Fighting the Whales | Page 7

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