea and a party on land, +that your <I>friends</I> on the ocean are men whom you perhaps never saw +before, and whom you will likely never meet again. There is also +another difference—there are no ladies at a gam. This is a great +want, for man is but a rugged creature when away from the refining +influence of woman; but, in the circumstances, of course, it can't be +helped. +</P> + +<P> +We had a gam one day, on this voyage, with a Yankee whale-ship, and a +first-rate gam it was, for, as the Yankee had gammed three days before +with another English ship, we got a lot of news second-hand; and, as we +had not seen a new face for many months, we felt towards those Yankees +like brothers, and swallowed all they had to tell us like men starving +for news. +</P> + +<P> +It was on a fine calm morning, just after breakfast, that we fell in +with this ship. We had seen no whales for a day or two, but we did not +mind that, for our hold was almost full of oil-barrels. Tom Lokins and +I were leaning over the starboard bulwarks, watching the small fish +that every now and then darted through the clear-blue water like +arrows, and smoking our pipes in silence. Tom looked uncommonly grave, +and I knew that he was having some deep and knowing thoughts of his own +which would leak out in time. All at once he took his pipe from his +mouth and stared earnestly at the horizon. +</P> + +<P> +"Bob," said he, speaking very slowly, "if there ain't a ship right off +the starboard beam, I'm a Dutchman." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't mean it!" said I, starting with a feeling of excitement. +</P> + +<P> +Before another word could be uttered, the cry of "Sail ho!" came +ringing down from the mast-head. Instantly the quiet of the morning +was broken; sleepers sprang up and rubbed their eyes, the men below +rushed wildly up the hatchway, the cook came tearing out of his own +private den, flourishing a soup-ladle in one hand and his tormentors in +the other, the steward came tumbling up with a lump of dough in his +fist that he had forgot to throw down in his haste, and the captain +bolted up from the cabin without his hat. +</P> + +<P> +"Where away?" cried he, with more than his usual energy. +</P> + +<P> +"Right off the starboard beam, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Square the yards! Look alive, my hearties," was the next order; for +although the calm sea was like a sheet of glass, a light air, just +sufficient to fill our top-gallant sails, enabled us to creep through +the water. +</P> + +<P> +"Hurrah!" shouted the men as we sprang to obey. +</P> + +<P> +"What does she look like?" roared the captain. +</P> + +<P> +"A big ship, sir, I think," replied the lookout: "but I can only just +make out the top of her main t-gallan' s'l."—(Sailors scorn to speak +of <I>top-gallant sails</I>.) +</P> + +<P> +Gradually, one by one, the white sails of the stranger rose up like +cloudlets out of the sea, and our hearts beat high with hope and +expectation as we beheld the towering canvas of a full-rigged ship rise +slowly into view. +</P> + +<P> +"Show our colours," said the captain. +</P> + +<P> +In a moment the Union Jack of Old England was waving at the mast-head +in the gentle breeze, and we watched anxiously for a reply. The +stranger was polite; his colours flew up a moment after, and displayed +the Stripes and Stars of America. +</P> + +<P> +"A Yankee!" exclaimed some of the men in a tone of slight +disappointment. +</P> + +<P> +I may remark, that our disappointment arose simply from the fact that +there was no chance, as we supposed, of getting news from "home" out of +a ship that must have sailed last from America. For the rest, we cared +not whether they were Yankees or Britons—they were men who could speak +the English tongue, that was enough for us. +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind, boys," cried one, "we'll have a jolly gam; that's a fact." +</P> + +<P> +"So we will," said another, "and I'll get news of my mad Irish cousin, +Terrence O'Flannagan, who went out to seek his fortin in Ameriky with +two shillin's and a broken knife in his pocket, and it's been said he's +got into a government situation o' some sort connected with the +jails—whether as captain or leftenant o' police, or turnkey, I'm not +rightly sure." +</P> + +<P> +"More likely as a life-tenant of one of the cells," observed Bill +Blunt, laughing. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't speak ill of a better man than yerself behind his back," +retorted the owner of the Irish cousin. +</P> + +<P> +"Stand by to lower the jolly-boat," cried the captain. +</P> + +<P> +"Aye, aye, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Lower away!" +</P> + +<P> +In a few minutes we were leaping over the calm sea in the direction of +the strange ship, for the breeze had died down, and we were too eager +to meet with new faces, and to hear the sound of new voices, to wait +for the wind. +</P> + +<P> +To our joy we found that the Yankee had had a gam (as I have already +said) with an English ship a few days before, so we returned to our +vessel loaded with old newspapers from England, having invited the +captain and crew of the Yankee to come aboard of us and spend the day. +</P> + +<P> +While preparation was being made for the reception of our friends, we +got hold of two of the old newspapers, and Tom Lokins seized one, while +Bill Blunt got the other, and both men sat down on the windlass to +retail the news to a crowd of eager men who tried hard to listen to +both at once, and so could make nothing out of either. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold hard, Tom Lokins," cried one. "What's that you say about the +Emperor, Bill?" +</P> + +<P> +"The Emperor of Roosia," said Bill Blunt, reading slowly, and with +difficulty, "is—stop a bit, messmates, wot can this word be?—the +Emperor of Roosia is——" +</P> + +<P> +"Blowed up with gunpowder, and shattered to a thousand pieces," said +Tom Lokins, raising his voice with excitement, as he read from <I>his</I> +paper an account of the blowing up of a mountain fortress in India. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! come, I say, one at a time, if you please," cried a harpooner; "a +feller can't git a word of sense out of sich a jumble." +</P> + +<P> +"Come, messmates," cried two or three voices, as Tom stopped suddenly, +and looked hard at the paper, "go ahead! wot have ye got there that +makes ye look as wise as an owl? Has war been and broke out with the +French?" +</P> + +<P> +"I do believe he's readin' the births, marriages, and deaths," said one +of the men, peeping over Tom's shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Read 'em out, then, can't ye?" cried another. +</P> + +<P> +"I say, Bill Blunt, I think this consarns <I>you</I>," cried Tom: "isn't +your sweetheart's name Susan Croft?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's a fact," said Bill, looking up from his paper, "and who has got +a word to say agin the prettiest lass in all Liverpool?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nobody's got a word to say against her," replied Tom; "but she's +married, that's all." +</P> + +<P> +Bill Blunt leaped up as if he had been shot, and the blood rushed to +his face, as he seized the paper, and tried to find the place. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is it, Tom? let me see it with my own two eyes. Oh, here it is!" +</P> + +<P> +The poor man's face grew paler and paler as he read the following +words:— +</P> + +<P> +"Married at Liverpool, on the 5th inst., by the Rev. Charles Manson, +Edward Gordon, Esq., to Susan, youngest daughter of Admiral Croft——" +</P> + +<P> +A perfect roar of laughter drowned the remainder of the sentence. +</P> + +<P> +"Well done, Bill Blunt—Mister Blunt, we'll have to call him +hereafter," said Tom, with a grim smile; "I had no notion you thought +so much o' yourself as to aim at an admiral's daughter." +</P> + +<P> +"All right, my hearties, chaff away!" said Bill, fetching a deep sigh +of relief, while a broad grin played on his weather-beaten visage. +"There's <I>two</I> Susan Crofts, that's all; but I wouldn't give <I>my</I> Susan +for all the admirals' daughters that ever walked in shoe-leather." +</P> + +<P> +"Hallo! here come the Yankees," cried the captain, coming on deck at +that moment. +</P> + +<P> +Our newspapers were thrown down at once, and we prepared to receive our +guests, who, we could see, had just put off from their ship in two +boats. But before they had come within a mile of us, their attention, +as well as ours, was riveted on a most extraordinary sight. +</P> + +<P> +Not more than a hundred yards ahead of our ship, a whale came suddenly +to the surface of the water, seeming, by its wild motions, to be in a +state of terror. It continued for some time to struggle, and lash the +whole sea around it into a white foam. +</P> + +<P> +At once the boats were lowered from both ships, and we went after this +fish, but his motions were so violent, that we found it utterly +impossible to get near enough to throw a harpoon. When we had +approached somewhat closely, we discovered that it had been attacked by +a killer fish, which was fully twenty feet long, and stuck to it like a +leech. The monster's struggles were made in trying to shake itself +free of this tremendous enemy, but it could not accomplish this. The +killer held him by the under jaw, and hung on there, while the whale +threw himself out of the water in his agony, with his great mouth open +like a huge cavern, and the blood flowing so fast from the wound that +the sea was dyed for a long distance round. This killer fought like a +bulldog. It held on until the whale was exhausted, but they passed +away from us in such a confused struggle, that a harpoon could not be +fixed for an hour after we first saw them. On this being done, the +killer let go, and the whale, being already half dead, was soon killed. +</P> + +<P> +The Yankee boats were the first to come up with this fish, so the prize +belonged to them. We were well pleased at this, as we could afford to +let them have it, seeing that we could scarcely have found room to stow +away the oil in our hold. It was the Yankee's first fish, too, so they +were in great spirits about it, and towed it to their ship, singing +"Yankee-doodle" with all their might. +</P> + +<P> +As they passed our boat the captain hailed them. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish you joy of your first fish, sir," said he to the Yankee captain. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, stranger. I guess we're in luck, though it ain't a big +one. I say, what sort o' brute was that that had hold of him? Never +seed sich a crittur in all my life." +</P> + +<P> +"He's a killer," said our captain. +</P> + +<P> +"A killer! Guess he just is, and no mistake: if we hadn't helped him, +he'd have done the job for himself! What does he kill him for?" +</P> + +<P> +"To eat him, but I'm told he only eats the tongue. You'll not forget +that you've promised to gam with us to-night," cried our captain, as +they were about to commence pulling again. +</P> + +<P> +"All right, stranger, one half will come to-night, before sundown; +t'other half to-morrow, if the calm holds. Good day. Give way, lads." +</P> + +<P> +The men dipped their oars, and resumed their song, while we pulled back +to our ship. We did not offer to help them, because the fish was a +small one, and the distance they had to go not great. +</P> + +<P> +It was near sunset when, according to promise, the Yankees came on +board, and spent a long evening with us. They were a free, +open-hearted, boastful, conceited, good-humoured set of fellows, and a +jolly night we had of it in the forecastle, while the mates and +captains were enjoying themselves and spinning their yarns in the cabin. +</P> + +<P> +Of course, we began with demands for home-news, and, when we had pumped +out of them every drop they had, we began to songs and spinning yarns. +And it was now that my friend Tom Lokins came out strong, and went on +at such a rate, that he quite won the hearts of our guests. Tom was +not noisy, and he was slow in his talk, but he had the knack of telling +a good story; he never used a wrong word, or a word too many, and, +having a great deal of humour, men could not help listening when he +began to talk. +</P> + +<P> +After this we had a dance, and here I became useful, being able to play +Scotch reels and Irish jigs on the fiddle. Then we had songs and yarns +again. Some could tell of furious fights with whales that made our +blood boil; others could talk of the green fields at home, until we +almost fancied we were boys again; and some could not tell stories at +all. They had little to say, and that little they said ill; and I +noticed that many of those who were perfect bores would cry loudest to +be heard, though none of us wanted to hear them. We used to quench +such fellows by calling loudly for a song with a rousing chorus. +</P> + +<P> +It was not till the night was far spent, and the silver moon was +sailing through the starry sky, that the Yankees left us, and rowed +away with a parting cheer. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +RETURN HOME +</H3> + +<P> +Six months after our "gam" with the Yankees Tom Lokins and I found +ourselves seated once more in the little garret beside my dear old +mother. +</P> + +<P> +"Deary me, Robert, how changed ye are!" +</P> + +<P> +"Changed, Mother! I should think so! If you'd gone through all that +I've done and seen since we last sat together in this room, you'd be +changed too." +</P> + +<P> +"And have ye really seen the whales, my boy?" continued my mother, +stroking my face with her old hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Seen them? aye, and killed them too—many of them." +</P> + +<P> +"You've been in danger, my son," said my mother earnestly, "but the +Lord has preserved you safe through it all." +</P> + +<P> +"Aye, Mother, He has preserved my life in the midst of many dangers," +said I, "for which I am most thankful." +</P> + +<P> +There was a short silence after this, during which my mother and I +gazed earnestly at each other, and Tom Lokins smoked his pipe and +stared at the fire. +</P> + +<P> +"Robert, how big is a whale?" enquired my mother suddenly. +</P> + +<P> +"How big? why, it's as big as a small ship, only it's longer, and not +quite so fat." +</P> + +<P> +"Robert," replied my mother gravely, "ye didn't use to tell untruths; +ye must be jokin'." +</P> + +<P> +"Joking, Mother, I was never more in earnest in my life. Why, I tell +you that I've seen, aye, and helped to cut up, whales that were more +than sixty feet long, with heads so big that their mouths could have +taken in a boat. Why, Mother, I declare to you that you could put this +room into a whale's mouth, and you and Tom and I could sit round this +table and take our tea upon his tongue quite comfortable. Isn't that +true, Tom?" +</P> + +<P> +My mother looked at Tom, who removed his pipe, puffed a cloud of smoke, +and nodded his head twice very decidedly. +</P> + +<P> +"Moreover," said I, "a whale is so big and strong, that it can knock a +boat right up into the air, and break in the sides of a ship. One day +a whale fell right on top of one of our boats and smashed it all to +bits. Now that's a real truth!" +</P> + +<P> +Again my mother looked at Tom Lokins, and again that worthy man puffed +an immense cloud of smoke, and nodded his head more decidedly than +before. Being anxious to put to flight all her doubts at once, he said +solemnly, "Old ooman, that's a fact!" +</P> + +<P> +"Robert," said my mother, "tell me something about the whales." +</P> + +<P> +Just as she said this the door opened, and in came the good old +gentleman with the nose like his cane-knob, and with as kind a heart as +ever beat in a human breast. My mother had already told me that he +came to see her regularly once a week, ever since I went to sea, except +in summer, when he was away in the country, and that he had never +allowed her to want for anything. +</P> + +<P> +I need scarcely say that there was a hearty meeting between us three, +and that we had much to say to each other. But in the midst of it all +my mother turned to the old gentleman and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Robert was just going to tell me something about his adventures with +the whales." +</P> + +<P> +"That's capital!" cried the old gentleman, rubbing his hands. "Come, +Bob, my boy, let's hear about 'em." +</P> + +<P> +Being thus invited, I consented to spin them a yarn. The old gentleman +settled himself in his chair, my mother smoothed her apron, folded her +hands, and looked meekly into my face. Tom Lokins filled his pipe, +stretched out his foot to poke the fire with the toe of his shoe, and +began to smoke like a steam-engine; then I cleared my throat and began +my tale, and before I had done talking that night, I had told them all +that I have told in this little book to you, good reader, almost word +for word. +</P> + +<P> +Thus ended my first voyage to the South Seas. Many and many a trip +have I made since then, and many a wonderful sight have I seen, both in +the south and in the north. But if I were to write an account of all +my adventures, my little book would grow into a big one; I must +therefore come to a close. +</P> + +<P> +The profits of this voyage were so great, that I was enabled to place +my mother in a position of comfort for the rest of her life, which, +alas! was very short. She died about six months after my return. I +nursed her to the end, and closed her eyes. The last word she uttered +was her Saviour's name. She died, as she had lived, trusting in the +Lord; and when I laid her dear head in the grave my heart seemed to die +within me. +</P> + +<P> +I'm getting to be an old man now, but, through the blessing of God, I +am comfortable and happy. As I have more than enough of this world's +goods, and no family to care for, my chief occupation is to look after +the poor, and particularly the old women who live in my neighbourhood. +After the work of the day is done, I generally go and spend the evening +with Tom Lokins, who lives near by, and is stout and hearty still; or +he comes and spends it with me, and, while we smoke our pipes together, +we often fall to talking about those stirring days when, in the +strength and hope of youth, we sailed together to the South Seas, and +took to—<I>Fighting the Whales</I>. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> +<hr class="full" noshade> + +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIGHTING THE WHALES***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 21202-h.txt or 21202-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/2/0/21202">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/2/0/21202</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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M. Ballantyne + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Fighting the Whales + + +Author: R. M. Ballantyne + + + +Release Date: April 22, 2007 [eBook #21202] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIGHTING THE WHALES*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 21202-h.htm or 21202-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/2/0/21202/21202-h/21202-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/2/0/21202/21202-h.zip) + + + + + +FIGHTING THE WHALES + +by + +R. M. BALLANTYNE + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover Art] + + + + +Blackie & Son Ltd. +London ---- Glasgow ---- Bombay +1915 + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAP. + + I. IN TROUBLE, TO BEGIN WITH + II. AT SEA + III. OUR FIRST BATTLE + IV. "CUTTING IN" THE BLUBBER AND "TRYING OUT" THE OIL + V. A STORM, A MAN OVERBOARD, AND A RESCUE + VI. THE WHALE--FIGHTING BULLS, ETC. + VII. TOM'S WISDOM--ANOTHER GREAT BATTLE + VIII. DEATH ON THE SEA + IX. NEWS FROM HOME--A GAM + X. RETURN HOME + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Fighting the Whales . . . . . . _Cover Art_ + + "Tom Lokins raised the harpoon" + + "Hurled it blazing into the sea" + + "In a moment I was overboard" + + + + +FIGHTING THE WHALES + + +CHAPTER I + +IN TROUBLE, TO BEGIN WITH + +There are few things in this world that have filled me with so much +astonishment as the fact that man can kill a whale! That a fish, more +than sixty feet long, and thirty feet round the body; with the bulk of +three hundred fat oxen rolled into one; with the strength of many +hundreds of horses; able to swim at a rate that would carry it right +round the world in twenty-three days; that can smash a boat to atoms +with one slap of its tail, and stave in the planks of a ship with one +blow of its thick skull;--that such a monster can be caught and killed +by man, is most wonderful to hear of, but I can tell from experience +that it is much more wonderful to see. + +There is a wise saying which I have often thought much upon. It is +this: "Knowledge is power". Man is but a feeble creature, and if he +had to depend on his own bodily strength alone he could make no head +against even the ordinary brutes in this world. But the knowledge +which has been given to him by his Maker has clothed man with great +power, so that he is more than a match for the fiercest beast in the +forest, or the largest fish in the sea. Yet, with all his knowledge, +with all his experience, and all his power, the killing of a great old +sperm whale costs man a long, tough battle, sometimes it even costs him +his life. + +It is a long time now since I took to fighting the whales. I have been +at it, man and boy, for nigh forty years, and many a wonderful sight +have I seen; many a desperate battle have I fought in the fisheries of +the North and South Seas. + +Sometimes, when I sit in the chimney-corner of a winter evening, +smoking my pipe with my old messmate Tom Lokins, I stare into the fire +and think of the days gone by till I forget where I am, and go on +thinking so hard that the flames seem to turn into melting fires, and +the bars of the grate into dead fish, and the smoke into sails and +rigging, and I go to work cutting up the blubber and stirring the +oil-pots, or pulling the bow-oar and driving the harpoon at such a +rate that I can't help giving a shout, which causes Tom to start and +cry: + +"Hallo! Bob" (my name is Bob Ledbury, you see). "Hallo! Bob, wot's +the matter?" + +To which I reply, "Tom, can it all be true?" + +"Can _wot_ be true?" says he, with a stare of surprise--for Tom is +getting into his dotage now. + +And then I chuckle and tell him I was only thinking of old times, and +so he falls to smoking again, and I to staring at the fire, and +thinking as hard as ever. + +The way in which I was first led to go after the whales was curious. +This is how it happened. + +About forty years ago, when I was a boy of nearly fifteen years of age, +I lived with my mother in one of the seaport towns of England. There +was great distress in the town at that time, and many of the hands were +out of work. My employer, a blacksmith, had just died, and for more +than six weeks I had not been able to get employment or to earn a +farthing. This caused me great distress, for my father had died +without leaving a penny in the world, and my mother depended on me +entirely. The money I had saved out of my wages was soon spent, and +one morning when I sat down to breakfast, my mother looked across the +table and said, in a thoughtful voice: + +"Robert, dear, this meal has cost us our last halfpenny." + +My mother was old and frail, and her voice very gentle; she was the +most trustful, uncomplaining woman I ever knew. + +I looked up quickly into her face as she spoke. "All the money gone, +Mother?" + +"Aye, all. It will be hard for you to go without your dinner, Robert, +dear." + +"It will be harder for _you_, Mother," I cried, striking the table with +my fist; then a lump rose in my throat and almost choked me. I could +not utter another word. + +It was with difficulty I managed to eat the little food that was before +me. After breakfast I rose hastily and rushed out of the house, +determined that I would get my mother her dinner, even if I should have +to beg for it. But I must confess that a sick feeling came over me +when I thought of begging. + +Hurrying along the crowded streets without knowing very well what I +meant to do, I at last came to an abrupt halt at the end of the pier. +Here I went up to several people and offered my services in a wild sort +of way. They must have thought that I was drunk, for nearly all of +them said gruffly that they did not want me. + +Dinner-time drew near, but no one had given me a job, and no wonder, +for the way in which I tried to get one was not likely to be +successful. At last I resolved to beg. Observing a fat, red-faced old +gentleman coming along the pier, I made up to him boldly. He carried a +cane with a large gold knob on the top of it. That gave me hope, "for +of course," thought I, "he must be rich." His nose, which was exactly +the colour and shape of the gold knob on his cane, was stuck in the +centre of a round, good-natured countenance, the mouth of which was +large and firm; the eyes bright and blue. He frowned as I went forward +hat in hand; but I was not to be driven back; the thought of my +starving mother gave me power to crush down my rising shame. Yet I had +no reason to be ashamed. I was willing to work, if only I could have +got employment. + +Stopping in front of the old gentleman, I was about to speak when I +observed him quietly button up his breeches pocket. The blood rushed +to my face, and, turning quickly on my heel, I walked away without +uttering a word. + +"Hallo!" shouted a gruff voice just as I was moving away. + +I turned, and observed that the shout was uttered by a broad +rough-looking jack-tar, a man of about two or three and thirty, who had +been sitting all the forenoon on an old cask smoking his pipe and +basking in the sun. + +"Hallo!" said he again. + +"Well," said I. + +"Wot d'ye mean, youngster, by goin' on in that there fashion all the +mornin', a-botherin' everybody, and makin' a fool o' yourself like +that? eh!" + +"What's that to you?" said I savagely, for my heart was sore and heavy, +and I could not stand the interference of a stranger. + +"Oh! it's nothin' to me of course," said the sailor, picking his pipe +quietly with his clasp-knife; "but come here, boy, I've somethin' to +say to ye." + +"Well, what is it?" said I, going up to him somewhat sulkily. + +The man looked at me gravely through the smoke of his pipe, and said, +"You're in a passion, my young buck, that's all; and, in case you +didn't know it, I thought I'd tell ye." + +I burst into a fit of laughter. "Well, I believe you're not far wrong; +but I'm better now." + +"Ah! that's right," said the sailor, with an approving nod of his head; +"always confess when you're in the wrong. Now, younker, let me give +you a bit of advice. Never get into a passion if you can help it, and +if you can't help it get out of it as fast as possible, and if you +can't get out of it, just give a great roar to let off the steam and +turn about and run. There's nothing like that. Passion han't got +legs. It can't hold on to a feller when he's runnin'. If you keep it +up till you a'most split your timbers, passion has no chance. It +_must_ go a-starn. Now, lad, I've been watchin' ye all the mornin', and +I see there's a screw loose somewhere. If you'll tell me wot it is, +see if I don't help you!" + +The kind frank way in which this was said quite won my heart, so I sat +down on the old cask, and told the sailor all my sorrows. + +"Boy," said he, when I had finished, "I'll put you in the way o' +helpin' your mother. I can get you a berth in my ship, if you're +willin' to take a trip to the whale fishery of the South Seas." + +"And who will look after my mother when I'm away?" said I. + +The sailor looked perplexed at the question. + +"Ah! that's a puzzler," he replied, knocking the ashes out of his pipe. +"Will you take me to your mother's house, lad?" + +"Willingly," said I, and, jumping up, I led the way. As we turned to +go, I observed that the old gentleman with the gold-headed cane was +leaning over the rail of the pier at a short distance from us. A +feeling of anger instantly rose within me, and I exclaimed, loud enough +for him to hear: + +"I do believe that stingy old chap has been listening to every word +we've been saying!" + +I thought I observed a frown on the sailor's brow as I said this, but +he made no remark, and in a few minutes we were walking rapidly through +the streets. My companion stopped at one of those stores so common in +seaport towns, where one can buy almost anything, from a tallow candle +to a brass cannon. Here he + +[Transcriber's note: two pages missing from book] + +I've got neither family nor friends, and I'm bound for the South Seas +in six days; so, if you'll take it, you're welcome to it, and if your +son Bob can manage to cast loose from you without leaving you to sink, +I'll take him aboard the ship that I sail in. He'll always find me at +the Bull and Griffin, in the High Street, or at the end o' the pier." + +While the sailor was speaking, I observed a figure standing in a dark +corner of the room near the door, and, on looking more closely, I found +that it was the old gentleman with the nose like his cane knob. Seeing +that he was observed, he came forward and said: + +"I trust that you will forgive my coming here without invitation; but I +happened to overhear part of the conversation between your son and this +seaman, and I am willing to help you over your little difficulty, if +you will allow me." + +The old gentleman said this in a very quick, abrupt way, and looked as +if he were afraid his offer might be refused. He was much heated, with +climbing our long stair no doubt, and as he stood in the middle of the +room, puffing and wiping his bald head with a handkerchief, my mother +rose hastily and offered him a chair. + +"You are very kind, sir," she said; "do sit down, sir. I'm sure I +don't know why you should take so much trouble. But, dear me, you are +very warm; will you take a cup of tea to cool you?" + +"Thank you, thank you. With much pleasure, unless, indeed, your son +objects to a '_stingy old chap_' sitting beside him." + +I blushed when he repeated my words, and attempted to make some +apology; but the old gentleman stopped me by commencing to explain his +intentions in short, rapid sentences. + +To make a long story short, he offered to look after my mother while I +was away, and, to prove his sincerity, laid down five shillings, and +said he would call with that sum every week as long as I was absent. +My mother, after some trouble, agreed to let me go, and, before that +evening closed, everything was arranged, and the gentleman, leaving his +address, went away. + +The sailor had been so much filled with surprise at the suddenness of +all this, that he could scarcely speak. Immediately after the +departure of the old gentleman, he said, "Well, good-bye, mistress, +good-bye, Bob," and throwing on his hat in a careless way, left the +room. + +"Stop!" I shouted after him, when he had got about half-way down stair. + +"Hallo! wot's wrong now?" + +"Nothing; I only forgot to ask your name." + +"Tom Lokins," he bellowed, in the hoarse voice of a regular boatswain, +"w'ich wos my father's name before me." + +So saying, he departed, whistling "Rule, Britannia," with all his +might. + +Thus the matter was settled. Six days afterwards, I rigged myself out +in a blue jacket, white ducks, and a straw hat, and went to sea. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +AT SEA + +My first few days on the ocean were so miserable that I oftentimes +repented of having left my native land. I was, as my new friend Tom +Lokins said, as sick as a dog. But in course of time I grew well, and +began to rejoice in the cool fresh breezes and the great rolling +billows of the sea. + +Many and many a time I used to creep out to the end of the bowsprit, +when the weather was calm, and sit with my legs dangling over the deep +blue water, and my eyes fixed on the great masses of rolling clouds in +the sky, thinking of the new course of life I had just begun. At such +times the thought of my mother was sure to come into my mind, and I +thought of her parting words, "Put your trust in the Lord, Robert, and +read His Word." I resolved to try to obey her, but this I found was no +easy matter, for the sailors were a rough lot of fellows, who cared +little for the Bible. But, I must say, they were a hearty, +good-natured set, and much better, upon the whole, than many a ship's +crew that I afterwards sailed with. + +We were fortunate in having fair winds this voyage, and soon found +ourselves on the other side of the _line_, as we jack-tars call the +Equator. + +Of course the crew did not forget the old custom of shaving all the men +who had never crossed the line before. Our captain was a jolly old +man, and uncommonly fond of "sky-larking". He gave us leave to do what +we liked the day we crossed the line; so, as there were a number of +wild spirits among us, we broke through all the ordinary rules, or, +rather, we added on new rules to them. + +The old hands had kept the matter quiet from us greenhorns, so that, +although we knew they were going to do some sort of mischief, we didn't +exactly understand what it was to be. + +About noon of that day I was called on deck and told that old father +Neptune was coming aboard, and we were to be ready to receive him. A +minute after I saw a tremendous monster come up over the side of the +ship and jump on the deck. He was crowned with seaweed, and painted in +a wonderful fashion; his clothes were dripping wet, as if he had just +come from the bottom of the sea. After him came another monster with a +petticoat made of sailcloth and a tippet of a bit of old tarpaulin. +This was Neptune's wife, and these two carried on the most remarkable +antics I ever saw. I laughed heartily, and soon discovered, from the +tones of their voices, which of my shipmates Neptune and his wife were. +But my mirth was quickly stopped when I was suddenly seized by several +men, and my face was covered over with a horrible mixture of tar and +grease! + +Six of us youngsters were treated in this way; then the lather was +scraped off with a piece of old hoop-iron, and, after being thus +shaved, buckets of cold water were thrown over us. + +At last, after a prosperous voyage, we arrived at our fishing-ground in +the South Seas, and a feeling of excitement and expectation began to +show itself among the men, insomuch that our very eyes seemed brighter +than usual. + +One night those of us who had just been relieved from watch on deck +were sitting on the lockers down below telling ghost stories. + +It was a dead calm, and one of those intensely dark, hot nights, that +cause sailors to feel uneasy, they scarce know why. I began to feel so +uncomfortable at last, listening to the horrible tales which Tom Lokins +was relating to the men, that I slipt away from them with the intention +of going on deck. I moved so quietly that no one observed me; besides, +every eye was fixed earnestly on Tom, whose deep low voice was the only +sound that broke the stillness of all around. As I was going very +cautiously up the ladder leading to the deck, Tom had reached that part +of his story where the ghost was just appearing in a dark churchyard, +dressed in white, and coming slowly forward, one step at a time, +towards the terrified man who saw it. The men held their breath, and +one or two of their faces turned pale as Tom went on with his +description, lowering his voice to a hoarse whisper. Just as I put my +head up the hatchway the sheet of one of the sails, which was hanging +loose in the still air, passed gently over my head and knocked my hat +off. At any other time I would have thought nothing of this, but Tom's +story had thrown me into such an excited and nervous condition that I +gave a start, missed my footing, uttered a loud cry, and fell down the +ladder right in among the men with a tremendous crash, knocking over +two or three oil-cans and a tin bread-basket in my fall, and upsetting +the lantern, so that the place was instantly pitch-dark. + +I never heard such a howl of terror as these men gave vent to when this +misfortune befell me. They rushed upon deck with their hearts in their +mouths, tumbling, and peeling the skin off their shins and knuckles in +their haste; and it was not until they heard the laughter of the watch +on deck that they breathed freely, and, joining in the laugh, called +themselves fools for being frightened by a ghost story. I noticed, +however, that, for all their pretended indifference, there was not one +man among them--not even Tom Lokins himself--who would go down below to +relight the lantern for at least a quarter of an hour afterwards! + +Feeling none the worse for my fall, I went forward and leaned over the +bow of the ship, where I was much astonished by the appearance of the +sea. It seemed as if the water was on fire. Every time the ship's bow +rose and fell, the little belt of foam made in the water seemed like a +belt of blue flame with bright sparkles in it, like stars or diamonds. +I had seen this curious appearance before, but never so bright as it +was on that night. + +"What is it, Tom?" said I, as my friend came forward and leaned over +the ship's bulwark beside me. + +"It's blue fire, Bob," replied Tom, as he smoked his pipe calmly. + +"Come, you know I can't swallow that," said I; "everybody knows that +fire, either blue or red, can't burn in the water." + +"Maybe not," returned Tom; "but it's blue fire for all that. Leastwise +if it's not, I don't know wot else it is." + +Tom had often seen this light before, no doubt, but he had never given +himself the trouble to find out what it could be. Fortunately the +captain came up just as I put the question, and he enlightened me on +the subject. + +"It is caused by small animals," said he, leaning over the side. + +"Small animals!" said I, in astonishment. + +"Aye; many parts of the sea are full of creatures so small and so thin +and colourless, that you can hardly see them even in a clear glass +tumbler. Many of them are larger than others, but the most of them are +very small." + +"But how do they shine like that, sir?" I asked. + +"That I do not know, boy. God has given them the power to shine, just +as he has given us the power to walk or speak; and they do shine +brightly, as you see; but how they do it is more than I can tell. I +think, myself, it must be anger that makes them shine, for they +generally do it when they are stirred up or knocked about by oars, or +ships' keels, or tumbling waves. But I am not sure that that's the +reason either, because, you know, we often sail through them without +seeing the light, though of course they must be there." + +"P'r'aps, sir," said Tom Lokins; "p'r'aps, sir, they're sleepy +sometimes, an' can't be bothered gettin' angry." + +"Perhaps!" answered the captain, laughing. "But then again, at other +times, I have seen them shining over the whole sea when it was quite +calm, making it like an ocean of milk; and nothing was disturbing them +at that time, d'ye see." + +"I don' know _that_," objected Tom; "they might have bin a-fightin' +among theirselves." + +"Or playing, maybe," said I. + +The captain laughed, and, looking up at the sky, said: "I don't like +the look of the weather, Tom Lokins. You're a sharp fellow, and have +been in these seas before; what say you?" + +"We'll have a breeze," replied Tom, briefly. + +"More than a breeze," muttered the captain, while a look of grave +anxiety overspread his countenance; "I'll go below and take a squint at +the glass." + +"What does he mean by that, Tom?" said I, when the captain was gone; "I +never saw a calmer or a finer night. Surely there is no chance of a +storm just now." + +"Aye, that shows that you're a young feller, and han't got much +experience o' them seas," replied my companion. "Why, boy, sometimes +the fiercest storm is brewin' behind the greatest calm. An' the worst +o' the thing is that it comes so sudden at times, that the masts are +torn out o' the ship before you can say Jack Robinson." + +"What! and without any warning?" said I. + +"Aye, _almost_ without warnin'; but not _altogether_ without it. You +heer'd the captain say he'd go an' take a squint at the glass?" + +"Yes; what is the glass?" + +"It's not a glass o' grog, you may be sure; nor yet a lookin'-glass. +It's the weather-glass, boy. Shore-goin' chaps call it a barometer." + +"And what's the meaning of barometer?" I enquired earnestly. + +Tom Lokins stared at me in stupid amazement. "Why, boy," said he, +"you're too inquisitive. I once asked the doctor o' a ship that +question, and says he to me, 'Tom,' says he, 'a barometer is a glass +tube filled with quicksilver or mercury, which is a metal in a soft or +fluid state, like water, you know, and it's meant for tellin' the state +o' the weather.' + +"'Yes, sir,' I answers, 'I know that well enough.' + +"'Then why did you ask?' says he, gettin' into a passion. + +"'I asked what was the meanin' o' the _word_ barometer, sir,' said I. + +"The doctor he looked grave at that, and shook his head. 'Tom,' says +he, 'if I was to go for to explain that word, and all about the +instrument, in a scientific sort o' way, d'ye see, I'd have to sit here +an' speak to you right on end for six hours or more.' + +"'Oh, sir,' says I, 'don't do it, then. _Please_, don't do it.' + +"'No more I will,' says he; 'but it'll serve your turn to know that a +barometer is a glass for measurin' the weight o' the air, and, _somehow +or other_, that lets ye know wot's a-coming. If the mercury in the +glass rises high, all's right. If it falls uncommon low very sudden, +look out for squalls; that's all. No matter how smooth the sea may be, +or how sweetly all natur' may smile, don't you believe it; take in +every inch o' canvas at once.'" + +"That was a queer explanation, Tom." + +"Aye, but it was a true one, as you shall see before long." + +As I looked out upon the calm sea, which lay like a sheet of glass, +without a ripple on its surface, I could scarcely believe what he had +said. But before many minutes had passed I was convinced of my error. + +While I was standing talking to my messmate, the captain rushed on +deck, and shouted: + +"All hands tumble up! Shorten sail! Take in every rag! Look alive, +boys, look alive." + +I was quite stunned for a moment by this, and by the sudden tumult that +followed. The men, who seemed never to take thought about anything, +and who had but one duty, namely, to _obey orders_, ran upon deck, and +leaped up the rigging like cats; the sheets of nearly all the principal +sails were clewed up, and, ere long, the canvas was made fast to the +yards. A few of the smaller sails only were left exposed, and even +these were close-reefed. Before long a loud roar was heard, and in +another minute the storm burst upon us with terrific violence. The +ship at first lay over so much that the masts were almost in the water, +and it was as impossible for anyone to walk the deck as to walk along +the side of a wall. At the same time, the sea was lashed into white +foam, and the blinding spray flew over us in bitter fury. + +"Take in the topsails!" roared the captain. But his voice was drowned +in the shriek of the gale. The men were saved the risk of going out on +the yards, however, for in a few moments more all the sails, except the +storm-trysail, were burst and blown to ribbons. + +We now tried to put the ship's head to the wind and "lay to", by which +landsmen will understand that we tried to face the storm, and remain +stationary. But the gale was so fierce that this was impossible. The +last rag of sail was blown away, and then there was nothing left for us +but to show our stern to the gale, and "scud under bare poles". + +The great danger now was that we might be "pooped", which means that a +huge wave might curl over our stern, fall with terrible fury on our +deck, and sink us. + +Many and many a good ship has gone down in this way; but we were +mercifully spared. As our safety depended very much on good steering, +the captain himself took the wheel, and managed the ship so well, that +we weathered the gale without damage, further than the loss of a few +sails and light spars. For two days the storm howled furiously, the +sky and sea were like ink, with sheets of rain and foam driving through +the air, and raging billows tossing our ship about like a cork. + +During all this time my shipmates were quiet and grave, but active and +full of energy, so that every order was at once obeyed without noise or +confusion. Every man watched the slightest motion of the captain. We +all felt that everything depended on him. + +As for me, I gave up all hope of being saved. It seemed impossible to +me that anything that man could build could withstand so terrible a +storm. I do not pretend to say that I was not afraid. The near +prospect of a violent death caused my heart to sink more than once; but +my feelings did not unman me. I did my duty quietly, but quickly, like +the rest; and when I had no work to do, I stood holding on to the +weather stanchions, looking at the raging sea, and thinking of my +mother, and of the words of kindness and counsel she had so often +bestowed upon me in vain. + +The storm ceased almost as quickly as it began, and although the sea +did not all at once stop the heavings of its angry bosom, the wind fell +entirely in the course of a few hours, the dark clouds broke up into +great masses that were piled up high into the sky, and out of the midst +of these the glorious sun shone in bright rays down on the ocean, like +comfort from heaven, gladdening our hearts as we busily repaired the +damage that we had suffered from the storm. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +OUR FIRST BATTLE + +I shall never forget the surprise I got the first time I saw a whale. + +It was in the forenoon of a most splendid day, about a week after we +arrived at that part of the ocean where we might expect to find fish. +A light nor'-east breeze was blowing, but it scarcely ruffled the sea, +as we crept slowly through the water with every stitch of canvas set. + +As we had been looking out for fish for some time past, everything was +in readiness for them. The boats were hanging over the side ready to +lower, tubs for coiling away the ropes, harpoons, lances, &c., all were +ready to throw in, and start away at a moment's notice. The man in the +"crow's-nest", as they call the cask fixed up at the masthead, was +looking anxiously out for whales, and the crew were idling about the +deck. Tom Lokins was seated on the windlass smoking his pipe, and I +was sitting beside him on an empty cask, sharpening a blubber-knife. + +"Tom," said I, "what like is a whale?" + +"Why, it's like nothin' but itself," replied Tom, looking puzzled. +"Why, wot a queer feller you are to ax questions." + +"I'm sure you've seen plenty of them. You might be able to tell what a +whale is like." + +"Wot it's like! Well, it's like a tremendous big bolster with a head +and a tail to it." + +"And how big is it?" + +"They're of all sizes, lad. I've seen one that was exactly equal to +three hundred fat bulls, and its rate of goin' would take it round the +whole world in twenty-three days." + +"I don't believe you," said I, laughing. + +"Don't you?" cried Tom; "it's a fact notwithstandin', for the captain +himself said so, and that's how I came to know it." + +Just as Tom finished speaking, the man in the crow's-nest roared at the +top of his voice, "There she blows!" + +That was the signal that a whale was in sight, and as it was the first +time we had heard it that season, every man in the ship was thrown into +a state of tremendous excitement. + +"There she blows!" roared the man again. + +"Where away?" shouted the captain. + +"About two miles right ahead." + +In another moment the utmost excitement prevailed on board. Suddenly, +while I was looking over the side, straining my eyes to catch a sight +of the whale, which could not yet be seen by the men on deck, I saw a +brown object appear in the sea, not twenty yards from the side of the +ship; before I had time to ask what it was, a whale's head rose to the +surface, and shot up out of the water. The part of the fish that was +visible above water could not have been less then thirty feet in +length. It just looked as if our longboat had jumped out of the sea, +and he was so near that I could see his great mouth quite plainly. I +could have tossed a biscuit on his back easily. Sending two thick +spouts of frothy water out of his blow-holes forty feet into the air +with tremendous noise, he fell flat upon the sea with a clap like +thunder, tossed his flukes or tail high into the air, and disappeared. + +I was so amazed at this sight that I could not speak. I could only +stare at the place where the huge monster had gone down. + +"Stand by to lower," shouted the captain. + +"Aye, aye, sir," replied the men, leaping to their appointed stations; +for every man in a whale-ship has his post of duty appointed to him, +and knows what to do when an order is given. + +"Lower away," cried the captain, whose face was now blazing with +excitement. + +In a moment more three boats were in the water; the tubs, harpoons, +&c., were thrown in, the men seized the oars, and away they went with a +cheer. I was in such a state of flutter that I scarce knew what I did; +but I managed somehow or other to get into a boat, and as I was a +strong fellow, and a good rower, I was allowed to pull. + +"There she blows!" cried the man in the crow's-nest, just as we shot +from the side of the ship. There was no need to ask, "where away" this +time. Another whale rose and spouted not more than three hundred yards +off, and before we could speak a third fish rose in another direction, +and we found ourselves in the middle of what is called a "school of +whales". + +"Now, lads," said the captain, who steered the boat in which I rowed, +"bend your backs, my hearties; that fish right ahead of us is a +hundred-barrel whale for certain. Give way, boys; we _must_ have that +fish." + +There was no need to urge the men, for their backs were strained to the +utmost, their faces were flushed, and the big veins in their necks +swelled almost to bursting, with the tremendous exertion. + +"Hold hard," said the captain in a low voice, for now that we were +getting near our prey we made as little noise as possible. + +The men at once threw their oars "apeak", as they say; that is, raised +them straight, up in the air, and waited for further orders. We +expected the whale would rise near to where we were, and thought it +best to rest and look out. + +While we were waiting, Tom Lokins, who was harpooner of the boat, sat +just behind me with all his irons ready. He took this opportunity to +explain to me that by a "hundred-barrel fish" is meant a fish that will +yield a hundred barrels of oil. He further informed me that such a +fish was a big one, though he had seen a few in the North-West Seas +that had produced upwards of two hundred barrels. + +I now observed that the other boats had separated, and each had gone +after a different whale. In a few minutes the fish we were in chase of +rose a short distance off, and sent up two splendid water-spouts high +into the air, thus showing that he was what the whalers call a "right" +whale. It is different from the sperm whale, which has only one +blowhole, and that a little one. + +We rowed towards it with all our might, and as we drew near, the +captain ordered Tom Lokins to "stand up", so he at once laid in his +oar, and took up the harpoon. The harpoon is an iron lance with a +barbed point. A whale-line is attached to it, and this line is coiled +away in a tub. When we were within a few yards of the fish, which was +going slowly through the water, all ignorant of the terrible foes who +were pursuing him, Tom Lokins raised the harpoon high above his head, +and darted it deep into its fat side just behind the left fin, and next +moment the boat ran aground on the whale's back. + +[Illustration: "TOM LOKINS RAISED THE HARPOON"] + +"Stern all, for your lives!" roared the captain, who, before his order +was obeyed, managed to give the creature two deep wounds with his +lance. The lance has no barbs to its point, and is used only for +wounding after the harpoon is fixed. + +The boat was backed off at once, but it had scarcely got a few yards +away when the astonished fish whirled its huge body half out of the +water, and, coming down with a tremendous clap, made off like lightning. + +The line was passed round a strong piece of wood called the +"logger-head", and, in running out, it began to smoke, and nearly set +the wood on fire. Indeed, it would have done so, if a man had not kept +constantly pouring water upon it. It was needful to be very cautious +in managing the line, for the duty is attended with great danger. If +any hitch should take place, the line is apt to catch the boat and drag +it down bodily under the waves. Sometimes a coil of it gets round a +leg or an arm of the man who attends to it, in which case his +destruction is almost certain. Many a poor fellow has lost his life in +this way. + +The order was now given to "hold on line". This was done, and in a +moment our boat was cleaving the blue water like an arrow, while the +white foam curled from her bows. I thought every moment we should be +dragged under; but whenever this seemed likely to happen, the line was +let run a bit, and the strain eased. At last the fish grew tired of +dragging us, the line ceased to run out, and Tom hauled in the slack, +which another man coiled away in its tub. Presently the fish rose to +the surface, a short distance off our weather bow. + +"Give way, boys! spring your oars," cried the captain; "another touch +or two with the lance, and that fish is ours." + +The boat shot ahead, and we were about to dart a second harpoon into +the whale's side, when it took to "sounding",--which means, that it +went straight down, head foremost, into the depths of the sea. At that +moment Tom Lokins uttered a cry of mingled anger and disappointment. +We all turned round and saw our shipmate standing with the slack line +in his hand, and such an expression on his weather-beaten face, that I +could scarce help laughing. The harpoon had not been well fixed; it +had lost its hold, and the fish was now free! + +"Gone!" exclaimed the captain with a groan. + +I remember even yet the feeling of awful disappointment that came over +me when I understood that we had lost the fish after all our trouble! +I could almost have wept with bitter vexation. As for my comrades, +they sat staring at each other for some moments quite speechless. +Before we could recover from the state into which this misfortune had +thrown us, one of the men suddenly shouted, "Hallo! there's the mate's +boat in distress." + +We turned at once, and, truly, there was no doubt of the truth of this, +for, about half a mile off, we beheld our first mate's boat tearing +over the sea like a small steamer. It was fast to a fish, and two oars +were set up on end to attract our attention. + +When a whale is struck, it sometimes happens that the whole of the line +in a boat is run out. When this is about to occur, it becomes +necessary to hold on as much as can be done without running the boat +under the water, and an oar is set up on end to show that assistance is +required, either from the ship or from the other boats. As the line +grows less and less, another and another oar is hoisted to show that +help must be sent quickly. If no assistance can be sent, the only +thing that remains to be done is to cut the line and lose the fish; but +a whale-line, with its harpoon, is a very heavy loss, in addition to +that of the fish, so that whalers are tempted to hold on a little too +long sometimes. + +When we saw the mate's boat dashing away in this style, we forgot our +grief at the loss of our whale in anxiety to render assistance to our +comrades, and we rowed towards them as fast as we could. Fortunately +the whale changed its course and came straight towards us, so that we +ceased pulling, and waited till they came up. As the boat came on I +saw the foam curling up on her bows as she leaped and flew over the +sea. I could scarcely believe it possible that wood and iron could +bear such a strain. In a few minutes they were almost abreast of us. + +"You're holding too hard!" shouted the captain. + +"Lines all out!" roared the mate. + +They were past almost before these short sentences could be spoken. +But they had not gone twenty yards ahead of us when the water rushed in +over the bow, and before we could utter a word the boat and crew were +gone. Not a trace of them remained! The horror of the moment had not +been fully felt, however, when the boat rose to the surface keel up, +and, one after another, the heads of the men appeared. The line had +fortunately broken, otherwise the boat would have been lost, and the +entire crew probably would have gone to the bottom with her. + +We instantly pulled to the rescue, and were thankful to find that not a +man was killed, though some of them were a little hurt, and all had +received a terrible fright. We next set to work to right the upset +boat, an operation which was not accomplished without much labour and +difficulty. + +Now, while we were thus employed, our third boat, which was in charge +of the second mate, had gone after the whale that had caused us so much +trouble, and when we had got the boat righted and began to look about +us, we found that she was fast to the fish about a mile to leeward. + +"Hurrah, lads!" cried the captain, "luck has not left us yet. Give +way, my hearties, pull like Britons! we'll get that fish yet." + +We were all dreadfully done up by this time, but the sight of a boat +fast to a whale restored us at once, and we pulled away as stoutly as +if we had only begun the day's work. The whale was heading in the +direction of the ship, and when we came up to the scene of action the +second mate had just "touched the life"; in other words, he had driven +the lance deep down into the whale's vitals. This was quickly known by +jets of blood being spouted up through the blowholes. Soon after, our +victim went into its dying agonies, or, as whalemen say, "his flurry ". + +This did not last long. In a short time he rolled over dead. We +fastened a line to his tail, the three boats took the carcass in tow, +and, singing a lively song, we rowed away to the ship. + +Thus ended our first battle with the whales. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +"CUTTING IN" THE BLUBBER AND "TRYING OUT" THE OIL + +The scene that took place on board ship after we caught our first fish +was most wonderful. We commenced the operation of what is called +"cutting in", that is, cutting up the whale, and getting the fat or +blubber hoisted in. The next thing we did was to "try out" the oil, or +melt down the fat in large iron pots brought with us for this purpose; +and the change that took place in the appearance of the ship and the +men when this began was very remarkable. + +When we left port our decks were clean, our sails white, our masts well +scraped; the brass-work about the quarter-deck was well polished, and +the men looked tidy and clean. A few hours after our first whale had +been secured alongside all this was changed. The cutting up of the +huge carcass covered the decks with oil and blood, making them so +slippery that they had to be covered with sand to enable the men to +walk about. Then the smoke of the great fires under the melting pots +begrimed the masts, sails, and cordage with soot. The faces and hands +of the men got so covered with oil and soot that it would have puzzled +anyone to say whether they were white or black. Their clothes, too, +became so dirty that it was impossible to clean them. But, indeed, +whalemen do not much mind this. In fact, they take a pleasure in all +the dirt that surrounds them, because it is a sign of success in the +main object of their voyage. The men in a _clean_ whale ship are never +happy. When everything is filthy, and dirty, and greasy, and smoky, +and black--decks, rigging, clothes, and person--it is then that the +hearty laugh and jest and song are heard as the crew work busily, night +and day, at their rough but profitable labour. + +The operations of "cutting in" and "trying out" were matters of great +interest to me the first time I saw them. + +After having towed our whale to the ship, cutting in was immediately +begun. First, the carcass was secured near the head and tail with +chains, and made fast to the ship; then the great blocks and ropes +fastened to the main and fore mast for hoisting in the blubber were +brought into play. When all was ready, the captain and the two mates +with Tom Lokins got upon the whale's body, with long-handled sharp +spades or digging-knives. With these they fell to work cutting off the +blubber. + +I was stationed at one of the hoisting ropes, and while we were waiting +for the signal to "hoist away", I peeped over the side, and for the +first time had a good look at the great fish. When we killed it, so +much of its body was down in the water that I could not see it very +clearly, but now that it was lashed at full length alongside the ship, +and I could look right down upon it, I began to understand more clearly +what a large creature it was. One thing surprised me much; the top of +its head, which was rough and knotty like the bark of an old tree, was +swarming with little crabs and barnacles, and other small creatures. +The whale's head seemed to be their regular home! This fish was by no +means one of the largest kind, but being the first I had seen, I +fancied it must be the largest fish in the sea. + +Its body was forty feet long, and twenty feet round at the thickest +part. Its head, which seemed to me a great, blunt, shapeless thing, +like a clumsy old boat, was eight feet long from the tip to the +blowholes or nostrils; and these holes were situated on the back of the +head, which at that part was nearly four feet broad. The entire head +measured about twenty-one feet round. Its ears were two small holes, +so small that it was difficult to discover them, and the eyes were also +very small for so large a body, being about the same size as those of +an ox. The mouth was very large, and the under jaw had great ugly +lips. When it was dying, I saw these lips close in once or twice on +its fat cheeks, which it bulged out like the leather sides of a pair of +gigantic bellows. It had two fins, one on each side, just behind the +head. With these, and with its tail, the whale swims and fights. Its +tail is its most deadly weapon. The flukes of this one measured +thirteen feet across, and with one stroke of this it could have smashed +our largest boat in pieces. Many a boat has been sent to the bottom in +this way. + +I remember hearing our first mate tell of a wonderful escape a comrade +of his had in the Greenland Sea Fishery. A whale had been struck, and, +after its first run, they hauled up to it again, and rowed so hard that +they ran the boat right against it. The harpooner was standing on the +bow all ready, and sent his iron cleverly into the blubber. In its +agony the whale reared its tail high out of the water, and the flukes +whirled for a moment like a great fan just above the harpooner's head. +One glance up was enough to show him that certain death was descending. +In an instant he dived over the side and disappeared. Next moment the +flukes came down on the part of the boat he had just left, and cut it +clean off; the other part was driven into the waves, and the men were +left swimming in the water. They were all picked up, however, by +another boat that was in company, and the harpooner was recovered with +the rest. His quick dive had been the saving of his life. + +I had not much time given me to study the appearance of this whale +before the order was given to "hoist away!" so we went to work with a +will. The first part that came up was the huge lip, fastened to a +large iron hook, called the blubber hook. It was lowered into the +blubber-room between decks, where a couple of men were stationed to +stow the blubber away. Then came the fins, and after them the upper +jaw, with the whalebone attached to it. The "right" whale has no teeth +like the sperm whale. In place of teeth it has the well-known +substance called whalebone, which grows from the roof of its mouth in a +number of broad thin plates, extending from the back of the head to the +snout. The lower edges of these plates of whalebone are split into +thousands of hairs like bristles, so that the inside roof of a whale's +mouth resembles an enormous blacking brush! The object of this curious +arrangement is to enable the whale to catch the little shrimps and +small sea-blubbers, called "medusa;", on which it feeds. I have spoken +before of these last as being the little creatures that gave out such a +beautiful pale-blue light at night. The whale feeds on them. When he +desires a meal he opens his great mouth and rushes into the midst of a +shoal of medusae; the little things get entangled in thousands among +the hairy ends of the whalebone, and when the monster has got a large +enough mouthful, he shuts his lower jaw and swallows what his net has +caught. + +The wisdom as well as the necessity of this arrangement is very plain. +Of course, while dashing through the sea in this fashion, with his +mouth agape, the whale must keep his throat closed, else the water +would rush down it and choke him. Shutting his throat then, as he +does, the water is obliged to flow out of his mouth as fast as it flows +in; it is also spouted up through his blowholes, and this with such +violence that many of the little creatures would be swept out along +with it but for the hairy-ended whalebone which lets the sea-water out, +but keeps the medusae in. + +Well, let us return to our "cutting in". After the upper jaw came the +lower jaw and throat, with the tongue. This last was an enormous mass +of fat, about as large as an ox, and it weighed fifteen hundred or two +thousand pounds. After this was got in, the rest of the work was +simple. The blubber of the body was peeled off in great strips, +beginning at the neck and being cut spirally towards the tail. It was +hoisted on board by the blocks, the captain and mates cutting, and the +men at the windlass hoisting, and the carcass slowly turning round +until we got an unbroken piece of blubber, reaching from the water to +nearly as high as the mainyard-arm. This mass was nearly a foot thick, +and it looked like fat pork. It was cut off close to the deck, and +lowered into the blubber-room, where the two men stationed there +attacked it with knives, cut it into smaller pieces, and stowed it +away. Then another piece was hoisted on board in the same fashion, and +so on we went till every bit of blubber was cut off; and I heard the +captain remark to the mate when the work was done, that the fish was a +good fat one, and he wouldn't wonder if it turned out to be worth 300 +pounds. + +Now, when this process was going on, a new point of interest arose +which I had not thought of before, although my messmate, Tom Lokins, +had often spoken of it on the voyage out. This was the arrival of +great numbers of sea-birds. + +Tom had often told me of the birds that always keep company with +whalers; but I had forgotten all about it until I saw an enormous +albatross come sailing majestically through the air towards us. This +was the largest bird I ever saw, and no wonder, for it is the largest +bird that flies. Soon after that, another arrived, and although we +were more than a thousand miles from any shore, we were speedily +scented out and surrounded by hosts of gonies, stinkards, haglets, +gulls, pigeons, petrels, and other sea-birds, which commenced to feed +on pieces of the whale's carcass with the most savage gluttony. These +birds were dreadfully greedy. They had stuffed themselves so full in +the course of a short time, that they flew heavily and with great +difficulty. No doubt they would have to take three or four days to +digest that meal! + +Sharks, too, came to get their share of what was going. But these +savage monsters did not content themselves with what was thrown away; +they were so bold as to come before our faces and take bites out of the +whale's body. Some of these sharks were eight and nine feet long, and +when I saw them open their horrid jaws, armed with three rows of +glistening white sharp teeth, I could well understand how easily they +could bite off the leg of a man, as they often do when they get the +chance. Sometimes they would come right up on the whale's body with a +wave, bite out great pieces of the flesh, turn over on their bellies, +and roll off. + +While I was looking over the side during the early part of that day, I +saw a very large shark come rolling up in this way close to Tom +Lokins's legs. Tom made a cut at him with his blubber-spade, but the +shark rolled off in time to escape the blow. And after all it would +not have done him much damage, for it is not easy to frighten or take +the life out of a shark. + +"Hand me an iron and line, Bob," said Tom, looking up at me. "I've got +a spite agin that feller. He's been up twice already. Ah! hand it +down here, and two or three of ye stand by to hold on by the line. +There he comes, the big villain!" + +The shark came close to the side of the whale at that moment, and Tom +sent the harpoon right down his throat. + +"Hold on hard," shouted Tom. + +"Aye, aye," replied several of the men as they held on to the line, +their arms jerking violently as the savage fish tried to free itself. +We quickly reeved a line through a block at the fore yard-arm, and +hauled it on deck with much difficulty. The scene that followed was +very horrible, for there was no killing the brute. It threshed the +deck with its tail, and snapped so fiercely with its tremendous jaws, +that we had to keep a sharp look-out lest it should catch hold of a +leg. At last its tail was cut off, the body cut open, and all the +entrails' taken out, yet even after this it continued to flap and +thresh about the deck for some time, and the heart continued to +contract for twenty minutes after it was taken out and pierced with a +knife. + +I would not have believed this had I not seen it with my own eyes. In +case some of my readers may doubt its truth, I would remind them how +difficult it is to kill some of those creatures with which we are all +familiar. The common worm, for instance, may be cut into a number of +small pieces, and yet each piece remains alive for some time after. + +The skin of the shark is valued by the whalemen, because, when cleaned +and dry, it is as good as sand-paper, and is much used in polishing the +various things they make out of whales' bones and teeth. + +When the last piece of blubber had been cut off our whale, the great +chain that held it to the ship's side was cast off, and the now useless +carcass sank like a stone, much to the sorrow of some of the smaller +birds, which, having been driven away by their bigger comrades, had not +fed so heartily as they wished perhaps! But what was loss to the gulls +was gain to the sharks, which could follow the carcass down into the +deep and devour it at their leisure. + +"Now, lads," cried the mate, when the remains had vanished, "rouse up +the fires, look alive, my hearties!" + +"Aye, aye, sir," was the ready reply, cheerfully given, as every man +sprang to his appointed duty. + +And so, having "cut in" our whale, we next proceeded to "try out" the +oil. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A STORM, A MAN OVERBOARD, AND A RESCUE + +The scenes in a whaleman's life are varied and very stirring. +Sometimes he is floating on the calm ocean, idling about the deck and +whistling for a breeze, when all of a sudden the loud cry is heard, +"There she blows!" and in a moment the boats are in the water, and he +is engaged in all the toils of an exciting chase. Then comes the +battle with the great leviathan of the deep, with all its risks and +dangers. Sometimes he is unfortunate, the decks are clean, he has +nothing to do. At other times he is lucky, "cutting in" and "trying +out" engage all his energies and attention. Frequently storms toss him +on the angry deep, and show him, if he will but learn the lesson, how +helpless a creature he is, and how thoroughly dependent at all times +for life, safety, and success, upon the arm of God. + +"Trying out" the oil, although not so thrilling a scene as many a one +in his career, is, nevertheless, extremely interesting, especially at +night, when the glare of the fires in the try-works casts a deep-red +glow on the faces of the men, on the masts and sails, and even out upon +the sea. + +The try-works consisted of two huge melting-pots fixed upon brick-work +fireplaces between the fore and main masts. While some of the men were +down in the blubber-room cutting the "blanket-pieces", as the largest +masses are called, others were pitching the smaller pieces on deck, +where they were seized by two men who stood near a block of wood, +called a "horse", with a mincing knife, to slash the junks so as to +make them melt easily. These were then thrown into the melting-pots by +one of the mates, who kept feeding the fires with such "scraps" of +blubber as remain after the oil is taken out. Once the fires were +fairly set agoing no other kind of fuel was required than "scraps" of +blubber. As the boiling oil rose it was baled into copper +cooling-tanks. It was the duty of two other men to dip it out of these +tanks into casks, which were then headed up by our cooper, and stowed +away in the hold. + +As the night advanced the fires became redder and brighter by contrast, +the light shone and glittered on the bloody decks, and, as we plied our +dirty work, I could not help thinking, "what would my mother say, if +she could get a peep at me now?" + +The ship's crew worked and slept by watches, for the fires were not +allowed to go out all night. About midnight I sat down on the windlass +to take a short rest, and began talking to one of the men, Fred Borders +by name. He was one of the quietest and most active men in the ship, +and, being quite a young man, not more than nineteen, he and I drew to +one another, and became very intimate. + +"I think we're goin' to have a breeze, Bob," said he, as a sharp puff +of wind crossed the deck, driving the black smoke to leeward, and +making the fire flare up in the try-works. + +"I hope it won't be a storm, then," said I, "for it will oblige us to +put out the fires." + +Just then Tom Lokins came up, ordered Fred to go and attend to the +fires, sat down opposite to me on the windlass, and began to "lay down +the law" in regard to storms. + +"You see, Bob Ledbury," said he, beginning to fill his pipe, "young +fellers like you don't know nothin' about the weather--'cause why? +you've got no experience. Now, I'll put you up to a dodge consarning +this very thing." + +I never found out what was the dodge that Tom, in his wisdom, was to +have put me up to, for at that moment the captain came on deck, and +gave orders to furl the top-gallant sails. + +Three or four of us ran up the rigging like monkeys, and in a few +minutes the sails were lashed to the yards. + +The wind now began to blow steadily from the nor'-west; but not so hard +as to stop our tryworks for more than an hour. After that it blew +stiff enough to raise a heavy sea, and we were compelled to slack the +fires. This was all the harm it did to us, however, for although the +breeze was stiffish, it was nothing like a gale. + +As the captain and the first mate walked the quarter-deck together, I +heard the former say to the latter, "I think we had as well take in a +reef in the topsails. All hereabouts the fishing-ground is good, we +don't need to carry on." + +The order was given to reduce sail, and the men lay out on the topsail +yards. I noticed that my friend Fred Borders was the first man to +spring up the shrouds and lay out on the main-topsail yard. It was so +dark that I could scarcely see the masts. While I was gazing up, I +thought I observed a dark object drop from the yard; at the same moment +there was a loud shriek, followed by a plunge in the sea. This was +succeeded by the sudden cry, "man overboard!" and instantly the whole +ship was in an uproar. + +No one who has not heard that cry can understand the dreadful feelings +that are raised in the human breast by it. My heart at first seemed to +leap into my mouth and almost choke me. Then a terrible fear, which I +cannot describe, shot through me, when I thought it might be my comrade +Fred Borders. But these thoughts and feelings passed like +lightning--in a far shorter time than it takes to write them down. The +shriek was still ringing in my ears when the captain roared-- + +"Down your helm! stand by to lower away the boats." + +At the same moment he seized a light hen-coop and tossed it overboard, +and the mate did the same with an oar in the twinkling of an eye. +Almost without knowing what I did, or why I did it, I seized a great +mass of oakum and rubbish that lay on the deck saturated with oil, I +thrust it into the embers of the fire in the try-works, and hurled it +blazing into the sea. + +[Illustration: "HURLED IT BLAZING INTO THE SEA"] + +The ship's head was thrown into the wind, and we were brought to as +quickly as possible. A gleam of hope arose within me on observing that +the mass I had thrown overboard continued still to burn; but when I saw +how quickly it went astern, notwithstanding our vigorous efforts to +stop the ship, my heart began to sink, and when, a few moments after, +the light suddenly disappeared, despair seized upon me, and I gave my +friend up for lost. + +At that moment, strange to say, thoughts of my mother came into my +mind, I remembered her words, "Call upon the Lord, my dear boy, when +you are in trouble." Although I had given but little heed to prayer, +or to my Maker, up to that time, I did pray, then and there, most +earnestly that my messmate might be saved. I cannot say that I had +much hope that my prayer would be answered--indeed I think I had +none,--still, the mere act of crying in my distress to the Almighty +afforded me a little relief, and it was with a good deal of energy that +I threw myself into the first boat that was lowered, and pulled at the +oar as if my own life depended on it. + +A lantern had been fastened to the end of an oar and set up in the +boat, and by its faint light I could see that the men looked very +grave. Tom Lokins was steering, and I sat near him, pulling the aft +oar. + +"Do you think we've any chance, Tom?" said I. + +A shake of the head was his only reply. + +"It must have been here away," said the mate, who stood up in the bow +with a coil of rope at his feet, and a boat-hook in his hand. "Hold +on, lads, did anyone hear a cry?" + +No one answered. We all ceased pulling, and listened intently; but the +noise of the waves and the whistling of the winds were all the sounds +we heard. + +"What's that floating on the water?" said one of the men, suddenly. + +"Where away?" cried everyone eagerly. + +"Right off the lee-bow--there, don't you see it?" + +At that moment a faint cry came floating over the black water, and died +away in the breeze. + +The single word "Hurrah!" burst from our throats with all the power of +our lungs, and we bent to our oars till we wellnigh tore the rollicks +out of the boat. + +"Hold hard! stern all!" roared the mate, as we went flying down to +leeward, and almost ran over the hen-coop, to which a human form was +seen to be clinging with the tenacity of a drowning man. We had swept +down so quickly, that we shot past it. In an agony of fear lest my +friend should be again lost in the darkness, I leaped up and sprang +into the sea. Tom Lokins, however, had noticed what I was about; he +seized me by the collar of my jacket just as I reached the water, and +held me with a grip like a vice till one of the men came to his +assistance, and dragged me back into the boat. In a few moments more +we reached the hen-coop, and Fred was saved! + +He was half dead with cold and exhaustion, poor fellow, but in a few +minutes he began to recover, and before we reached the ship he could +speak. His first words were to thank God for his deliverance. Then he +added: + +"And, thanks to the man that flung that light overboard. I should have +gone down but for that. It showed me where the hen-coop was." + +I cannot describe the feeling of joy that filled my heart when he said +this. + +"Aye, who wos it that throw'd that fire overboard?" enquired one of the +men. + +"Don't know," replied another, "I think it wos the cap'n." + +"You'll find that out when we get aboard," cried the mate; "pull away, +lads." + +In five minutes Fred Borders was passed up the side and taken down +below. In two minutes more we had him stripped naked, rubbed dry, +wrapped in hot blankets, and set down on one of the lockers, with a hot +brick at his feet, and a stiff can of hot rum and water in his hand. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE WHALE--FIGHTING BULLS, ETC. + +As the reader may, perhaps, have been asking a few questions about the +whale in his own mind, I shall try to answer them, by telling a few +things concerning that creature which, I think, are worth knowing. + +In the first place, the whale is not a fish! I have applied that name +to it, no doubt, because it is the custom to do so; but there are great +differences between the whales and the fishes. The mere fact that the +whale lives in water is not sufficient to prove it to be a fish. The +frog lives very much in water--he is born in the water, and, when very +young, he lives in it altogether--would die, in fact, if he were taken +out of it; yet a frog is not a fish. + +The following are some of the differences existing between a whale and +a fish:--The whale is a warm-blooded animal; the fish is cold-blooded. +The whale brings forth its young alive; while most fishes lay eggs or +spawn. Moreover, the fish lives entirely under water, but the whale +cannot do so. He breathes air through enormous lungs, not gills. If +you were to hold a whale's head under water for much longer than an +hour, it would certainly be drowned; and this is the reason why it +comes so frequently to the surface of the sea to take breath. Whales +seldom stay more than an hour under water, and when they come up to +breathe, they discharge the last breath they took through their +nostrils or blowholes, mixed with large quantities of water which they +have taken in while feeding. But the most remarkable point of +difference between the whale and fishes of all kinds is, that it +suckles its young. + +The calf of one kind of whale is about fourteen feet long when it is +born, and it weighs about a ton. The cow-whale usually brings forth +only one calf at a time, and the manner in which she behaves to her +gigantic baby shows that she is affected by feelings of anxiety and +affection such as are never seen in fishes, which heartless creatures +forsake their eggs when they are laid, and I am pretty sure they would +not know their own children if they happened to meet with them. + +The whale, on the contrary, takes care of her little one, gives it +suck, and sports playfully with it in the waves; its enormous heart +throbbing all the while, no doubt, with satisfaction. + +I have heard of a whale which was once driven into shoal water with its +calf and nearly stranded. The huge dam seemed to become anxious for +the safety of her child, for she was seen to swim eagerly round it, +embrace it with her fins, and roll it over in the waves, trying to make +it follow her into deep water. But the calf was obstinate; it would +not go, and the result was that the boat of a whaler pulled up and +harpooned it. The poor little whale darted away like lightning on +receiving the terrible iron, and ran out a hundred fathoms of line; but +it was soon overhauled and killed. All this time the dam kept close to +the side of its calf, and not until a harpoon was plunged into her own +side would she move away. Two boats were after her. With a single rap +of her tail she cut one of the boats in two, and then darted off. But +in a short time she turned and came back. Her feelings of anxiety had +returned, no doubt, after the first sting of pain was over, and she +died at last close to the side of her young one. + +There are various kinds of whales, but the two sorts that are most +sought after are the common whale of the Greenland Seas, which is +called the "right whale", and the sperm whale of the South Sea. Both +kinds are found in the south; but the sperm whale never goes to the +North Seas. Both kinds grow to an enormous size--sometimes to seventy +feet in length, but there is considerable difference in their +appearance, especially about the head. In a former chapter I have +partly described the head of a _right_ whale, which has whalebone +instead of teeth, with its blowholes on the back of the head. The +sperm whale has large white teeth in its lower jaw and none at all in +the upper. It has only one blowhole, and that a little one, much +farther forward on its head, so that sailors can tell, at a great +distance, what kind of whales they see simply by their manner of +spouting. + +The most remarkable feature about the sperm whale is the bluntness of +its clumsy head, which looks somewhat like a big log with the end sawn +square off, and this head is about one-third of its entire body. + +The sperm whale feeds differently from the right whale. He seizes his +prey with his powerful teeth, and lives, to a great extent, on large +cuttle-fish. Some of them have been seen to vomit lumps of these +cuttle-fish as long as a whale-boat. He is much fiercer, too, than the +right whale, which almost always takes to flight when struck, but the +sperm whale will sometimes turn on its foes and smash their boat with a +blow of his blunt head or tail. + +Fighting-whales, as they are called, are not uncommon. These are +generally old bulls, which have become wise from experience, and give +the whalers great trouble--sometimes carrying away several harpoons and +lines. The lower jaw of one old bull of this kind was found to be +sixteen feet long, and it had forty-eight teeth, some of them a foot +long. A number of scars about his head showed that this fellow had +been in the wars. When two bull-whales take to fighting, their great +effort is to catch each other by the lower jaw, and, when locked +together, they struggle with a degree of fury that cannot be described. + +It is not often that the sperm whale actually attacks a ship; but there +are a few cases of this kind which cannot be doubted. The following +story is certainly true; and while it shows how powerful a creature the +whale is, it also shows what terrible risk and sufferings the whaleman +has frequently to encounter. + +In the month of August, 1819, the American whaleship _Essex_ sailed +from Nantucket for the Pacific Ocean. She was commanded by Captain +Pollard. Late in the autumn of the same year, when in latitude 40 +degrees of the South Pacific, a shoal, or "school", of sperm whales was +discovered, and three boats were immediately lowered and sent in +pursuit. The mate's boat was struck by one of the fish during the +chase, and it was found necessary to return to the ship to repair +damages. + +While the men were employed at this, an enormous whale suddenly rose +quite close to the ship. He was going at nearly the same rate with the +ship--about three miles an hour; and the men, who were good judges of +the size of whales, thought that it could not have been less than +eighty-five feet long. All at once he ran against the ship, striking +her bows, and causing her to tremble like a leaf. The whale +immediately dived and passed under the ship, and grazed her keel in +doing so. This evidently hurt his back, for he suddenly rose to the +surface about fifty yards off, and commenced lashing the sea with his +tail and fins as if suffering great agony. It was truly an awful sight +to behold that great monster lashing the sea into foam at so short a +distance. + +In a short time he seemed to recover, and started off at great speed to +windward. Meanwhile the men discovered that the blow received by the +ship had done her so much damage, that she began to fill and settle +down at the bows; so they rigged the pumps as quickly as possible. +While working them one of the men cried out: + +"God have mercy! he comes again!" + +This was too true. The whale had turned, and was now bearing down on +them at full speed, leaving a white track of foam behind him. Rushing +at the ship like a battering-ram, he hit her fair on the weather bow +and stove it in, after which he dived and disappeared. The horrified +men took to their boats at once, and in _ten minutes_ the ship went +down. + +The condition of the men thus left in three open boats far out upon the +sea, without provisions or shelter, was terrible indeed. Some of them +perished, and the rest, after suffering the severest hardships, reached +a low island called Ducies on the 20th of December. It was a mere +sand-bank, which supplied them only with water and sea-fowl. Still +even this was a mercy, for which they had reason to thank God; for in +cases of this kind one of the evils that seamen have most cause to +dread is the want of water. + +Three of the men resolved to remain on this sand-bank, for dreary and +uninhabited though it was, they preferred to take their chance of being +picked up by a passing ship rather than run the risks of crossing the +wide ocean in open boats, so their companions bade them a sorrowful +farewell, and left them. But this island is far out of the usual track +of ships. The poor fellows have never since been heard of. + +It was the 27th of December when the three boats left the sand-bank +with the remainder of the men, and began a voyage of two thousand +miles, towards the island of Juan Fernandez. The mate's boat was +picked up, about three months after, by the ship _Indian_ of London, +with only three living men in it. About the same time the captain's +boat was discovered, by the _Dauphin_ of Nantucket, with only two men +living; and these unhappy beings had only sustained life by feeding on +the flesh of their dead comrades. The third boat must have been lost, +for it was never heard of; and out of the whole crew of twenty men, +only five returned home to tell their eventful story. + +Before resuming the thread of my narrative, I must not omit to mention, +that in the head of the sperm whale there is a large cavity or hole +called the "case", which contains pure oil that does not require to be +melted, but can be baled at once into casks and stowed away. This is +the valuable spermaceti from which the finest candles are made. One +whale will sometimes yield fifteen barrels of spermaceti oil from the +"case" of its head. A large fish will produce from eighty to a hundred +barrels of oil altogether, sometimes much more; and when whalemen +converse with each other about the size of whales, they speak of +"eighty-barrel fish", and so on. + +Although I have written much about the fighting powers of the sperm +whale, it must not be supposed that whales are by nature fond of +fighting. On the contrary, the "right" whale is a timid creature, and +never shows fight except in defence of its young. And the sperm whale +generally takes to flight when pursued. In fact, most of the accidents +that happen to whalemen occur when the wounded monster is lashing the +water in blind terror and agony. + +The whale has three bitter enemies, much smaller, but much bolder than +himself, and of these he is terribly afraid. They are: the swordfish, +the thrasher, and the killer. The first of these, the sword-fish, has +a strong straight horn or sword projecting from his snout, with which +he boldly attacks and pierces the whale. The thrasher is a strong +fish, twenty feet long, and of great weight. Its method of attack is +to leap out of the water on the whale's back, and deal it a tremendous +blow with its powerful tail. + +The sword-fish and thrasher sometimes act together in the attack; the +first stabbing him below, and the second belabouring him above, while +the whale, unable, or too frightened to fight, rushes through the +water, and even leaps its whole gigantic length into the air in its +endeavours to escape. When a whale thus leaps his whole length out of +the water, the sailors say he "breaches", and breaching is a common +practice. They seem to do it often for amusement as well as from +terror. + +But the most deadly of the three enemies is the killer. This is itself +a kind of small whale, but it is wonderfully strong, swift, and bold. +When one of the killers gets into the middle of a school of whales, the +frightened creatures are seen flying in all directions. His mode of +attack is to seize his big enemy by the jaw, and hold on until he is +exhausted and dies. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +TOM'S WISDOM--ANOTHER GREAT BATTLE + +One day I was standing beside the windlass, listening to the +conversation of five or six of the men, who were busy sharpening +harpoons and cutting-knives, or making all kinds of toys and things out +of whales' bones. We had just finished cutting in and trying out our +third whale, and as it was not long since we reached the +fishing-ground, we were in high hopes of making a good thing of it that +season; so that everyone was in good spirits, from the captain down to +the youngest man in the ship. + +Tom Lokins was smoking his pipe, and Tom's pipe was an uncommonly black +one, for he smoked it very often. Moreover, Tom's pipe was uncommonly +short, so short that I always wondered how he escaped burning the end +of his nose. Indeed, some of the men said that the redness of the end +of Tom's nose was owing to its being baked like a brick by the heat of +his pipe. Tom took this pipe from his mouth, and while he was pushing +down the tobacco with the end of his little finger, he said: + +"D'ye know, lads, I've been thinkin'----" + +"No, have ye?" cried one of the men, interrupting him with a look of +pretended surprise. "Well now, I do think, messmates, that we should +ax the mate to make a note o' that in the log, for it's not often that +Tom Lokins takes to thinkin'." + +There was a laugh at this, but Tom, turning with a look of contempt to +the man who interrupted him, replied: + +"I'll tell you wot it is, Bill Blunt, if all the thoughts that _you_ +think, and especially the jokes that you utter, wos put down in the +log, they'd be so heavy that I do believe they would sink the ship!" + +"Well, well," cried Bill, joining in the laugh against himself, "if +they did, _your_ jokes would be so light and triflin' that I do believe +they'd float her again. But what have you been a-thinkin' of, Tom?" + +"I've been thinkin'," said Tom slowly, "that if a whale makes his +breakfast entirely off them little things that you can hardly see when +you get 'em into a tumbler--I forget how the captain calls 'em--wot a +_tree-mendous_ heap of 'em he must eat in the course of a year!" + +"Thousands of 'em, I suppose," said one of the men. + +"Thousands!" cried Tom, "I should rather say billions of them." + +"How much is billions, mate?" enquired Bill. + +"I don't know," answered Tom. "Never could find out. You see it's +heaps upon heaps of thousands, for the thousands come first and the +billions afterwards; but when I've thought uncommon hard, for a long +spell at a time, I always get confused, because millions comes in +between, d'ye see, and that's puzzlin'." + +"I think I could give you some notion about these things," said Fred +Borders, who had been quietly listening all the time, but never putting +in a word, for, as I have said, Fred was a modest bashful man and +seldom spoke much. But we had all come to notice that when Fred spoke, +he had always something to say worth hearing; and when he did speak he +spoke out boldly enough. We had come to have feelings of respect for +our young shipmate, for he was a kind-hearted lad, and we saw by his +conversation that he had been better educated than the most of us, so +all our tongues stopped as the eyes of the party turned on him. + +"Come, Fred, let's hear it then," said Tom. + +"It's not much I have to tell," began Fred, "but it may help to make +your minds clearer on this subject. On my first voyage to the whale +fishery (you know, lads, this is my second voyage) I went to the +Greenland Seas. We had a young doctor aboard with us--quite a youth; +indeed he had not finished his studies at college, but he was cleverer, +for all that, than many an older man that had gone through his whole +course. I do believe that the reason of his being so clever was, that +he was for ever observing things, and studying them, and making notes, +and trying to find out reasons. He was never satisfied with knowing a +thing; he must always find out _why_ it was. One day I heard him ask +the captain what it was that made the sea so green in some parts of +those seas. Our captain was an awfully stupid man. So long as he got +plenty oil he didn't care two straws for the reason of anything. The +young doctor had been bothering him that morning with a good many +questions, so when he asked him what made the sea green, he answered +sharply, 'I suppose it makes itself green, young man,' and then he +turned from him with a fling. + +"The doctor laughed, and came forward among the men, and began to tell +us stories and ask questions. Ah! he was a real hearty fellow; he +would tell you all kinds of queer things, and would pump you dry of all +you knew in no time. Well, but the thing I was going to tell you was +this. One of the men said to him he had heard that the greenness of +the Greenland Sea was caused by the little things like small bits of +jelly on which the whales feed. As soon as he heard this he got a +bucket and hauled some sea-water aboard, and for the next ten days he +was never done working away with the sea-water; pouring it into +tumblers and glasses; looking through it by daylight and by lamplight; +tasting it, and boiling it, and examining it with a microscope." + +"What's a microscope?" enquired one of the men. + +"Don't you know?" said Tom Lokins, "why, it's a glass that makes little +things seem big, when ye look through it. I've heerd that say beasts +that are so uncommon small you that can't see them at all are made to +come into sight and look quite big by means o' this glass. But I can't +myself say that it's true." + +"But I can," said Fred, "for I have seen it with my own eyes. Well, +after a good while, I made bold to ask the young doctor what he had +found out. + +"'I've found,' said he, 'that the greenness of these seas is in truth +caused by uncountable numbers of medusae----'" + +"Ha! that's the word," shouted Tom Lokins, "Medoosy, that's wot the +captain calls 'em. Heave ahead, Fred." + +"Well then," continued Fred, "the young doctor went on to tell me that +he had been counting the matter to himself very carefully, and he found +that in every square mile of sea-water there were living about eleven +quadrillions, nine hundred and ninety-nine trillions of these little +creatures!" + +"Oh! hallo! come now!" we all cried, opening our eyes very wide indeed. + +"But, I say, how much is that?" enquired Tom Lokins. + +"Ah! that's just what I said to the young doctor, and he said to me, +'I'll tell you what, Fred Borders, no man alive understands how much +that is, and what's more, no man ever will; but I'll give you _some +notion_ of what it means'; and so he told me how long it would take +forty thousand men to count that number of eleven quadrillions, nine +hundred and ninety-nine trillions, each man of the forty thousand +beginning 'one ', 'two', 'three', and going on till the sum of the +whole added together would make it up. Now, how long d'ye think it +would take them?--guess." + +Fred Borders smiled as he said this, and looked round the circle of men. + +"I know," cried one; "it would take the whole forty thousand _a week_ +to do it." + +"Oh! nonsense, they could do it easy in two days," said another. + +"That shows how little you know about big numbers," observed Tom +Lokins, knocking the ashes out of his pipe. "I'm pretty sure it +couldn't be done in much less than six months; workin' hard all day, +and makin' allowance for only one hour off for dinner." + +"You're all wrong, shipmates," said Fred Borders. "That young doctor +told me that if they'd begun work at the day of creation they would +only have just finished the job last year!" + +"Oh! gammon, you're jokin'," cried Bill Blunt. + +"No, I'm not," said Fred, "for I was told afterwards by an old +clergyman that the young doctor was quite right, and that anyone who +was good at 'rithmetic could work the thing out for himself in less +than half an hour." + +Just as Fred said this there came a loud cry from the mast-head that +made us all spring to our feet like lightning. + +"There she blows! There she breaches!" + +The captain was on deck in a moment. + +"Where away?" he cried. + +"On the lee beam, sir. Sperm whale, about two miles off. There she +blows!" + +Every man was at his station in a moment; for, after being some months +out, we became so used to the work, that we acted together like a piece +of machinery. But our excitement never abated in the least. + +"Sing out when the ship heads for her." + +"Aye, aye, sir." + +"Keep her away!" said the captain to the man at the helm. "Bob +Ledbury, hand me the spy-glass." + +"Steady," from the mast-head. + +"Steady it is," answered the man at the helm. + +While we were all looking eagerly out ahead we heard a thundering snore +behind us, followed by a heavy splash. Turning quickly round, we saw +the flukes of an enormous whale sweeping through the air not more than +six hundred yards astern of us. + +"Down your helm," roared the captain; "haul up the mainsail, and square +the yards. Call all hands." + +"All hands, ahoy!" roared Bill Blunt, in a voice of thunder, and in +another moment every man in the ship was on deck. + +"Hoist and swing the boats," cried the captain. "Lower away." + +Down went the boats into the water; the men were into their places +almost before you could wink, and we pulled away from the ship just as +the whale rose the second time, about half a mile away to leeward. + +From the appearance of this whale we felt certain that it was one of +the largest we had yet seen, so we pulled after it with right good +will. I occupied my usual place in the captain's boat, next the bow +oar, just beside Tom Lokins, who was ready with his harpoons in the +bow. Young Borders pulled the oar directly in front of me. The +captain himself steered, and, as our crew was a picked one, we soon +left the other two boats behind us. + +Presently a small whale rose close beside us, and, sending a shower of +spray over the boat, went down in a pool of foam. Before we had time +to speak, another whale rose on the opposite side of the boat, and then +another on our starboard bow. We had got into the middle of a shoal of +whales, which commenced leaping and spouting all round us, little aware +of the dangerous enemy that was so near. + +In a few minutes more up comes the big one again that we had first +seen. He seemed very active and wild. After blowing on the surface +once or twice, about a quarter of a mile off, he peaked his flukes, and +pitched down head foremost. + +"Now then, lads, he's down for a long dive," said the captain; "spring +your oars like men, we'll get that fish for certain, if you'll only +pull." + +The captain was mistaken; the whale had only gone down deep in order to +come up and breach, or spring out of the water, for the next minute he +came up not a hundred yards from us, and leaped his whole length into +the air. + +A shout of surprise broke from the men, and no wonder, for this was the +largest fish I ever saw or heard of, and he came up so clear of the +water that we could see him from head to tail as he turned over in the +air, exposing his white belly to view, and came down on his great side +with a crash like thunder, that might have been heard six miles off. A +splendid mass of pure white spray burst from the spot where he fell, +and in another moment he was gone. + +"I do believe it's _New Zealand Tom_," cried Bill Blunt, referring to +an old bull whale that had become famous among the men who frequented +these seas for its immense size and fierceness, and for the great +trouble it had given them, smashing some of their boats, and carrying +away many of their harpoons. + +"I don't know whether it's New Zealand Tom or not," said the captain, +"but it's pretty clear that he's an old sperm bull. Give way, lads, we +must get that whale whatever it should cost us." + +We did not need a second bidding; the size of the fish was so great +that we felt more excited than we had yet been during the voyage, so we +bent our oars till we almost pulled the boat out of the water. The +other boats had got separated, chasing the little whales, so we had +this one all to ourselves. + +"There she blows!" said Tom Lokins, in a low voice, as the fish came up +a short distance astern of us. + +We had overshot our mark, so, turning about, we made for the whale, +which kept for a considerable time near the top of the water, spouting +now and then, and going slowly to windward. We at last got within a +few feet of the monster, and the captain suddenly gave the word, "Stand +up." + +This was to our harpooner, Tom Lokins, who jumped up on the instant, +and buried two harpoons deep in the blubber. + +"Stern all!" was the next word, and we backed off with all our might. +It was just in time, for, in his agony, the whale tossed his tail right +over our heads, the flukes were so big that they could have completely +covered the boat, and he brought them down flat on the sea with a clap +that made our ears tingle, while a shower of spray drenched us to the +skin. For one moment I thought it was all over with us, but we were +soon out of immediate danger, and lay on our oars watching the +writhings of the wounded monster as he lashed the ocean into foam. The +water all round us soon became white like milk, and the foam near the +whale was red with blood. + +Suddenly this ceased, and, before we could pull up to lance him, he +went down, taking the line out at such a rate that the boat spun round, +and sparks of fire flew from the loggerhead from the chafing of the +rope. + +"Hold on!" cried the captain, and next moment we were tearing over the +sea at a fearful rate, with a bank of white foam rolling before us, +high above our bows, and away on each side of us like the track of a +steamer, so that we expected it every moment to rush inboard and swamp +us. I had never seen anything like this before. From the first I had +a kind of feeling that some evil would befall us. + +While we were tearing over the water in this way, we saw the other +whales coming up every now and then and blowing quite near to us, and +presently we passed close enough to the first mate's boat to see that +he was fast to a fish, and unable, therefore, to render us help if we +should need it. + +In a short time the line began to slack, so we hauled it in hand over +hand, and Tom Lokins coiled it away in the tub in the stern of the +boat, while the captain took his place in the bow to be ready with the +lance. The whale soon came up, and we pulled with all our might +towards him. Instead of making off again, however, he turned round and +made straight at the boat. I now thought that destruction was certain, +for, when I saw his great blunt forehead coming down on us like a +steamboat, I felt that we could not escape. I was mistaken. The +captain received him on the point of his lance, and the whale has such +a dislike to pain, that even a small prick will sometimes turn him. + +For some time we kept dodging round this fellow; but he was so old and +wise, that he always turned his head to us, and prevented us from +getting a chance to lance him. At last he turned a little to one side, +and the captain plunged the lance deep into his vitals. + +"Ha! that's touched his life," cried Tom, as a stream of blood flew up +from his blowholes, a sure sign that he was mortally wounded. But he +was not yet conquered. After receiving the cruel stab with the lance, +he pitched right down, head foremost, and once more the line began to +fly out over the bow. We tried to hold on, but he was going so +straight down that the boat was almost swamped, and we had to slack off +to prevent our being pulled under water. + +Before many yards of the line had run out, one of the coils in the tub +became entangled. + +"Look out, lads!" cried Tom, and at once throwing the turn off the +logger-head, he made an attempt to clear it. The captain, in trying to +do the same thing, slipped and fell. Seeing this, I sprang up, and, +grasping the coil as it flew past, tried to clear it. Before I could +think, a turn whipped round my left wrist. I felt a wrench as if my +arm had been torn out of the socket, and in a moment I was overboard, +going down with almost lightning speed into the depths of the sea. +Strange to say, I did not lose my presence of mind. I knew exactly +what had happened. I felt myself rushing down, down, down with +terrific speed; a stream of fire seemed to be whizzing past my eyes; +there was a dreadful pressure on my brain, and a roaring as if of +thunder in my ears. Yet, even in that dread moment, thoughts of +eternity, of my sins, and of meeting with my God, flashed into my mind, +for thought is quicker than the lightning flash. + +[Illustration: "IN A MOMENT I WAS OVERBOARD"] + +Of a sudden the roaring ceased, and I felt myself buffeting the water +fiercely in my efforts to reach the surface. I know not how I got +free, but I suppose the turn of the line must have slackened off +somehow. All this happened within the space of a few brief moments; +but oh! they seemed fearfully long to me. I do not think I could have +held my breath a second longer. + +When I came to the surface, and tried to look about me, I saw the boat +not more than fifty yards off, and, being a good swimmer, I struck out +for it, although I felt terribly exhausted. In a few minutes my +comrades saw me, and, with a cheer, put out the oars and began to row +towards me. I saw that the line was slack, and that they were hauling +it in--a sign that the whale had ceased running and would soon come to +the surface again. Before they had pulled half-a-dozen strokes I saw +the water open close beside the boat, and the monstrous head of the +whale shot up like a great rock rising out of the deep. + +He was not more than three feet from the boat, and he came up with such +force, that more than half his gigantic length came out of the water +right over the boat. I heard the captain's loud cry--"_Stern all!_" +But it was too late, the whole weight of the monster's body fell upon +the boat; there was a crash and a terrible cry, as the whale and boat +went down together. + +For a few moments he continued to lash the sea in his fury, and the +fragments of the boat floated all round him. I thought that every man, +of course, had been killed; but one after another their heads appeared +in the midst of blood and foam, and they struck out for oars and pieces +of the wreck. + +Providentially, the whale, in his tossings, had shot a little away from +the spot, else every man must certainly have been killed. + +A feeling of horror filled my heart, as I beheld all this, and thought +upon my position. Fortunately, I had succeeded in reaching a broken +plank; for my strength was now so much exhausted, that I could not have +kept my head above water any longer without its assistance. Just then +I heard a cheer, and the next time I rose on the swell, I looked +quickly round and saw the mate's boat making for the scene of action as +fast as a stout and willing crew could pull. In a few minutes more I +was clutched by the arm and hauled into it. My comrades were next +rescued, and we thanked God when we found that none were killed, +although one of them had got a leg broken, and another an arm twisted +out of joint. They all, however, seemed to think that my escape was +much more wonderful than theirs; but I cannot say that I agreed with +them in this. + +We now turned our attention to the whale, which had dived again. As it +was now loose, we did not know, of course, where it would come up: so +we lay still awhile. Very soon up he came, not far from us, and as +fierce as ever. + +"Now, lads, we _must_ get that whale," cried the mate; "give way with a +will." + +The order was obeyed. The boat almost leaped over the swell, and, +before long, another harpoon was in the whale's back. + +"Fast again, hurrah!" shouted the mate, "now for the lance." + +He gave the monster two deep stabs while he spoke, and it vomited up +great clots of blood, besides spouting the red stream of life as it +rolled on the sea in its agony, obliging us to keep well out of its way. + +I could not look upon the dying struggles of this enormous fish without +feelings of regret and self-reproach for helping to destroy it. I felt +almost as if I were a murderer, and that the Creator would call me to +account for taking part in the destruction of one of His grandest +living creatures. But the thought passed quickly from my mind as the +whale became more violent and went into its flurry. It began to lash +the sea with such astonishing violence, that all the previous struggles +seemed as nothing. The water all round became white like milk, with +great streaks of red blood running through it, and the sound of the +quick blows of its tail and fins resembled that of dull hollow thunder. +We gazed at this scene in deep silence and with beating hearts. + +All at once the struggles ceased. The great carcass rolled over belly +up, and lay extended on the sea in death. To me it seemed as if a dead +calm had suddenly fallen around us, after a long and furious storm, so +great was the change when that whale at length parted with its huge +life. The silence was suddenly broken by three hearty cheers, and +then, fastening a rope to our prize, we commenced towing it to the +ship, which operation occupied us the greater part of the night, for we +had no fewer than eight miles to pull. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +DEATH ON THE SEA + +The whale which we had taken, as I have related in the last chapter, +was our largest fish of that season. It produced ninety barrels of +oil, and was worth about 500 pounds, so that we did not grieve much +over the loss of our boat. + +But our next loss was of a kind that could not be made up for by oil or +money, for it was the loss of a human life. In the whale-fishery men +must, like soldiers, expect to risk their lives frequently, and they +have too often, alas! to mourn over the loss of a shipmate or friend. +Up to this time our voyage had gone prosperously. We had caught so +many fish that nearly half our cargo was already completed, and if we +should be as lucky the remainder of the voyage, we should be able to +return home to Old England much sooner than we had expected. + +Of course, during all this time we had met with some disappointments, +for I am not describing everything that happened on that voyage. It +would require a much thicker volume than this to tell the half of our +adventures. We lost five or six fish by their sinking before we could +get them made fast to the ship, and one or two bolted so fast that they +broke loose and carried away a number of harpoons and many a fathom of +line. But such misfortunes were what we had to look for. Every whaler +meets with similar changes of luck, and we did not expect to fare +differently from our neighbours. These things did not cause us much +regret beyond the time of their occurrence. But it was far otherwise +with the loss that now befell us. + +It happened on a Sunday forenoon. I was standing close to the +starboard gangway early that morning, looking over the side into the +calm water, for there was not a breath of wind, and talking to the +first mate, who was a gruff, surly man, but a good officer, and kind +enough in his way when everything went smooth with him. But things +don't go very smooth generally in whaling life, so the mate was oftener +gruff than sweet. + +"Bob Ledbury," said he, "have you got your cutting-in gear in order? +I've got a notion that we'll 'raise the oil' this day." + +"All right, sir," said I; "you might shave yourself with the +blubber-spades. That was a good fish we got last, sir, wasn't it?" + +"Pretty good, though I've seen bigger." + +"He gave us a deal of trouble too," said I. + +"Not so much as I've seen others give," said he. "When I was fishing +in the Greenland Seas we made fast to a whale that cost us I don't know +how many hundred dollars." (You must know the first mate was a Yankee, +and he reckoned everything in dollars.) + +"How was that, sir?" asked I. + +"Well, it was something in this fashion. We were floating about in the +North Atlantic one calm, hot day, just something like this, only it was +the afternoon, not the morning. We were doing nothing, and whistling +for a breeze, when, all of a sudden, up comes five or six whales all +round the ship, as if they had spied her from the bottom of the sea, +and had come up to have a squint at her. Of course the boats were +manned at once, and in less than no time we were tearing after them +like all alive. But them whales were pretty wildish, I guess. They +kept us pullin' the best part of five hours before we got a chance at +them. My boat was out of sight of the ship before we made fast to a +regular snorer, a hundred-barreller at the least. The moment he felt +the iron, away he went like the shot out of a gun; but he didn't keep +it up long, for soon after another of our boats came up and made fast. +Well, for some two or three hours we held fast, but could not haul on +to him to use the lance, for the moment we came close up alongside of +his tail he peaked flukes and dived, then up again, and away as fast as +ever. It was about noon before we touched him again; but by that time +two more harpoons were made fast, and two other boats cast tow-lines +aboard of us, and were hauled along. That was four boats, and more +than sixteen hundred fathoms of line, besides four harpoons that was +fast to that whale, and yet, for all that, he went ahead as fast as we +could have rowed, takin' us along with him quite easy. + +"A breeze having sprung up, our ship overhauled us in the course of the +afternoon, and towards evening we sent a line on board, to see if that +would stop the big fish, and the topsails were lowered, so as to throw +some of the ship's weight on him, but the irons drew out with the +strain. However, we determined to try it again. Another line was sent +aboard about eight o'clock, and the topsails were lowered, but the line +snapped immediately. Well, we held on to that whale the whole of that +night, and at four o'clock next morning, just thirty-six hours after he +was first struck, two fast lines were taken aboard the ship. The +breeze was fresh, and against us, so the top-gallant sails were taken +in, the courses hauled up, and the topsails clewed down, yet, I assure +you, that whale towed the ship dead against the wind for an hour and a +half at the rate of two miles an hour, and all the while beating the +water with his fins and tail, so that the sea was in a continual foam. +We did not kill that fish till after forty hours of the hardest work I +ever went through." + +Some of my shipmates seemed to doubt the truth of this story; but, for +my part, I believed it, because the mate was a grave, truthful man, +though he was gruff, and never told lies, as far as I knew. Moreover, +a case of the same kind happened some years afterwards, to a messmate +of mine, while he was serving aboard the _Royal Bounty_, on the 28th of +May, 1817. + +I know that some of the stories which I now tell must seem very wild +and unlikely to landsmen; but those who have been to the whale-fishery +will admit that I tell nothing but the truth, and if there are any of +my readers who are still doubtful, I would say, go and read the works +of Captain Scoresby. It is well known that this whaling captain was a +truly religious man, who gave up the fishing, though it turned him in +plenty of money, and became a minister of the gospel with a small +income, so it is not likely that he would have told what was untrue. +Well, in his works we find stories that are quite as remarkable as the +one I have just told, some of them more so. + +For instance, he tells us of one whale, in the Greenland Seas, which +was not killed till it had drawn out ten thousand four hundred and +forty yards, or about _six miles_ of line, fastened to fifteen +harpoons, besides taking one of the boats entirely under water, which +boat was never seen again. + +The mate told us two or three more stories, and a lot of us were +gathered round him, listening eagerly, for there is nothing Jack likes +so much as a _good yarn_, when all of a sudden, the man at the +mast-head sang out that a large sperm whale was spouting away two +points off the lee-bow. Of course we were at our posts in a moment. + +"There she blows! there she breaches!" sung the look-out. + +"Lower away!" roared the captain. + +The boats were in the water, and the men on their seats in a moment. + +The whale we were after was a very large one, we could see that, for +after two hours' hard pulling we got near enough to throw a harpoon, +and after it was fixed he jumped clean out of the water. Then there +was the usual battle. It was fierce and long; so long that I began to +fear we would have to return empty-handed to the ship. We put ten +harpoons into him, one after another, and had a stiff run between the +fixing of each. + +It is astonishing the difference between the fish. One will give you +no trouble at all. I have often seen a good big fellow killed in half +an hour. Another will take you half a day, and perhaps you may lose +him after all. The whale we were now after at last took to showing +fight. He made two or three runs at the boat, but the mate, who was in +command, pricked him off with the lance cleverly. At last we gave him +a severe wound, and immediately he dived. + +"That was into his life," remarked Tom Lokins, as we sat waiting for +him to come up again. The captain's boat was close to ours, about ten +yards off. We had not to wait long. The sudden stoppage and slacking +off of all the lines showed that the whale was coming up. All at once +I saw a dark object rising directly under the captain's boat. Before I +could make out what it was, almost before I could think, the boat flew +up into the air, as if a powder magazine had exploded beneath it. The +whale had come up, and hit it with his head right on the keel, so that +it was knocked into pieces, and the men, oars, harpoons, lances, and +tackle shot up in confusion into the air. + +Immediately after that the whale went into his flurry, but we paid no +attention to him, in our anxiety to pick up our companions. They all +came to the surface quickly enough, but while some made for the boats +vigorously, others swam slowly and with pain, showing that they were +hurt, while one or two floated, as if dead, upon the water. + +Most of the men had escaped with only a few cuts and bruises, but one +poor fellow was hauled out of the water with a leg broken, and another +was so badly knocked about the head that it was a long time before he +was again fit for duty. The worst case, however, was that of poor Fred +Borders. He had a leg broken, and a severe wound in the side from a +harpoon which had been forced into the flesh over the barbs, so that we +could hardly get it drawn out. We laid him in the stern of the boat, +where he lay for some time insensible; but in a short time he revived, +and spoke to us in a faint voice. His first words were: + +"I'm dying, messmates. It is into my life, too." + +"Don't say that, Fred," said I, while my heart sank within me. "Cheer +up, my boy, you'll live to be the death of many a whale yet. See, put +your lips to this can--it will do you good." + +He shook his head gently, being too weak to reply. + +We had killed a big fish that day, and we knew that when he was "tried +in" we should have completed our cargo; but there was no cheer given +when the monster turned over on his side, and the pull to the ship that +evening seemed to us the longest and heaviest we ever had, for our +hearts were very sad. + +Next day Fred was worse, and we all saw that his words would come +true--he was dying; and before the sun had again set poor Fred had left +us for ever. + +We buried our shipmate in the usual sailor fashion. We wrapped him in +his hammock, with a cannon-ball at his feet to sink him. The captain +read the burial-service at the gangway, and then, in deep silence, we +committed his corpse to the deep. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +NEWS FROM HOME--A GAM + +Shoregoing people have but little notion of the ease with which the +heart of a jack-tar is made to rejoice when he is out on a long voyage. +His pleasures and amusements are so few that he is thankful to make the +most of whatever is thrown in his way. In the whale-fisheries, no +doubt, he has more than enough of excitement, but after a time he gets +used to this, and begins to long for a little variety--and of all the +pleasures that fall to his lot, that which delights him most is to have +a GAM with another ship. + +Now, a gam is the meeting of two or more whale-ships, their keeping +company for a time, and the exchanging of visits by the crews. It is +neither more nor less than a jollification on the sea--the inviting of +your friends to feast and make merry in your floating house. There is +this difference, however, between a gam at sea and a party on land, +that your _friends_ on the ocean are men whom you perhaps never saw +before, and whom you will likely never meet again. There is also +another difference--there are no ladies at a gam. This is a great +want, for man is but a rugged creature when away from the refining +influence of woman; but, in the circumstances, of course, it can't be +helped. + +We had a gam one day, on this voyage, with a Yankee whale-ship, and a +first-rate gam it was, for, as the Yankee had gammed three days before +with another English ship, we got a lot of news second-hand; and, as we +had not seen a new face for many months, we felt towards those Yankees +like brothers, and swallowed all they had to tell us like men starving +for news. + +It was on a fine calm morning, just after breakfast, that we fell in +with this ship. We had seen no whales for a day or two, but we did not +mind that, for our hold was almost full of oil-barrels. Tom Lokins and +I were leaning over the starboard bulwarks, watching the small fish +that every now and then darted through the clear-blue water like +arrows, and smoking our pipes in silence. Tom looked uncommonly grave, +and I knew that he was having some deep and knowing thoughts of his own +which would leak out in time. All at once he took his pipe from his +mouth and stared earnestly at the horizon. + +"Bob," said he, speaking very slowly, "if there ain't a ship right off +the starboard beam, I'm a Dutchman." + +"You don't mean it!" said I, starting with a feeling of excitement. + +Before another word could be uttered, the cry of "Sail ho!" came +ringing down from the mast-head. Instantly the quiet of the morning +was broken; sleepers sprang up and rubbed their eyes, the men below +rushed wildly up the hatchway, the cook came tearing out of his own +private den, flourishing a soup-ladle in one hand and his tormentors in +the other, the steward came tumbling up with a lump of dough in his +fist that he had forgot to throw down in his haste, and the captain +bolted up from the cabin without his hat. + +"Where away?" cried he, with more than his usual energy. + +"Right off the starboard beam, sir." + +"Square the yards! Look alive, my hearties," was the next order; for +although the calm sea was like a sheet of glass, a light air, just +sufficient to fill our top-gallant sails, enabled us to creep through +the water. + +"Hurrah!" shouted the men as we sprang to obey. + +"What does she look like?" roared the captain. + +"A big ship, sir, I think," replied the lookout: "but I can only just +make out the top of her main t-gallan' s'l."--(Sailors scorn to speak +of _top-gallant sails_.) + +Gradually, one by one, the white sails of the stranger rose up like +cloudlets out of the sea, and our hearts beat high with hope and +expectation as we beheld the towering canvas of a full-rigged ship rise +slowly into view. + +"Show our colours," said the captain. + +In a moment the Union Jack of Old England was waving at the mast-head +in the gentle breeze, and we watched anxiously for a reply. The +stranger was polite; his colours flew up a moment after, and displayed +the Stripes and Stars of America. + +"A Yankee!" exclaimed some of the men in a tone of slight +disappointment. + +I may remark, that our disappointment arose simply from the fact that +there was no chance, as we supposed, of getting news from "home" out of +a ship that must have sailed last from America. For the rest, we cared +not whether they were Yankees or Britons--they were men who could speak +the English tongue, that was enough for us. + +"Never mind, boys," cried one, "we'll have a jolly gam; that's a fact." + +"So we will," said another, "and I'll get news of my mad Irish cousin, +Terrence O'Flannagan, who went out to seek his fortin in Ameriky with +two shillin's and a broken knife in his pocket, and it's been said he's +got into a government situation o' some sort connected with the +jails--whether as captain or leftenant o' police, or turnkey, I'm not +rightly sure." + +"More likely as a life-tenant of one of the cells," observed Bill +Blunt, laughing. + +"Don't speak ill of a better man than yerself behind his back," +retorted the owner of the Irish cousin. + +"Stand by to lower the jolly-boat," cried the captain. + +"Aye, aye, sir." + +"Lower away!" + +In a few minutes we were leaping over the calm sea in the direction of +the strange ship, for the breeze had died down, and we were too eager +to meet with new faces, and to hear the sound of new voices, to wait +for the wind. + +To our joy we found that the Yankee had had a gam (as I have already +said) with an English ship a few days before, so we returned to our +vessel loaded with old newspapers from England, having invited the +captain and crew of the Yankee to come aboard of us and spend the day. + +While preparation was being made for the reception of our friends, we +got hold of two of the old newspapers, and Tom Lokins seized one, while +Bill Blunt got the other, and both men sat down on the windlass to +retail the news to a crowd of eager men who tried hard to listen to +both at once, and so could make nothing out of either. + +"Hold hard, Tom Lokins," cried one. "What's that you say about the +Emperor, Bill?" + +"The Emperor of Roosia," said Bill Blunt, reading slowly, and with +difficulty, "is--stop a bit, messmates, wot can this word be?--the +Emperor of Roosia is----" + +"Blowed up with gunpowder, and shattered to a thousand pieces," said +Tom Lokins, raising his voice with excitement, as he read from _his_ +paper an account of the blowing up of a mountain fortress in India. + +"Oh! come, I say, one at a time, if you please," cried a harpooner; "a +feller can't git a word of sense out of sich a jumble." + +"Come, messmates," cried two or three voices, as Tom stopped suddenly, +and looked hard at the paper, "go ahead! wot have ye got there that +makes ye look as wise as an owl? Has war been and broke out with the +French?" + +"I do believe he's readin' the births, marriages, and deaths," said one +of the men, peeping over Tom's shoulder. + +"Read 'em out, then, can't ye?" cried another. + +"I say, Bill Blunt, I think this consarns _you_," cried Tom: "isn't +your sweetheart's name Susan Croft?" + +"That's a fact," said Bill, looking up from his paper, "and who has got +a word to say agin the prettiest lass in all Liverpool?" + +"Nobody's got a word to say against her," replied Tom; "but she's +married, that's all." + +Bill Blunt leaped up as if he had been shot, and the blood rushed to +his face, as he seized the paper, and tried to find the place. + +"Where is it, Tom? let me see it with my own two eyes. Oh, here it is!" + +The poor man's face grew paler and paler as he read the following +words:-- + +"Married at Liverpool, on the 5th inst., by the Rev. Charles Manson, +Edward Gordon, Esq., to Susan, youngest daughter of Admiral Croft----" + +A perfect roar of laughter drowned the remainder of the sentence. + +"Well done, Bill Blunt--Mister Blunt, we'll have to call him +hereafter," said Tom, with a grim smile; "I had no notion you thought +so much o' yourself as to aim at an admiral's daughter." + +"All right, my hearties, chaff away!" said Bill, fetching a deep sigh +of relief, while a broad grin played on his weather-beaten visage. +"There's _two_ Susan Crofts, that's all; but I wouldn't give _my_ Susan +for all the admirals' daughters that ever walked in shoe-leather." + +"Hallo! here come the Yankees," cried the captain, coming on deck at +that moment. + +Our newspapers were thrown down at once, and we prepared to receive our +guests, who, we could see, had just put off from their ship in two +boats. But before they had come within a mile of us, their attention, +as well as ours, was riveted on a most extraordinary sight. + +Not more than a hundred yards ahead of our ship, a whale came suddenly +to the surface of the water, seeming, by its wild motions, to be in a +state of terror. It continued for some time to struggle, and lash the +whole sea around it into a white foam. + +At once the boats were lowered from both ships, and we went after this +fish, but his motions were so violent, that we found it utterly +impossible to get near enough to throw a harpoon. When we had +approached somewhat closely, we discovered that it had been attacked by +a killer fish, which was fully twenty feet long, and stuck to it like a +leech. The monster's struggles were made in trying to shake itself +free of this tremendous enemy, but it could not accomplish this. The +killer held him by the under jaw, and hung on there, while the whale +threw himself out of the water in his agony, with his great mouth open +like a huge cavern, and the blood flowing so fast from the wound that +the sea was dyed for a long distance round. This killer fought like a +bulldog. It held on until the whale was exhausted, but they passed +away from us in such a confused struggle, that a harpoon could not be +fixed for an hour after we first saw them. On this being done, the +killer let go, and the whale, being already half dead, was soon killed. + +The Yankee boats were the first to come up with this fish, so the prize +belonged to them. We were well pleased at this, as we could afford to +let them have it, seeing that we could scarcely have found room to stow +away the oil in our hold. It was the Yankee's first fish, too, so they +were in great spirits about it, and towed it to their ship, singing +"Yankee-doodle" with all their might. + +As they passed our boat the captain hailed them. + +"I wish you joy of your first fish, sir," said he to the Yankee captain. + +"Thank you, stranger. I guess we're in luck, though it ain't a big +one. I say, what sort o' brute was that that had hold of him? Never +seed sich a crittur in all my life." + +"He's a killer," said our captain. + +"A killer! Guess he just is, and no mistake: if we hadn't helped him, +he'd have done the job for himself! What does he kill him for?" + +"To eat him, but I'm told he only eats the tongue. You'll not forget +that you've promised to gam with us to-night," cried our captain, as +they were about to commence pulling again. + +"All right, stranger, one half will come to-night, before sundown; +t'other half to-morrow, if the calm holds. Good day. Give way, lads." + +The men dipped their oars, and resumed their song, while we pulled back +to our ship. We did not offer to help them, because the fish was a +small one, and the distance they had to go not great. + +It was near sunset when, according to promise, the Yankees came on +board, and spent a long evening with us. They were a free, +open-hearted, boastful, conceited, good-humoured set of fellows, and a +jolly night we had of it in the forecastle, while the mates and +captains were enjoying themselves and spinning their yarns in the cabin. + +Of course, we began with demands for home-news, and, when we had pumped +out of them every drop they had, we began to songs and spinning yarns. +And it was now that my friend Tom Lokins came out strong, and went on +at such a rate, that he quite won the hearts of our guests. Tom was +not noisy, and he was slow in his talk, but he had the knack of telling +a good story; he never used a wrong word, or a word too many, and, +having a great deal of humour, men could not help listening when he +began to talk. + +After this we had a dance, and here I became useful, being able to play +Scotch reels and Irish jigs on the fiddle. Then we had songs and yarns +again. Some could tell of furious fights with whales that made our +blood boil; others could talk of the green fields at home, until we +almost fancied we were boys again; and some could not tell stories at +all. They had little to say, and that little they said ill; and I +noticed that many of those who were perfect bores would cry loudest to +be heard, though none of us wanted to hear them. We used to quench +such fellows by calling loudly for a song with a rousing chorus. + +It was not till the night was far spent, and the silver moon was +sailing through the starry sky, that the Yankees left us, and rowed +away with a parting cheer. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +RETURN HOME + +Six months after our "gam" with the Yankees Tom Lokins and I found +ourselves seated once more in the little garret beside my dear old +mother. + +"Deary me, Robert, how changed ye are!" + +"Changed, Mother! I should think so! If you'd gone through all that +I've done and seen since we last sat together in this room, you'd be +changed too." + +"And have ye really seen the whales, my boy?" continued my mother, +stroking my face with her old hand. + +"Seen them? aye, and killed them too--many of them." + +"You've been in danger, my son," said my mother earnestly, "but the +Lord has preserved you safe through it all." + +"Aye, Mother, He has preserved my life in the midst of many dangers," +said I, "for which I am most thankful." + +There was a short silence after this, during which my mother and I +gazed earnestly at each other, and Tom Lokins smoked his pipe and +stared at the fire. + +"Robert, how big is a whale?" enquired my mother suddenly. + +"How big? why, it's as big as a small ship, only it's longer, and not +quite so fat." + +"Robert," replied my mother gravely, "ye didn't use to tell untruths; +ye must be jokin'." + +"Joking, Mother, I was never more in earnest in my life. Why, I tell +you that I've seen, aye, and helped to cut up, whales that were more +than sixty feet long, with heads so big that their mouths could have +taken in a boat. Why, Mother, I declare to you that you could put this +room into a whale's mouth, and you and Tom and I could sit round this +table and take our tea upon his tongue quite comfortable. Isn't that +true, Tom?" + +My mother looked at Tom, who removed his pipe, puffed a cloud of smoke, +and nodded his head twice very decidedly. + +"Moreover," said I, "a whale is so big and strong, that it can knock a +boat right up into the air, and break in the sides of a ship. One day +a whale fell right on top of one of our boats and smashed it all to +bits. Now that's a real truth!" + +Again my mother looked at Tom Lokins, and again that worthy man puffed +an immense cloud of smoke, and nodded his head more decidedly than +before. Being anxious to put to flight all her doubts at once, he said +solemnly, "Old ooman, that's a fact!" + +"Robert," said my mother, "tell me something about the whales." + +Just as she said this the door opened, and in came the good old +gentleman with the nose like his cane-knob, and with as kind a heart as +ever beat in a human breast. My mother had already told me that he +came to see her regularly once a week, ever since I went to sea, except +in summer, when he was away in the country, and that he had never +allowed her to want for anything. + +I need scarcely say that there was a hearty meeting between us three, +and that we had much to say to each other. But in the midst of it all +my mother turned to the old gentleman and said: + +"Robert was just going to tell me something about his adventures with +the whales." + +"That's capital!" cried the old gentleman, rubbing his hands. "Come, +Bob, my boy, let's hear about 'em." + +Being thus invited, I consented to spin them a yarn. The old gentleman +settled himself in his chair, my mother smoothed her apron, folded her +hands, and looked meekly into my face. Tom Lokins filled his pipe, +stretched out his foot to poke the fire with the toe of his shoe, and +began to smoke like a steam-engine; then I cleared my throat and began +my tale, and before I had done talking that night, I had told them all +that I have told in this little book to you, good reader, almost word +for word. + +Thus ended my first voyage to the South Seas. Many and many a trip +have I made since then, and many a wonderful sight have I seen, both in +the south and in the north. But if I were to write an account of all +my adventures, my little book would grow into a big one; I must +therefore come to a close. + +The profits of this voyage were so great, that I was enabled to place +my mother in a position of comfort for the rest of her life, which, +alas! was very short. She died about six months after my return. I +nursed her to the end, and closed her eyes. The last word she uttered +was her Saviour's name. She died, as she had lived, trusting in the +Lord; and when I laid her dear head in the grave my heart seemed to die +within me. + +I'm getting to be an old man now, but, through the blessing of God, I +am comfortable and happy. As I have more than enough of this world's +goods, and no family to care for, my chief occupation is to look after +the poor, and particularly the old women who live in my neighbourhood. +After the work of the day is done, I generally go and spend the evening +with Tom Lokins, who lives near by, and is stout and hearty still; or +he comes and spends it with me, and, while we smoke our pipes together, +we often fall to talking about those stirring days when, in the +strength and hope of youth, we sailed together to the South Seas, and +took to--_Fighting the Whales_. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIGHTING THE WHALES*** + + +******* This file should be named 21202.txt or 21202.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/2/0/21202 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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