The Cruise of the Cachalot | Page 2

COCOS AND SEYCHELLES We encounter a
"cyclone"--A tremendous gust--a foundering ship--To anchor for
repairs--The Cocos--Repairing damages --Around the Seychelles--A
"milk" sea--A derelict prahu --A ghastly freight--A stagnant sea.
CHAPTER XII
- WHICH TREATS OF THE KRAKEN "Eyes and no eyes" at sea--Of
big mollusca--The origin of sea- serpent stories--Rediscovery of the
"Kraken"--A conflict of monsters--"The insatiable nightmares of the
sea"-- Spermaceti running to waste--The East Indian maze.
CHAPTER XIII
- OFF TO THE JAPAN GROUNDS A whale off Hong Kong--The
skipper and his "'bomb-gun"-- Injury to the captain--Unwelcome
visitors--The heathen Chinee--We get safe off--"Death of Portagee
Jim"--The Funeral--The Coast of Japan--Port Lloyd--Meeting of
whale-ships.
CHAPTER XIV
- LIBERTY DAY--AND AFTER Liberty day--I foregather with a
"beach-comber"--A big fight --Goliath on the war-path--A
court-martial--Wholesale flogging--a miserable crowd--Quite a fleet of
whale-ships --I "raise" a sperm whale--Severe competition--An
unfortunate stroke--The skipper distinguishes himself.
CHAPTER XV
- WHICH COMES UNCOMFORTABLY NEAR BEING THE LAST I
come to grief--Emulating Jonah--Sharing a flurry--A long spell of
sick-leave--The whale's "sixth sense"--Off to the Kuriles--Prepare for
"bowhead" fishing--The Sea of Okhotsk--Abundant salmon--The
"daintiness" of seamen.
CHAPTER XVI

- "BOWHEAD" FISHING Difference between whales--Popular ideas
exploded--The gentle mysticetus--Very tame work--Fond of
tongue--Goliath confides in me--An awful affair--Captain Slocum's
death-- "Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds"--I am promoted.
CHAPTER XVII
- VISIT TO HONOLULU Towards Honolulu--Missionaries and their
critics--The happy Kanaka--Honolulu--A pleasant holiday.
CHAPTER XVIII
- ON THE "LINE" GROUNDS I get my opportunity--A new
harpooner--Feats under the skipper's eye--Two whales on one
line--Compliments Heavy towage--A grand haul.
CHAPTER XIX
- EDGING SOUTHWARD Monotony--A school of blackfish--A boat
ripped in half--A multitude of sharks--A curious backbone--Christmas
Day-- A novel Christmas dinner--A find of ambergris.
CHAPTER XX
- "HUMPBACKING" AT VAU VAU "Gamming" again--a
Whitechapel rover--arrive at Vau Vau --Valuable friends--a Sunday
ashore--"Hollingside"-- The natives at church--Full-dress--Very
"mishnally"-- Idyllic cruising--Wonderful mother-love--A mighty feast.
CHAPTER XXI
- PROGRESS OF THE "HUMPBACK" SEASON A fruitless
chase--Placid times--a stirring adventure--a vast cave--Unforeseen
company--A night of terror--We provide a feast for the sharks--the
death of Abner--An impressive ceremony--an invitation to
dinner--Kanaka cookery.

CHAPTER XXII
- FAREWELL TO VAU VAU Ignorance of the habits of whales--A
terrific encounter-- VAE VICTIS--Rewarding our "flems"--We leave
Van Vau--The Outward bounder--Sailors' "homes"--A night of horror--
Sudden death--Futuna.
CHAPTER XXIII
- AT FUTUNA, RECRUITING A fleet of nondescripts--"Tui Tongoa"
otherwise Sam--Eager recruits--Devout Catholics--A visit to Sunday
Island--A Crusoe family--Their eviction--Maori cabbage--Fine fishing
--Away for New Zealand--Sight the "Three Kings"-- The Bay of
Islands.
CHAPTER XXIV
- THE BAY OF ISLANDS AND NEW ZEALAND COAST Sleepy
hollow--Wood and water--liberty day--A plea for the sailors'
recreation--Our picnic--A a whiff of "May"--A delightful
excursion--To the southward again--Wintry weather--Enter Foveaux
Straits.
CHAPTER XXV
- ON THE SOLANDER GROUNDS Firstfruits of the Solander--An
easy catch--Delights of the Solander--Port William--The old
CHANCE--"Paddy Gilroy" --Barbarians from the East
End--Barracouta-Fishing-- Wind-bound--An enormous school of
cachalots--Misfortune-- A bursting whale--Back on the Solander
again--Cutting-in at Port William--Studying anatomy--Badly battered
Yankees --Paddy in luck again.
CHAPTER XXVI
- PADDY'S LATEST EXPLOIT We try Preservation Inlet--An
astounding feat of Paddy Gilroy's.

CHAPTER XXVII
- PORT PEGASUS Port Pegasus--Among old acquaintances--"Mutton
birds"-- Skilled auxiliaries--A gratifying catch--Leave port again
--Back to the Solander--A grim escape--Our last whales --Into Port
William again--Paddy's assistance--We part with our Kanakas--Sam's
plans of conquest.
CHAPTER XXVIII
- TO THE BLUFF, AND HOME And last--In high-toned
company--Another picnic--Depart from the Bluff--Hey for the
Horn!--Among the icebergs-- "Scudding"--Favouring trades--A narrow
escape from collision--Home at last.
*
INTRODUCTION
Without attempting the ambitious task of presenting a comprehensive
sketch of the origin, rise, and fall of whale- fishing as a whole, it seems
necessary to give a brief outline of that portion of the subject bearing
upon the theme of the present book before plunging into the first
chapter.
This preliminary is the more needed for the reason alluded to in the
Preface--the want of knowledge of the subject that is apparent
everywhere. The Greenland whale fishery has been so popularized that
most people know something about it; the sperm whale fishery still
awaits its Scoresby and a like train of imitators and borrowers.
Cachalots, or sperm whales, must have been captured on the coasts of
Europe in a desultory way from a very early date, by the incidental
allusions to the prime products spermaceti and ambergris which are
found in so many ancient writers, Shakespeare's reference--"The
sovereign'st thing on earth was parmaceti for an inward bruise"--will be
familiar to most people, as well as Milton's mention of the delicacies at
Satan's feast--"Grisamber steamed"--not to carry quotation any further.

But in the year 1690 the brave and hardy fishermen of the north- east
coasts of North America established that systematic pursuit of the
cachalot which has thriven so wonderfully ever since, although it must
be confessed that the last few years have witnessed a serious decline in
this great branch of trade.
For many years the American colonists