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Meps, pietes, cherts, etc., mey be ffilmed et differant reduction retios. Those too lerge to be entirely included in one exposura era filmed beginning in the upper toft hend corner, left to right end top to bottom, es meny fframes es requirad. The ffoilowing diegrams iiiustrete the method: Les certes, ptonches, tsbtoeux, etc., |.v^uvent Atre ffilmte i dee tsux de rMuction difffArents. Lorsque to document est trop grand pour Atra reproduit en un soul cItehA, 11 eet ffiimA A pertir de i'engto supArtour geuche, de geuche A droite, et de heut en bee, en pranent to nombra d'imeges nAceeseire. Les diegremmes suivents iliustrent le mAthode. 12 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 (y)/ <2 It M- C'V^^ y TO . Miss KMIhY HENSLRY m • iUATEKll. UKMKMHUAXCE OK TIURTY YKAUS' CONSTANT KKIENDSHII' AND I'UACTICAI, IIEI.I' THIS WOIIK IS AKKKCTIONATF.I.Y DKDICATEl) BY HEll HL'MHIJ; PUl'IL •, '; I^ii3m ! LETTEJl rrcdmf /,>/ the. Atdhor from Mr. RUDYARD KfPLINd, II n fhi' hanh ii'o.K passing through the Dbak Mtt, BtMJ.Kx,— It in immotiHe — there is no other word. I've never rtwl anything that equals it in its deep- sea wonder and my«tcry; nor do I think that any hook hefore \\m ho completely covered the whole husinesH of wbalc-fiHhing, and at the same time given such real and new sea pictures. You have thrown away material enough to make five books, and I congratulate you most heartily. It's a new world that you've opened the door to. Very sincerely, RUDYAED KIPLING. l{orriK«ii>i;.\>r, Son. '1% 18!»H, PREFACE. Is the following pages an attempt has been made — it is believed for the first time — to give an account of the cruise of a South Sea whaler from the seaman's stand- point. Two very useful books * have been published — both of them over half a centmy ago — on the same sub- ject ; but, being written by the surgeons of whale-ships for scientific purposes, neither of them was interesting to the general reader. They have both been long out of print ; but their value to the student of natural history has been, and still is, very great, Dr. Beale's book, in particular, being still the authority on the sperm whale. This book does not pretend to compete with either of the above valuable works. Its aim is to present to the general reader a simple account of the methods employed, and the dangers met with, in a calling about which the great mass of the public knows absolutely nothing. Pending the advent of some great writer who shall see the wonderful possibilities for litera- ture contained in the world-wide wanderings of the South Sea whale-fishers, the author has endeavoured * "Narrative of a Whaling Voyage rouiitl the Globe," In- !•'. Debell Bennett, F.U.C.S. (2 vols.). Bentley, London (1840). "The Sperm 'Vliale Fishery," by Tiiomas Beale, M.R.C.S. London : IS.'JO;. VIII PREFACE. to Rummarize his experiences so that they may be read without weariness, and, it is hoped, with profit. The manifold shortcomings of the work will not, it is trusted, be laid to the account of the subject, than which none more interesting could well be imagined, but to the limitations of the writer, whose long experience of sea life has done little to foster the literary faculty. One claim may be made with perfect confidence — that if the manner be not all that could be wished, the matter is entirely trustworthy, being compiled from actual observation and experience, and in no case at second-hand. An endeavour has also been made to exclude such matter as is easily obtainable elsewhere — matters of common knowledge and "padding" of any sort — the object not being simply the making of a book, but the record of little-known facts. Great care has been taken to use no names either of ships or persons, which could, by being identified, give annoyance or pain to any one, as in many cases strong language has been necessary for the expression of opinions. Finally, the author hopes that, although in no sense exclusively a book for boys, the coming generation may find this volume readable and interesting; and with that desire he offers it confidently, though in all humility, to that great impartial jury, the public. F. T. B. DiLWicii, Julyy 1897. CONTENTS. CIIArTEU I. OUTWAUn HOUND, Adrift in Now Bedford — I get a ship— A motley crowd — '• Built by the mile, and cut oft* as you want 'em " — Mistnh Jones — • Grcenies — Ott' to sea ....... PAUK CIIAITKR 11. I'KKl'AltrNC FOU ACTION. I'riniitive steering-gear — Strange drill — Misery below — Sliort commons — Goliath rigs the " crow's-nest" — Useful informa- tion—Preparing for war — Strange weapons — A boat-load . 7 CHAPTER III. FI.SIIIN'U HEOIXS. The cleanliness of a whale-ship — No skiilknij^ — Porpoise-fishing — Cannibals — Cooking operations — Boat-drill — A good look- out — "Black-fishing" — Roguery in all trades — Plenty of fresh beef — The nursery of American whalemen . . If) CHAPTER IV. nAD WEATIlElt. Nautical routine — The first gale — Comfort versus speed — A grand sea-boat — The Sargasso Sea — Natural history pursuits — Dolphin — Unconventional fishing — Rumours of a visit to the Cape Verdes — Babel below— No allowance, but not " full and plenty" — Queer washing — Method of sharing rations — The " slop-shop " opened — Our prospects •>r. VOS'ThWTS. CHAl'TKU V. ACTL'AL WAIIKAKK. OLK KIUST WIIALiC. Premonitions — DiscusHion on wlmling from unknown preraiHses — I wake in a fright — Sperm whales at last — The war begins — Warning — We get fast — And get loose — In trouble — An uncomfortable situation — No pity — Only one whale — Rigging the " outting-stngc " — Securing the whale alongside , CHAl'TEIl VI. " DIKTY WOKK Foil CLKAX MONEY." Goliath in trouble — Commence " cutting in " — A heavy head — A tank of spermaceti — Decks running with oil — A " patent " mincing-machine — Extensive cooking — Dangerous work — Three tuns of oil — A horrible mess — A thin-skinned monster — A fine mouth of teeth ...... r.toK 34 45 CIIAPTKR VII. «iErriXG SOL'TIIWAKD. Captain Slocum's amenities — Expensive beer — St. Paul's Rocks " Bonito " — " Showery " weather — Waterspouts — Calms — A friendly finback — A disquisition on whales by Mistali Jones — Flying-fishing ....... 55 CHAPTER VIII. auxek's whale. Abner in luck — A big " fish " at last — A feat of endurance — A fighting whale — The sperm whale's food — Ambergiis — A good reception — Hard labour — Abner's reward — "Scrimshaw" Victls I — Rewarding our " flems " — We leave Van Vau — The Outward bounder — Sailoi-s' " homos " — A night of horror — Sudden death — Futuna .... . . 274 CHAPTER XXIII. AT KUTUXA, KECULITINCl. 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 " Tliree Kings " — The Bav of Islands 201 CHAPTER XXIV. TIIK MAY OF ISLANDS AND XKW ZEALAXU COAST, Sleepy hollow — Wood and water — Liberty day — A plea for tiie sailors' recreation — Our picnic — A wiiifi" of "May" — A delightful excursion — To the southward again — Wintry weather — Enter Foveaux Straits ..... .UO PAOB :i23 i « xiv t'OSTKSTS. CHAPTEU XXV. ox TIIK SOL.VNDKIt (iltOl'N'n.S. Firstfriiits of the Solainler — An eaHy catch — Delights of the Solander— I'ort William— The old Chance—'' Paddy Gilroy " — Harbariaiis from the KaHt End — Barraconta - fishing — Wind-bound — An enormons school of cachalots — Mis- fortune — A bursting whale — Back on the Solander again — Cutting in at Port William — Studying anatomy — Badly- battoreil Yankees — Padily in luck again .... CHAPTER XXVI. paddy's l.vtkst exploit. We try Preservation Inlet — An astounding feat of Paddy Gilroy's 348 CHAPTER XXVII. rORT PEOASl'S. Port Pegasus — Among old acquaintances — "Mutton birds" — Skilled auxiliaries — A gratifying catch — Leave port again — Back to the Solander — A gi'im escape — Our last whales ^ — Into Port William again — Paddy' s assistance — We part with our Kanakas — Sam's plans of conquest CHAPTER XXVIII. 357 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 ...... 370 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, I'lIK "('ACIIAI.OT Lasting a Whali: TO FACK rAOK Frontinjnece . 3t» TlIK WllALK STAItTKI* <>ir H> WlM>\VAI!l> WITH IS AT A TKKMKNDors Katk 74 KriMSf: A BoMis-i-AXci: 119 A Vkky Laiegk Si'KUM Wham: was i.nrKKi) is Dkadly CoSKMCT WITII A SqIII) . . . . . .143 On his Hack, with his .Iaw in thi: Fikst linisc 1'ositiox "235 A Tkx-mim: Stkady Pri.i- to Windwakd . 252 TiiK Vast Fi.ikks t»K tiik Wiiai.k . . , siiokk okk thk IJow OK THK Ari'ACKIXC P.OAT -iOU Mai' — Thk Mkan Tkack ok thi: "Cachalot" «jn a Wiiai.is<; CkKISK KOrXl) THK W'OKLI) ...... I JXTKODIJCTION. Without attempting? the ambitious task of presenting a compri'hensive sketch of the origin, rise, and fall of whale- lisliing as a whole, it seems necessary to give a brief out- line 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 pro- ducts 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 Mil- ton's mention of the delicacies at Satan's feast — *' Gris- amber steamed " — not to carry quotation any further. But in the year 1090 the brave and hardy fishermen of the north-east coasts of North America established o XVIII ISTRODICTIOS. that HyHtcmiitic Miu'suit uf tlii> cachalot which han thriven ho wondurfully ovoi* Hincc, although it munt be confoHHcd that thu laHt few years have witnesHcd a HoriouH (lecliiiu in tliiH ^roat branch of trade. For many yearn the American colonists completely ongroHBod this branch of the whale fiHliery, contentedly leaving to (treat liritain and the continental nations the monopoly of the northern or Arctic fisheries, while they cruised the stormy, if milder, seas around their own shores. For the resultant products, their best customer was the mother country, and a lucrative commerce steadily grew up between the two countries. But when the march of events brought the unfortunate and wholly unnecessary War of Independence, this flourishing trade was the first to sufTer, and many of the daring fishermen became our fiercest foes on board their own men-of-war. The total stoppage of the importation of sperm oil and spermaceti was naturally severely felt in England, for time had not permitted the invention of substitutes. In consequence of this, ten ships were equipped and sent out to the sperm whale fishery from England in 1775, most of them owned by one London firm, the Messrs. Enderby. The next year, in order to encourage the infant enterprise, a Government bounty, graduated from £500 to .1*1000 per ship, was granted. Under this fostering care the number of ships engaged in the sperm whale fishery progressively increased until 1791, when it attained its maximum. This method of whaling being quite new to our whalemen, it was necessary, at great cost, to hire ryrnnpucrios. x\x American ofKc^r^ and har|>o<)ncrH to iiiRtruct tliciii in tlio ways of dealinj? with those highly active and dangerous cotii<'''a. Natur.iUy, it was hy-an«l-by found poHsihIo to dispenHG with tl»c services of those auxiliaries ; hut it must 1)0 confessed tiiat the business never seems to have found such favour, or to have heen prosecuted with such smartness, among our whalemen as it has by tho Americans. Something of an exotic the trade always was among us, although it did attain considerable proportions at one time. At first the fishing was confined to the Atlantic Ocean ; nor for many years was it necessary to go farther afield, as abundance of whales could easily be found. As, however, the number of ships engaged increased, it was inevitable that tho known grounds should become exhausted, and in 1788 Messrs. Enderby's ship, the Kmilia, first ventured round Cape Horn, as tho pioneer of a greater trade than ever. The way once pointed out, other ships were not slow to follow, until, in 1819, the British whale-ship Sijirn opened up the till then unex- plored tract of ocean in the western part of the North Pacific, afterwards familiarly known as the "Coast of Japan." From these teeming waters alone, for many years an average annual catch of 40,000 barrels of oil was taken, which, at the average price of £H per barrel, will give some idea of the value of the trade generally. The Australian colonists, early in their career, found the sperm whale fishery easy of access from all their coasts, and especially lucrative. At one time they bade fair to establish a whale fishery that should rival the XX ISTRODUCTIOy, Kpl<3n(Iivect~ below, were groaning in [misery from the stifling atmosphere v.lnch made their sickness so much worse, while even that dreadful place [was preferable to what awaited them on deck. There Wt; a rainbow-coloured halo round the flame of the lamp, i shewing how very bad the air was ; but in spite of that I [turned in and sleptly soundly till seven bells (7.20 a.m.) roused us to breakfast. American ships generally have an (excellent name for "> J (I Till': (;i(i:isic of the "cachalot:' ) tlio way tlit;y fui.i] t)i(;ir crews, but the whalers arc a notalilc exc(;|)tj()ii to that ^'ood rule. The food was really worse than that on hoard any Enj.;lish ship I have ever sailed in, ko H<;ftnty also in quantity that it kept all the foremast hundH at Htarvation point. But grumbling was dangerous, ho I gulpod down the dirty mixture mi.j-named coffee, ate a few fniji^ments of biscuit, and filled up(?) with a Buiokt;, m many better men are doing this morn- ing. As tluj bell Htruck I hurried on deck — not one moment too Hoim —for as I stepped out of the scuttle I saw the third nuite f a whaler. soon found whale-lines, e pursuit of d have been guard com- rs or boat- All these it and main ence of the as pounced bom I heard lak " by his rigging the It was a simple affair. There were a pair of cross-trees fitted to the mast, upon which was secured a tiny platform about a foot wide on each side of the mast, while above this foothold a couple of padded hoops like a pair of giant spectacles were secured at a little higher than a man's waist. "When all was fast one could creep up on the platform, through the hoop, and resting his arms upon the latter, stand comfortably and gaze around, no matter how vigorously the old barky plunged and kicked beneath liim. From that lofty eerie I had a comprehensive view of the vessel. She was about 350 tons and full ship- rigged, that is to say, she carried square sails on all three masts. Her deck was flush fore and aft, the only obstructions being the brick-built "try-works" in the waist, the galley, and cabin skylight right aft by the taflf- rail. Her bulwarks were set thickly round with clumsy looking wooden cranes, from which depended five boats. Two more boats were secured bottom up upon a gallows aft, so she seemed to be well supplied in that direction. Mistah Jones, finding I did not presume upon his con- descension, gradually unbent and furnished me with many interesting facts about the officers. Captain Slocum, he said, was " de debbil hisself, so jess yew keep yer lamps trim' fer him, sonny, taint helthy ter rile him." The first officer, or the mate as he is always called par excellence, was an older man than the captain, but a good seaman, a good whaleman, and a gentleman. Which combination I found to be a fact, although hard to believe possible at the time. The second mate was a Portuguese about forty years of age, with a face like one of Vandyke's cavaliers, but as I now learned, a perfect fiend when angered. He also was a first-class whaleman, but an indifferent seaman. The third mate was nothing I i ( ■ I 1 ;i 12 77IE CRUISE OF THE "CACHALOT:' much but bad temper — not much sailor, nor much whaler, generally in hot water with the skipper, who hated him because he was an " owner's man." " An do fourf mate," wound up the narrator, straightening his huge bulk, "Orm de bes' man in de ship, and de bigges'. Dey aint no whalemen in Noo Bedford caynt teach mr nuffin, en ef it comes ter man-handlin' ; w'y I jes' pick em two't a time 'n crack 'em togerrer like so, see ! " and he smote the palms of his great paws against each other, while I nodded complete assent. The weather being fine, with a steady N.E. wind blowing, so that the sails required no attention, work proceeded steadily all the morning. The oars were sorted, examined for flaws, and placed in the boats ; the whale-line, manilla rope like yellow silk, 1^ inch round, was brought on deck, stretched and coiled down witii the greatest care into tubs, holding, some 2'^'0 fathoms, and others 100 fathoms each. New harpoons were fitted to poles of rough but heavy wood, without any attempt at neatness, but every attention to strength. The shape of these weapons was not, as is generally thought, that of an arrow, but rather like an arrow with one huge barb, the upper part of which curved out from the shaft. The whole of the barb turned on a stout pivot of steel, but was kept in line with the shaft by a tiny wooden peg which passed through barb and shaft, being then cut off smoothly on both sides. The point of the harpoon had at one side a wedge-shaped edge, ground to razor keenness, the other side was flat. The shaft, about thirty inches long, was of the best malleable iron, so soft that it would tie into a knot and straighten out again without fracture. Three harpoons, or "irons" as they were always called, were lot:' pnr.rAUiSQ for action. la )r, nor much skipper, who an." "An do lightenmg his nd de bigges'. lynt teach iiw w'y I jes' pick so, see ! " and ist each other, ly N.E. wind ttention, work he oars were in the boats ; silk, It^ inch d coiled down ig» some 2''0 ^ew harpoons vood, without attention to as not, as is ither like an which curved ,rb turned on in line with ssed through hly on both one side a ss, the other es long, was ould tie into ture. Three called, were phiccd in each boat, fitted one above the other in the starboard bow, the first for use being always one unused before. Opposite to them in the boat were fitted three lances for the purpose of hiUinti whales, the harpoons being only the means by which the boat was attached to a fish, and quite useless to inflict a fatal wound. These lances were slender spears of malleable iron al)Out four feet long, with oval or heart-shaped points of fine steel about two inches broad, their edges kept keen as a surgeon's lancet. By '^f>ans of a socket at the other end they were attached to ne it handles, or " lance- poles," about as long again, the whole weapon being thus about eight feet in length, and furnished with a light line, or "lance-warp," for the purpose of drawing it back again when it had been darted at a whale. Each boat was fitted with a centre-board, or sliding keel, which was drawn up, when not in use, into a case standing in the boat's middle, very much in the way. IJut the American whalemen regard these clumsy con- trivances as indispensable, so there's an end on't. The other furniture of a boat comprised five oars of varying lengths from sixteen to nine feet, one great steering oar of nineteen feet, a mast and two sails of great area for so small a craft, spritsail shape ; two tubs of whale-line containing together 1800 feet, a keg of drinking water, and another long narrow one with a few biscuits, a lantern, candles and matches therein; a bucket and " piggin " for baling, a small spade, a flag or " wheft," a shoulder l)omb-gun and ammunition, two knives and two small axes. A rudder hung outside by the stern. With all this gear, although snugly stowed, a boat looked so loaded that I could not help wondering how six men would be able to work in her; but like most 14 TTIF CRUrSE OF THE "CACnALOT." i» ^ n 1 "deep-water" sailors, I knew very little about boating. J. was going to learn. All this work and bustle of preparation was so rapidly carried on, and so interesting, that before supper - time everything was in readiness to commence opera- tions, the time having gone so swiftly that I could hardly believe the bell when it sounded four times, six o'clock. I; ' ) CHAPTER III. FISHING nEOINS. DiRiNG all the bustle of warlike preparation that had been going on, the greenhorns had not suffered from inattention on the part of those appointed to look after them. Happily for them, the wind blew steadily, and the weather, thanks to the balmy influence of the Gulf Stream, was quite mild and genial. The ship was undoubtedly lively, as all good sea-boats are, but her motions were by no means so detestable to a sea-sick man as those of a driving steamer. So, in spite of I their treatment, perhaps because of it, some of the [poor fellows were beginning to take hold of things "man-fashion," although of course sea legs they had [none, their getting about being indeed a pilgrimage of [pain. Some of them were beginning to try the dreadful r'grub" (I cannot libel "food" by using it in such a [connection), thereby showing that their interest in life, [even such a life as was now before them, was returning. [They had all been allotted places in the various boats, Bntermixed with the seasoned Portuguese in such a way Ihat the officer and harpooner in charge would not be lependant upon them entirely in case of a sudden emergency. Every endeavour was undoubtedly made Ki THE C nil HE OF THE "CACHALOTS n St i ( m \ \i i fv, I ' i to instruct thorn in their duties, albeit the teachers were all too apt to beat their information in with anything that came to hand, and persuasion found no place in their methods. The reports I had always heard of the laziness pre- vailing on board whale-ships were now abundantly falsified. From dawn to dark work went on without cessation. Everything was rubbed and scrubbed and scoured until no speck or soil could be found ; indeed, no gentleman's yacht or man-of-war is kept more spotlessly clean than was the Carlutlot. A regular and severe routine of labour was kept up ; and, what was most galling to me, instead of a regular four hours watch on and off, night and day, all hands were kept on leek the whole day long, doing quite unnecessary tasks, apparently with the object of preventing too much leisure and consequent brooding over their unhappy lot. One result of this continual drive and tear was that all these landsmen became rapidly imbued with the virtues of cleanliness, which was extended to the den in which we lived, or I verily believe siclmess would have soon thinned us out. On the fourth day after leaving port we were all busy as usual except the four men in the " cro>v*s-nests," when a sudden cry of ** Porps ! porps ! " brought every- thing to a standstill. A large school of porpoises had just joined us, in their usual clownish fashion, rolling and tumbling around the bow's^s the old barky wallowed along, surrounded by a wide ellipse of snowy foam. All work was instantly suspended, and active prepara- tions made for securing a few of these frolicsome fellows. A " block," or pulley, was hung out at the bowsprit end, a whale-line passed through it and " bent " FISHING liEQISS. 17 ness pre- undantly I without bbed and ndeed, no apotlessly kept up ; a regular all bands )ing quite object of brooding continual m became ss, which I verily ut. were all 's-nests," gbt every - )oises had on, rolling wallowed )wy foam. 3 prepara- frolicsome )ut at the id "bent" (fastened) on to a harpoon. Ancjther line with a running "Itowhne," or Klip-noose, was also passed out to the bowsprit end, being held tbere by one man in readiness. Then one of the harpooner.s ran out along the back- ropes, which keep the jib-boom down, taking his stand iieneath the bowsprit with the harpoon ready. Presently he raised his iron and followed the track of a rishig porpoise with its point until the creature broke water. At the same instant the weapon left his grasp, appa- rently without any force behind it ; but wo on deck, holding the line, soon found that our excited hauling lifted a big vibrating body clean out of the smother beneath. " 'Vast hauling ! " shouted the mate, while as the porpoise hung dangling, the harpooner slipped the ready bowline over his body, gently closing its grip round the "small" by the broad tail. Then we hauled on the noose-line, slacking away the harpoon, and in a minute had our prize on deck. He was dragged away at once and the operation repeated. Again and again we hauled them in, until the fore part of the deck was alive with the kicking, writhing sea-pigs, at least twenty of them. I had seen an occasional porpoise caught at sea before, but never more than one at a time. Here, however, was a wholesale catch. At last Ciie of the harpooned ones plunged so furiously while being hauled up that he literally tore himself off the iron, falling, streaming with blood, back into the sea. Away went all the school after him, tearing at him with their long well-toothed jaws, some of them leaping high in the air in their eagerness to get their due share of the cannibal feast. Our lishing was over for that lime. Meanwhile one of the harpooners had brought out a number of knives, with which all hands were soon u \ 18 THE CnmSE OF THE "CACHALOr." busy skinning tho l)lubl)er from the bodies. Porpoisos have no skin, that is hicb;, the blubber or coating of Innl which encases them being covered by a black substance as thin as tissue paper. The porpoise hide of the boot maker is really leather, made from the skin of tho Beluga, or " white whale," which is found only in the far north. The cover was removed from the ** try- works " amidships, revealing two gigantic pots set in a frame of brickwork side by side, capable of holding 200 gallons each. Such a cooking apparatus as might have graced a Brobdingnagian kitchen. Beneath the pots was tho very simplest of furnaces, hardly as elaborate as the familiar copper-hole sacred to washing day. Square funnels of sheet-iron were loosely fitted to the flues, more as a protection against the oil boiling over into the fire than to carry away the smoke, of which from the peculiar nature of the fuel there was very little. At one side of the try- works was a large wooden vessel, or " hopper," to contain the raw blubber ; at the other, a copper cistern or cooler of about 300 gallons capacity, into which the prepared oil was baled to cool oflf, preliminary to its being poured into the casks. Beneath the furnaces was a space as large as the whole area of the try-works, about a foot deep, which, when the fires were lighted, was filled with water to prevent the deck from burning. It may be imagined that the blubber from our twenty porpoises made but a poor show in one of the pots; nevertheless, we got a barrel of very excellent oil from them. The fires were fed with ** scrap," or pieces of blubber from which the oil had been boiled, some of which had been reserved from the previous voyage. They burnt with a fierce and steady blaze, leaving but a trace of ash. I was then informed by one of the Fisnisd liF.niSH. ID I. Porpoisos taling of lard ,ck substance t) of the boot skin of the only in the a the "try- pots set in a holding 200 s might have [ith the pots J elaborate as lay. Square to the flues, ing over into f which from sry little. At len vessel, or the other, a capacity, into preliminary the furnaces he try-works, were lighted, 3m burning, m our twenty of the pots; ent oil from or pieces of led, some of ious voyage, leaving but one of the harpooners that no other fuel was rver usod for boiling' bhil)bcr at any time, there being always amply HUlVicieut for the purpose. The most interesting part of the whole business, though, to us poor half-starved wretches, was the plen- tiful supply of fresh meat. Porpoise beef is, wiicu decently cooked, fairly good eating to a landsman ; judge, then, what it must have been to us. Of course the tit- bits, such as the liver, kidneys, brains, etc., could not possibly fall to our lot ; but we did not complain, wo were too thankful to get something eatable, and enough of it. Moreover, although few sailors in English ships know it, porpoise beef improves vastly by keeping, getting tenderer every day the longer it hangs, until at last it becomes as tasty a viand as one could wish to dine upon. It was a good job for us that this was the case, for while the porpoises lasted the " harness casks," or salt beef receptacles, were kept locked ; so if any man had felt unable to eat porpoise — well, there was no compulsion, he could go hungry. We were now in the haunts of the Sperm Whale, or " Cachalot," a brilliant look-out being continually kept for any signs of their appearing. One ofKcer and a foremast hand were continually on watch during the day in the main crow's-nest, one harpooner and a seaman in the fore one. A bounty of ten pounds of tobacco was oiTered to whoever should first report a whale, should it be secured, consequently there were no sleepy eyes up there. Of course none of those who were inexperienced stood much chance against the eagle-eyed Portuguese ; but all tried their best, in the hope of perhaps winning some little favour from their hard taskmasters. Every evening at sunset it was " all hands shorten sail," the 20 iHK runsH of the "cachalot: c-oiistnnt drill rapidly ttacliiiig even these clumsy lunds- nun how to find their way aloft, and do something else besides hold on to anything like grim death when they got there. At last, one beautiful day, the boats were lowered and manned, and away went the greenies on their first practical lesson in the business of the voyage. As before noticed, there were two greenies in each boat, they being so arranged that whenever one of them "caught a crab," which of course was about every other stroke, his failure made little difference to the boat's progress. They learned very fast under the terrible imprecations and storm of blows from the iron-fisted and iron-hearted officers, so that before the day was out the skipper was satisfied of curability to deal with a " fish " should he be lucky enough to "raise" one. I was, in virtue of my experience, phiced at the after-oar in the mate's boat, where it was my duty to attend to the "main sheet " when the sail was set, where also I had the benefit of the lightest oar except the small one used by the harpooner in the bow. The very next day after our first exhaustive boat drill, a school of " Black Fish " was reported from aloft, and with great glee the officers prepared for what they considered a rattling day's fun. The Black Fish (Phocasna Sp.) is a small toothed whale, not at all unlike a miniature cachalot, except that its head is rounded at the front, while its jaw is not long and straight, but bowed. It is as frolicsome as the porpoise, gambolling about in schools of from twenty to fifty or more, as if really delighted to be alive. Its average size is from ten to twenty feet long, and seven or eight feet in girth, weight from one to three tons. 07'.' lumsy lantls- lUK'tliing else h when they nere lowered on their first voyage. As a each boat, one of them it every other to the boat's the terrible •on-fisted and y was out the vitha"fish" e. I was, in er-oar in the ,ttend to the ire also I had aall one used laustive boat id from aloft, or what they mall toothed , except that 8 jaw is not Irolicsome as from twenty e alive. Its and seven three tons. Fisrifsn nEOiss. 21 Blublur about three inclios tliick, whiln tlio head is almost all oil, .so that a good rich Hpeciinon will make between one and two barrels of oil of medium fiuality. The school wo w(>ro now in sight of was of middling size and about average weight of individuals, and the officers esteemed it a fortunate circumstanco that wo should happen across them as a sort of preliminary to our tackling the monarchs of tho deep. All the new harpoons were unshipped from the boats, and a couple of extra " second " irons, as those that have been used are called, were put into each boat for use if wanted. Tho sails were also left on board. Wo lowered and left tho ship, pulling right towards tho .iciiool, the noise they were making in their fun effec- tually preventing them from hearing our approach. It is etiquette to allow the mate's boat first place, unless his crew is so weak as to be unable to hold their own ; but as the mate always has first pick of the men this seldom happens. So, as usual, we were first, and soon I heard the order given, " Stand up, Louey, and let 'em have it ! " Sure enough, hero we were right among them. Louis let drive, ** fastening " a whopper about twenty feet long. The injured animal plunged madly forward, accompanied by his fellows, while Louis calmly bent another iron to a " short warp," or piece of whale-line, the loose end of which he made a bowline with round the main line which was fast to the "fish." Then he fastened another "fish," and the queer sight was seen of these two monsters each trying to flee in opposite directions, while the second one ranged about alarmingly as his "bridle" ran along the main line. Another one was secured in the same way, then tho game was indeed great. The school had by this timo P,l : ' ■ i 1 1 i 1 ! I r 22 77//V rv/r/.s/v or riii-: "CArnALOT." taken tlio jilann au''iK» it would evidently bo a lonp wliilcf before tliey died, although, beiiip; so much sniallor than a wliab' jiroper, a harpoon will often kill them at a Ktrok*'. Yet they wcro now ho tangled or "snarled erp," as the male said, that it was no easy matter to lance them witlunit great danger of cutting the line. Ifowev^ ., wo hauled up iis eluse to thorn as wo dared, and the harpooner got a good blow in, which gave the biggest of the three* " Jesse," as ho said, though why " Jesse " was a stumper. Anyhow, it killed him promptly, while almost directly after another one saved further trouble by passing in his own checks. But ho sank at tins same time, drawing the first one down with him, ho that wo were in con- siderable danger of having to cut them adrift or be swamped. The " wheft " was waved thrice as an urgent signal to the ship to conio to our assistanco with all speed, but in tlu* meantime our interest lay in the sur- viving Black Fish keeping alive. Should lie die, and, as was "Tiost probable, sink, wo should certainly have to cut and lose the lot, tools included. Wo waited in grim silence while the ship came up, so slowly, apparently, that she hardly seemed to move, but really at a good pace of about four knots an hour, which for her was not at all bad. She got alongside of us at last, and we passed u\) the bight of our line, our fish all safe, very much pleased with ourselves, espe- cially when we found that the other boats had only five between the three of them. The fish secured to the ship, all the boats were hoisted except one, which remained alongside to sling the OT." FlsJIISn IlKOlSs. 23 olhor boatH 3r. Now, at ilcl evidently f^h, boiiiK so »on will often HO tangled or was no easy er of cutting to thorn as ow in, which as ho said, Anyhow, it after another in his own drawing the *vtro in con- adrift or he I as an urgent [inco with all ly in the sur- he die, and, ainly have to lip came up, ned to move, lots an hour, alongside of our line, our rselves, espe- had only five boats were le to sling the i bodies. During our absence the ship-keepers had been busy rigging one ol tho cutting falls, an immense four- fold tackle from the main lowermast-head, of four-inch rope through gr< iit double blocks, largo as those us»d at dockyards for l.fting ships' masts and boilers. Chain- slings were passed around the carcases, which grippid the animal at the " small," being prevented from slip- ping oft* by the broad spread of the tail. Tiio end of tile •' fall," or tacklo-rope, was then taken to the wind- lass, and wo hovo away cheerily, lifting the monsters right on deck. A mountainous pile they made. A short spell was allowed, when the whole eight were on board, for dinner; then all hands turned to again to " llench " the blubber, and prepare for trying-out. This was a heavy job, keeping all hands busy until it was quite dark, the latter part of the work being carried on by the light of a '* cresset," tho flames of which wero fed with "scrap," which blazed brilliantly, throwing a big glare over all tho ship. The last of tho carcases was launched overboard by about eight o'clock that evening, but not before some vast junks of beef had been cut ofif and hung up in the rigging for our food supply. The try- works were started again, " trying-out " going on busily all night, watch and watch taking their turn at keeping the pots supplied with minced blubber. The work was heavy, while the energetic way in which it was carried on made us all glad to take what rest was allowed us, which was scanty enough, as usual. By nightfall the next day the ship had resumed her normal appearance, and we were a tun and a quarter of oil to the good. Black Fish oil is of medium quality, but I learned that, according to the rule of "roguery in it R 24 rni-: or-room." A short timo Hufticed to strip <»IY tliu wlmh) of tlic bo(ly-ljlnl)l)or, and wlicn at last tlio tail was rcaclud, tliu backboiio was cut tlirou},'li, tlui liUK<' mass of llcsh lloatiiv^ away to feed th" inimmoral>lc Hciavcngcrrt of tlio sea. No sooner was the hist of tho hhihhor lowered into the hold than tho hatchos wcro put on and tho hoad hauled up alongside. JJoth tacklcH wcro sccurod to it and all hands took to tho windlass levers. This was a small cow wlialo of ahout thirty barrels, that is, yioldin}^ that amount of oil, so it was just possible to lift tho entire head on board ; but as it woij^hed as much as three full- prown elephants, it was indeed a heavy lift for (!ven our united forces, trying our tucklo to tho utmost. Tho weather was very fine, and tlie ship rolled but little; even then, tho strain upon the nuist was terrilic, and right glad was I when at last the immense cube of fat, Hesh, and bone was cased inboard and gently lowered on deck. As soon as it was secured the work of dividing it began. From tho snout a triangular mass was cut, which was more than half pure spermaceti. This substance was contained in Hpongy cells held together by layers of dense white libro, exceedingly tough and elastic, and called by tluj whalers " white-horse." The whole mass, or "junk" as it is called, was hauled away to the ship's side and firmly lashed to the bulwarks for the time being, so that it might not "take charge" of the deck during the rest of the operations. The upper part of tho head was now slit open lengthwise, disclosing an oblong cistern or "case" full of liquid spermaceti, clear as water. This was baled out with buckets into a tank, concreting as it cooled " ninrr wouk fou (.'lhas MasKv. 4!) open " full baled cooled into a waK-likc substance, bland and taHtitltHs. Thuro bfin*; now nothini; mure remainin<^' about tlie skull of any value, tbo lusbinf^s were loosed, and tbc first Kso- ward roll sent tbo great mass i)lunging overboard witb a migbty splasb. It sank like a stone, eagerly followed by a few small sbarks tbat were bovering near. As may be imagined, mueb oil was nuining about tbe deck, for so saturated was every part of tbo creature witb it tbat it really gusbcd like water during tbe cutting-up process. None of it was allowed to run to waste, tbougb, for tbo scupper-liolus wbicb drain tbe dock were all carefully plugged, and as soon as tbe "junk" bad been dissected all tbo oil was carefully "squeegeed" up and poured into tbe try-pots. Two men were now told otV as " blubber-room men," whose duty it became to go below, and 8(|uec/ing tbem- selves in as best tbey could between tbo greasy masses of fat, cut it up into "horse-pieces" about eighteen inches long and six inches square. Doing this they became perfectly saturated with oil, as if they had taken a bath in a tank of it ; for as the vessel rolled it was impossible to maintain a footing, and every fall was upon blubber running witb oil. A machine of wonderful construction had been erected on deck in a kind of shallow trough about six feet long by four feet wide and a foot deep. At some remote period of time it bad no doubt been looked upon as a triumph of ingenuity, a patent mincing machine. Its action was somewhat like that of a chaff-cutter, except that tbe knife was not attached to the wheel, and only rose and fell, since it was not required to cut right through the " horse- pieces" with wbich it was fed. It will be readily understood that in order to get the oil quickly out of E ^y 50 77/ A' aniiiHh: oi<' the "caohalot:' I the blubber, it nmaU to bu »Iiced as thin as possible, but for convenience in handling the refuse (which is the only fuel used) it iH not chopped up in small pieces, but every "horse-piece" \n very deeply scored as it were, leaving a thin ntrip to hold the slices together. This then was the order of work. Two harpooners attended the try-pots, repleninhing them with minced blubber from the hopper at tho port side, and baling out the sutticiently boiled oil into the great cooling tank on the starboard. One oflicor superintended the mincing, another exercised a general supervision over all. There was no man at the wheel and no look-out, for the vessel was " hove-to" under two close-reefed topsails and fore- topmast-staysail, with th(! wheel lashed hard down. A look-out man was tinnecessary, since we could not run anybody down, and if anybody ran us down, it would only be because all hands were asleep, for the glare of our try-workw fire, to say nothing of the blazing cresset before mentioned, could have been seen for many mileH, Ho we toiled watch and watch, six hours on and six olT, the work never ceasing for an instant night or day. Though the work was hard and dirty, and the diMcutiifort of being so continually wet through with oil great, therj was only one thing dangerous about tla; whole business. That was the job of filling and nhifting the huge casks of oil. Some of these were of (jnornious size, containing 350 gallons when full, and the work of moving them about the greasy deck of a rolling ship wa« attended with a terrible amount of risk. For only four men at most could ge* fair hold of a cask, and when she took it into her silly old hull to Htart rolling, just as we had got one half-way acrosM tbe deck, with nothing to grip your DIRTY WORK FOR CLEAN MONEY." 51 feet, and the knowledge that one stumbling man would mean a sudden slide of the ton and a half weight, and a little heap of mangled corpses somewhere in the lee scuppers — well one always wanted to be very thankful when the lashings were safely passed. The whale being a small one, as before noted, the whole business was over within three days, and the decks scrubbed and re-scrubbed until they had quite regained their normal whiteness. The oil was poured by means of a funnel and long canvas hose into the casks stowed in the ground tier at the bottom of the ship, and the gear, all carefully cleaned and neatly " stopped up," stowed snugly away below again. This long and elaborate process is quite different from that followed on board the Arctic whaleships, wliose voyages are of short duration, and who content themselves with merely cutting the blubber up small and bringing it home to have the oil expressed. But the awful putrid mass discharged from a Greenlander's hold is of very different quality and value, apart from the nature of the substance, to the clear and sweet oil, which after three years in cask is landed from a south-seaman as in- offensive in smell and flavour as the day it was shipped. No attempt is made to separate the oil and spermaceti beyond boiling the " head matter," as it is called, by itself first, and putting it into casks which are not filled up with the body oil. Spermaceti exists in all the oil, especially that from the dorsal hump ; but it is left for the refiners ashore to extract and leave the oil quite free from any admixture of the wax-like substance, which causes it to become solid at temperatures considerably above the freezing-point. Uninteresting as the preceding description may be, i ; I 52 THE CRUISE OF THE ''CACHALOT. I I it ia impoHsible to uuJeriitiMitl iinythiug of the ecoiuiuy of a south-sea whaler without giving it, and I have felt it the more necessary because of the scanty notice given to it in the only two works published on the subject, both of them highly technical, and written for scientific purposes by medical men. Therefore I hope to be forgiven if I have tried the patience of my readers by any prolixity. It will not, of course, have escai)ed the reader's notice that I have not hitherto attempted to give any details concerning the structure of the whale just dealt with. The omission is intentional. During this, our hrst attempt at real whaling, my mind ^vas far too disturbed by the novelty and danger of the position in which I found myself for the first time, for me to pay any intelligent attention to the party of the second i)art. But I may safely promise that from the workman's point of view, the habits, manners, and build of the whales shall be faithfully described as I saw them during my long acquaintance with them, earnestly hoping that if my story be not as technical or scieutitic ?3 that of Drs. Bennett and Beale, it may be found fully as accurate and reliable ; and perhaps the reader, being like myself a mere layman, so to speak, may be better able to -tnpreciate description free from scientilic formula and nine-jointed words. Two things I did notice on this occasion which I will hrietly allude to before closing this chapter. One was the peculiar skin of the whale. It was a bluish-black, and as thin as gold-beater's skin. So thin, indeed, and tender, that it was easily scraped off with the finger- nail. Immediately beneath it, upon the surface of the hlubber, was a layer or coating of what for want of a DIRTY WORK FOR CLEAN MONEY. 53 as being I better fiimile I must call fine short fur, althouf^h unlike fur it had no roots or apparently any hold upon the blub])er. Neither was it attached to the skin which covered it ; in fact, it seemed merely a sort of packing between the skin and the surface of the thick layer of solid fat which covered the whole area of the whale's body. The other matter which impressed me was the peculiarity of the teeth. For up till that time I had held, in common with most seamen, and landsmen, too, for that matter, the prevailing idea that a "whale" lived by " suction " (although I did not at all know what that meant), and that it was impossible for him to swallow a herring. Yet here was a mouth manifestly intended for greater things in the way of gastronomy than herrings ; nor did it require more than the most casual glances to satisfy one of so obvious a fact. Then the teeth were heroic in size, protruding some four or five inches from the gum, and solidly set more than that into its firm and compact substance. They were certainly not intended for mastication, being, where thickest, three inches apart, and tapering to a short point, curving slightly backwards. In this specimen, a female, and therefore small as I have said, there were twenty of them on each side, the last three or four near the gullet being barely visible above the gum. Another most convincing renson why no mastication could have been possible was that there were no teeth visible in the upper jaw. Opposed to each of the teeth was a socket where a tooth should apparently have been, and this wns conclusive evidence of the soft and yielding nature of the great creature's food. But there were signs that at some period of the development of the whale it had possessed a double row of teeth, because n 64 THE CRUISE OF THE "CACHALOT:* at the bottom of these upper sockets we found in a few cases what seemed to be an abortive tooth, not one that was growing, because they had no roots, but a survival of teeth that had once been perfect and useful, but from dis- use, or lack of necessity for them, had gradually ceased to come to maturity. The interior of the mouth and throat was of a livid white, and the tongue was quite small for so large an animal. It was almost incapable of movement, being somewhat like a fowl's. Certainly it could not have been protruded even from the angle of the mouth, much less have extended along the parapet of that lower mandible, which reminded one of the beak of some mighty albatross or stork. I I V 00 CHAPTER YII. OKTTINO SOUTHWARD. Whether our recent experience had altered the captain's plans or not I do not know, but much to the dismay of the Portuguese portion of the crew, we did but sight, dimly and afar off, the outline of the Cape Verde Islands before our course was altered, and we bore away for the southward like any other outward-bounder. That is, as far as our course went ; but as to the speed, we still retained the leisurely tactics hitherto pursued, shorten- ing sail every night, and, if the weather was very fine, setting it all again at daybreak. The morose and sullen temper of the captain had been, if anything, made worse by recent events, and we were worked as hard as if the success of the voyage depended upon our ceaseless toil of scrubbing, scraping, and polishing. Discipline was indeed maintained at a high pitch of perfection, no man daring to look awry, much less complain of any hardship, however great. Even this humble submissiveness did not satisfy our tyrant, and at last his cruelty took a more active shape. One of the long Yankee farm»^rs from Vermont, Abner Gushing byname, with the ingenuity wbich seems inbred in his 'cute countrymen, must needs try his hand at ^^. J 56 THE en VIS]': of the "CAciiAiorr !': I ii mnkinjij a villainous decoction which he called "heer," the principal ingredients in which wore potatoes and molasses. Now potatoes formed nc part of our dietary, so Ahner set his wits to work to steal sufHcient for his purpose, and succeeded so far that he ohtained half a dozen. I have very little doubt that one of the Portu- guese in the forecastle conveyed the information aft for some reason best known to himself, any more than we white men all had that in a similar manner all our sayings and doings, however trivial, became at once known to the oflicers. However, the fact that the theft was discovered soon became painfully evident, for we bad a visit from the afterguard in force one afternoon, aiid Abner with his brewage was haled to the quarter- deck. There, in the presence of all hands, he was arraigned, found guilty of stealing the ship's stores, and sentence passed upon him. By means of two small pieces of fishing line he was suspended by his thumbs in the weather rigging, in such a manner that when the ship was upright his toes touched the deck, but /.len she rolled his whole wei^^rl^t hung from his thumbs. This of itself one would have thought sTilHcient torture for almost any ofltence, but in addition to it he received two dozen lashes wills an improvised cat-o'-niue-tails, laid on 'jy the '^rawny arm of ono of the harpooners. Wtj were all compelled to witness this, and our feehngs r«iay be imigined. When, after wLat seemed a terribly cng time to me CHeaven knows what it must have been Ic him ! ), he ft> .nt d, although no ' hi.-ken I nearly fainted ().., i'rom contiicting emotions of sympathy and impotent rage. lie was then released in leisurely fashion, and we were permitted to take him forward and revive him. As OETTING SOUTTlWAnD. 57 .\s Boon as be was able to Rtand on bis feet, be was called on deck a^ain, and not allowed to go below till bis watcb was over. Meanwbile Captain Slocum improved tbe occasion by giving us a sbort baranguu, tbe burden of wbicb was tbat we bad now seen a littlr of wbat any of us raigbt expect if we played any " dogs' tricks " on him. But you can get used to anytbing, I suppose ; so after tbe first sbock of the atrocity was over, things went on again pretty much as usual. For tbe first and only time in my experience, we sighted St. Paul's liocks, a tiny group of jagged peaks protruding from tbe Atlantic nearly on tbe Equator. Stupendous mountains they must be, rising almost sheer for about four and a half miles from the ocean bed. Although they appear quite insignificant specks upon tbe vast expanse of water, one could not help thinking how sublime their appearance would be were they visible from tbe plateau whence they spring. Their chief in- terest to us at tbe time arose from the fact that, when within about three miles of them, we were suddenly surrounded by a vast school of bonito. These fish, so- named by the Spaniards from their handsome appear- ance, are a species of mackerel, a brunch of the Scoiii- bridtc family, and attain a size of about two feet long and forty pounds weight, though their average dimen- sions are somewhat less than half that. They feed entirely upon fiying-fish and the small leaping squid or cuttle-fish, but love to follow a ship, playing around her, if her pace be not too great, for days together. Their flesh resembles beef in appearance, and they are warm-blooded ; but, from their habitat being mid-ocean, iiotbing is known with any certainly of tbeir habits of bicxding. \v. 58 THE CRUISE OF THE "CACIIALOTr The orthodox method of catching them on hoard ship is to cover a suitable hook with a piece of white rag a couple of inches long, and attach it to a stout line. The fisherman then talies his seat upon the jibboom end, having first, if he is prudent, secured a sack to the jib- stay in such a manner that its mouth gapes wide. Then he unrolls his line, and as the ship forges ahead the line, blowing out, describes a curve, at the end of which the bait, dipping to the water occasionally, roughly repre- sents a flying-fish. Of course, the faster the ship is going, the better the chance of deceiving the fish, since they have less time to study the appearance of the bait. It is really an exaggerated and clumsy form of fly-fishing, and, as with that elegant pastime, much is due to the skill of the fisherman. As the bait leaps from crest to crest of the wavelets thrust aside by the advancing ship, a fish more adven- turous or hungrier than the rest will leap at it, and in an instant there is a dead, dangling weight of from ten to forty pounds hanging at the end of your line thirty feet below. You haul frantically, for he may be poorly hooked, and you cannot play him. In a minute or two, if all goes well, he is plunged in the sack, and safe. But woe unto you if you have allowed the jeers of your ship- mates to dissuade you from taking a sack out with you. The struggles of these fish are marvellous, and a man runs great risk of being shaken off the boom, unless his legs are firmly locked in between the guys. Such is the tremendous vibration that a twenty-pound bonito makes in a man's grip, that it can be felt in the cabin at the other end of the ship ; and I have often come in trium- phantly with one, having lost all feeling in my arms and a goodly portion of skin off my Ireast and side, GETTISO SOUTH WA IIP. 50 where I have emhraced the prize in a ^rim determina- tion to hokl him at all hazards, besides being literally drenched with his blood. Like all our fishing operations on board the Cachalot, this day's fishing was conducted on scientific principles, and resulted in twenty-five fine fish being shipped, which were a welcome addition to our scanty allowance. Happily for us, they would not take the salt in that sultry latitude soon enough to preserve them ; for, when they can be salted, they become like brine itself, and are quite unfit for food. Yet we ehould have been compelled to eat salt bonito, or go without meat altogether, if it had been possible to cure them. We were now fairly in the " horse latitudes," and, much to our relief, the rain came down in occasional deluges, permitting us to wash well and often. I sup- pose the rains of the tropics have been often enough described to need no meagre attempts of mine to convey an idea of them; yet I have often wished I could make home-keeping friends understand how far short what they often speak of as a "tropical shower " falls of the genuine article. The nearest I can get to it is the idea of an ocean suspended overhead, out of which the bottom occasionally falls. Nothing is visible or audible but the glare and roar of falling water, and a ship's deck, despite the many outlets, is full enough to swim about in in a very few minutes. At such times the whole celestial machinery of rain-making may be seen in full working order. Five or six mighty water-spouts in various stages of development were often within easy distance of us ; once, indeed, we watched the birth, growth, and death of one less than a mile away. First, a big, black cloud, even among that great assemblage 'II ()0 THE CRUISE OF THE "CACHALOT:' of iiimhi, bcp;an to belly downwavl, until tho t'cntrc of it tapered into a stem, and Uiu whole mass looked like a vast, irregularly-moulded funnel. Tiower and lower it reached, as if feeling for a soil in which to grow, until the Hia beneath was agitated sympathetically, rising at last in a sort of pointed mound to meet the descending column. Our nearness enabled us to seo that both descending and rising parts were whirling violently in obedience to some invisible force ; and when they had joined each other, although the spiral motion did not appear to continue, the upward rush of the water through what was now a long elastic tube was very plainly to be seen. The cloud overhead grew blacker and bigger, until its gloom was terrible. Tho pipe, or stem, got thinner gradually, until it became a more thread ; nor, although watching closely, could we deter- mine when the connection between sea and sky ceased — one could not call it severed. The point rising from the sea settled almost immediately amidst a small commotion, as of a whirlpool. The tail depending from the cloud slowly shortened, and the mighty reservoir lost the vast bulge which had hung so threateningly above. Just before tho final disappearance of tho last porticm of the tube, a fragment of cloud appeared to break off. It fell near enough to show by its thunder- ing roar what a body of water it must have been, although jt looked like a saturated piece of dirty rag in its descent.. For whole days and nights together we sometimes lay almost "as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean," when the deep blue dome above matched the deep blue plain below, and never a fleck of white app'^ared in sky or sea. This perfect stop to our progress troubled none, rag lay lau," Iblue sky lone, GHTTiNO snrrn \va iuk 61 I ultlioii<^h it ii;,'graviitL'.s a nieivhant skippi-T ttiiibly. As for the objects of our search, they hail apiJanntly all migrated other- whither, for never a sign of them did we see. Finbacks, a sjireies of roriiual, werv' always pretty ninnerouH, and, as if they knew how useless they were to us, came and played around like exaggerated porpoises. One in particular kept us company for several days and nights. We knew him well, from a great triangular scar on his right side, near the dorsal lin. Sometimes he would remain motionless by the side of the bhip, a few feet below the surface, as distinctly in our sight as a gold-fish in a parlour globe ; or he would go under the keel, and gently chafe his broad back to and fro along it, making (jueer tremors run through the vessel, as if she were scraping over a reef. Whether from superstition or not I cannot tell, but i never saw any creature in- jured out of pure wantonness, except sharks, while I was on board the Caclialat. Of course, injuries to men do not count. Had that liuback attempted to play about a passenger ship in such a fashion, all the loungers on board would have been popping at him with their revolvers and ritles without ever a thought of compunction ; yet here, in a vessel whose errand was whale-fishing, a whale enjoyed j)ertect immunity. It was very puzzling. At last my curiosity became too great to bear any longer, and I sought my friend Mistah Jones at what I con- sidered a favourable opportunity. I found him very gracious and communicative, and 1 got such a lecture on the natural history of the cetacea as 1 have never forgotten — the outcome of a quarter-century's experience of them, and afterwards proved by me to be correct in every detail, which latter is a great deal more than can be said of uuy written natural history that ever I I'' I !i ;|i I i ^, % Sr .^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.1 ■^£■2.8 ■10 ^^ Vi lU u 140 |25 2.0 IL25 III 1.4 m 1.6 HiolDgra]iiic Sdaices Corporation ^\ V ^. <^ >^^^1^ ^ ^ ^ ^J> v\ 33 WIST MAIN STMET WUSret.N.Y. 14SM (716) t73-4S03 ^^^ ^ A'A K<^ n^^ ^ Tl TIIK WIIAI.E STAUTKD OFF TO WINDWAr'D WITII IS AT A TiiKMKNDOr."* KAIK. ABNEH'S WHALE. 75 terribly long chase, wo found his speed slackening, and y{Q redoubled our efforts. Now we were close upon him ; now, in obedience to the steersman, the boat sheered out a bit, and we were abreast of his labouring flukes ; now the mate hurls his quivering lance with such hearty good-will that every inch of its slender shaft disappears within the huge body. " Lay off ! Off with her, Louey ! " screamed the mate ; and she gave a wide sheer away from the whale, not a second too soon. Up flew that awful tail, descending with a crash upon the water not two feet from us. " Out oars ! Pull, two ! starn, three ! " shouted the mate ; and as we obeyed our foe turned to fight. Then might one see how courage and skill were such mighty factors in the apparently unequal contest. The whale's great length made it no easy job for him to turn, while our boat, with two oars a-side, and the great leverage at the stern supplied by the nineteen-foot steer- oar, circled, backed, and darted ahead like a living thing animated by the mind of our commander. When the leviathan settled, we gave a wide berth to his probable place of ascent ; when he rushed at us, we dodged him ; when he paused, if only momentarily, in we flew, and got home a fearful thrust of the deadly lance. All fear was forgotten now — I panted, thirsted for his life. Once, indeed, in a sort of frenzy, when for an instant we lay side by side with him, I drew my sheath- knife, and plunged it repeatedly into the blubber, as if I were assisting in his destruction. Suddenly the mate gave a howl: " Starn all — starn all ! oh, starn ! " and the oars bent like canes as we obeyed. There was an upheaval of the sea just ahead ; then slowly, majestically, the vast body of our foe rose into the air. Up, up it went, while my heart stood still, until the whole of that immense T6 THE CRUISE OF THE "CACIfALOT.' creature hung on high, apparently niotionlesB, and then fell — a hundred tons of solid flosh — back into the sea. On cither side of that monntainouH mass the waters rose in shining towers of sncAvy foam, which fell in their turn, wliirling and eddying around us as we tossed and fell like a chip in a whirlpool. Blinded by the flying spray, baling for very life to free the boat from the water with which she was nearly full, it was some minutes before I was able to decide whether wo were still uninjured or not. Then I saw, at a little distance, the whale lying quietly. As I looked he spouted, and the vapour was red with his blood. " Starn all ! " again cried our chief, and we retreated to a considerable distance. 'Hie old warrior's practised eye had detected the coming climax of our efforts, the dying agony or "flurry" of the great mammal. Turning upon his side, he began to move in a circular direction, slowly at first, then faster and faster, until he was rushing round at tremendous speed, his great head raised quite out of water at times, clashing his enormous jaws. Torrents of blood poured from his spout-hole, accompanied by hoarse bellowings, as of some gigantic bull, but really caused by the labouring breath trying to pass through the clogged air passages. The utmost caution and rapidity of manipulation of the boat was necessary to avoid his maddened rush, but this gigantic energy was short-lived. In a few minutes he subsided slowly in death, his mighty body reclined on one side, the fin uppermost waving limply as he rolled to the swell, while the small waves broke gently over the carcass in a low, monotonous surf, intensifying the profound silence that had succeeded the tumult of our conflict with the late monarch of the deep. Hardly had the flurry ceased, when we hauled up alongside of our AliSElVb WIIALK. I ^ hard-won pii/e, in order to secure ii c? to him in a better manner tlian at present for hutiling him to the ship. This was effected by cutting a hole through the tough, gristly substance of the flukes with the short "boat-spade," carried for the purpose. The end of the line, cut oft from the faithful harpoon that hud held it so long, was then passed through this hole and made fast. This done, it was " Smoke-oh ! " The luxury of that rest and refreshment was something to bo grateful for, coming, as it did, in such complete contrast to our recent violent exertions. The ship was some three or four miles off to leeward, so we reckoned she would take at least an hour and a half to work uj) to us. ^feanwhile, our part of the performance being over, and well over, wo thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, lazily rocking on the gentle swell by the side of a catch worth at least £800. During the conflict 1 had not noticed what now claimed attention — several great masses of white, semi-transparent-looking substance floating about, of huge size and irregular shape. But one of these curious lumps came floating by as we lay, tugged at by several fish, and I immediately asked the mate if he could tell mo what it was and where it came from. He told me that, when dying, the cachalot always ejected the contents of his stomach, which were invariably composed of such masses as we saw before us ; that he believed the stuff to be portions of big cuttle-fish, bitten off by the whale for the purpose of swallowing, but he wasn't sure. Anyhow, I could haul this piece alongside now, if I liked, and see. Secretly wondering at the indifference shown by this officer of forty years' whaling experience to such a wonderful fact as appeared to be here presented, I thanked him, and. 78 rill-: CRUiai: of tiik "CAcrfALor." Hticking tlu; boat-hook into the lump, drew it alongside. It was at once evident that it was a massive fragment of cuttle-fish — tentacle or arm — as thick as a stout man's body, and with six or seven sucking-discs or acHalmla on it. Tliese were about as large as a saucer, and on their inner edge were thickly set with hooks or claws all round the rim, sharp as needles, and almost the shape and size of a tiger's. To what manner of awful monster this portion of limb belonged, I could only faintly imagine; but of course I remembered, as any sailor would, that from my earliest sea-going I had been told that the cuttle- fish was the biggest in the sea, although I never even began to think it might be true until now. I asked the mate if he had ever seen such creatures as this piece belonged to alive and kicking. He answered, languidly, "Wall, I guess so; but I don't take any stock in fish, 'cept for provisions er ile — en thet's a fact." It will bo readily believed that I vividly recalled this conversation when, many years after, I read an account by the Prince of Monaco of hia discovery of a gigantic squid, to which his naturalist gave the name of Lepidoteuthis Grimald'd! Truly the indifference and apathy manifested by whalers generally to everything except commercial matters is wonderful — hardly to be credited. However, this was a mighty revelation to me. For the first time, it was possible to understand that, contrary to the usual notion of a whale's being unable to swallow a herring, here was a kind of whale that could swallow — well, a block four or five feet square apparently; who lived upon creatures as large as himself, if one might judge of their bulk by the sample to hand ; but being unable, from only possessing teeth in one jaw, to A/iNEJiS WIlALi:. 71) me. Ithat, \\q to buld itly; one but Iv, to masticate Iuh food, was compollod to tear it in sizable pieces, bolt it whole, and leave his commissariat depart- ment to do the rest. While thus ruminating, the mate and Louis began a desultory conversation concerning what they termed " ambergrease." I had never even heard the word before, although I had a notion that Milton, in " Paradise Regained," describing the Satanic banquet, had spoken of something being " gris-amber steamed." They could by no means agree as to what this mysterious substance was, how it was produced, or under what conditions. They knew that it was sometimes found floating near the dead body of a sperm whale — the mate, in fact, stated that he had taken it once from the rectum of a cachalot — and they were certain that it was of great value — from one to three guineas per ounce. When I got to know more of the natural history of the sperm whale, and had studied the literature of the subject, I was no longer surprised at their want of agreement, since the learned doctors who have written upon the subject do not seem to have come to definite conclusions either. By some it is supposed to be the product of a diseased condition of the creature ; others consider that it is merely the excreta, which, normally fluid, has by some means become concreted. It is nearly always found with cuttle-flsh beaks imbedded in its substance, showing that these indigestible portions of the sperm whale's food have in some manner become mixed with it during its formation in the bowel. Chemists have ana- lyzed it with scanty results. Its great value is due to its property of intensifying the power of perfumes, although, strange to say, it has little or no odour of its own, a faint trace of musk being perhaps detectable in some cases. 80 Tin: VltUlSE OF THE "CACJfALOT." 1 ! The Turks are saM to use it for a truly Turkish purpose, which need not be explained here, while the Moors are credited with a taste for it in their cookery. About both these latter statements there is considerable doubt ; I only give them for what they are worth, without committing myself to any definite belief in them. The ship now neared us fast, and as soon as she rounded-to, we left the whale and pulled towards her, paying out line as we went. Arriving alongside, the line was handed on board, and in a short time the prize was hauled to the gangway. We met with a very different reception this time. The skipper's grim face actually looked almost pleasant as he contemplated the colossal proportions of the latest addition to our stock. Tie was indeed a fine catch, being at least seventy feet long, and in splendid condition. As soon as ho was secured alongside in the orthodox fashion, all hands were sent to dinner, with an intimation to look sharp over it. Judging from our slight previous experience, there was some heavy labour before us, for this whale was nearly four times as large as the one caught off the Cape Verds. And it was so. Verily those officers toiled like Titans to get that tremendous head off, even the skipper taking a hand. In spite of their efforts, it was dark before the heavy job was done. As we were in no danger of bad weather, the head was dropped astern by a hawser until morning, when it would be safer to dissect it. All that night we worked inces- santly, ready to drop with fatigue, but not daring to suggest the possibility of such a thing. Several of the officers and harpooners were allowed a few hours off, as their special duty of dealing with the head at daylight would be so arduous as to need all theiv energies. When day ABNER'S WHALE. 81 icers I their »'Ould li clay (iawued we were allowed u short rost, wliilu tlm work of cutting up the head was imlertaken hy the roHtod men aft. At seven hclla (7.30) it was '"turn to" all hands again. The "junk" was hooked on to hoth cuttinj,' tackles, and the windlass manned hy everybody who could get hold. Slowly the enormous mass rose, cantln}» the ship heavily as it came, while every stick and ropo aloft complained of the great strain upon them. When at last it was safely shipped, and the tackles cast off, the size of this small portion of a full-grown cachalot's body could be realized, not before. It was hauled from the gangway by tackles, and securely lashed to the rail running round beneath the top of the bulwarks for that purpose— the " lash -rail " — where the top of it towered up as high as the third ratline of the main-rigging. Then there was another spell, while the "case" was separated from the skull. This was too large to get on board, so it was lifted half- way out of water by the tackles, one hooked on each aide ; then they were made fast, and a spar rigged across thorn at a good height above the top of the case. A small block was lashed to this spar, through which a line was rove'. A long, narrow bucket was attached to one end of this rope ; the other end on deck was attended by two men. One unfortunate beggar was perched aloft on the above-mentioned spar, where his position, like the main- yard of Marryatt's verbose carpenter was " precarious and not at all permanent." He was provided with a pole, with which he pushed the bucket down through a hole cut in the upper end of the " case," whence it was drawn out by the chaps on deck full of spermaceti. It was a weary, unsatisfactory process, wasting a great deal of the substance being baled out ; but no other way was o s 82 THE CRUISE OF THE "CACHALOT." apparently possible. The grease blew about, drenching most of us engaged in an altogether unpleasant fashion, while, to mend matters, the old barky began to roll and tumble about in an aimless, drunken sort of way, the result of a new cross swell rolling up from the south-westward. As the stuff was gained, it was poured into large tanks iu the blubber-room, the quantity being too great to be hold by the try-pots at once. Twenty-five barrels of this clear, wax-like substance were baled from that case ; and when at last it was lowered a little, and cut away from its supports, it was impossible to help thinking that much was still remaining within which we, with such rude means, were unable to save. Then came the task of cutting up the junk. Layer after layer, eight to ten inches thick, was sliced off, cut into suitable pieces, and passed into the tanks. So full was the matter of spermaceti that one could take a piece as large as one's head in the hands, and squeeze it like a sponge, expressing the spermaceti in showers, until nothing remained but a tiny ball of fibre. All this soft, pulpy mass was held together by walls of exceedingly tough, gristly integument (" white horse "), which was as difficult to cut as gutta-percha, and, but for the peculiar texture, not at all unlike it. When we had finished separating the junk, there was nearly a foot of oil on deck in the waist, and uproarious was the laughter when some hapless individual, losing his balance, slid across the deck and sat down with a loud splash in the deepest part of the accumulation. The lower jaw of this whale measured exactly nine- teen feet in length from the opening of the mouth, or, say the last of the teeth, to the point, and carried twenty- eight teeth on each side. For the time, it was hauled A us EH' S WHALE. 83 shing hion, 1 and fCHUlt ward. tanku to be els of case; away inking J, with me the , eight uitable as the ,8 large ponge, othing , pulpy tough, as as eculiar lere was roarious „ losing with a ion. jly nine- luth, or, twenty- hauled aft out of the way, and sccurod to the InHh-ruil. Tlie Bubweciuent proceed ingH were just the fiamo us before described, only more so. For a whole week our labours continued, and when they were over wo had stowed below a hundred and forty-six barrels of mingled oil and spermaceti, or fourteen and a half tuns. It was really a pleasant sight to see Aimer receiving, as if being invested with an order of merit, the twenty pounds of tobacco to which he was entitled. Poor fellow ! he felt as if at last ho were going to bo thought a little of, and treated a little better. He brought his bounty forrard, and shared it out as far as it would go with the greatest delight and good nature possible. Whatever ho might have been thought of aft, certainly, for the time, he was a very important personage forrard; even the Portuguese, who were inclined to be jealous of what they considered an infringement of their rights, were mollified by the generosity shown. After every sign of the operations had been cleared away, the jaw was brought out, and the teeth extracted with a small tackle. They were set solidly into a hard white gum, which had to be cut away all around them before they would come out. When cleaned of the gum, they were headed up in a small barrel of brine. The great jaw-pans were sawn off, and placed at the disposal of anybody who wanted pieces of bone for " scrimshaw," or carved work. This is a very favourite pastime on board whalers, though, in ships such as ours, the crew have little opportunity for doing anything, hardly any leisure during daylight being allowed. But our carpenter was a famous workman at " scrimshaw," and he started half a dozen walking-sticks forthwith. A favourite design is to carve the bone into the similitude of a rope, «4 TIW CHUJtiK OF Hit "CACHALOT." with " \V(ii'min{{ " of sumlkr line ulouj; it.s luyn. A Imndlo \H carved out uf u whale's touth, aud insetH of baleen, hilver, cocou-trt'c, or . bony, j^ivo variety and liniHh. The tools used are of the roughcHt. Some old tiles, softened in the lire, and liled into grooves something like saw-teeth, are most used; hut old knives, sail-needles, and chisels arc pressed into service. The work turned out would, in many cases, take a very high place in an exhibition of turnery, though never a lathe was near it. Of course, a long time is taken over it, esiieiially the polishing, which is done with oil and whiting, if it can be got — powdered pumice if it cainiot. 1 once had an elaborate pastry-cutter carved out of si\ whale's teeth, which I purciuised for a pound of tobacco from a seaman of the Cnidl whaler, and afterwards sold in Dunedin, New Zealand, for ^2 10«., the purchaser being decidedly of opinion that he had a bargain. ( m:, CITArTKn T\. orn iFRsr CAi.MXd ri.ACR. Prrtiaps it may hastily bo assumed, from the largo space already devoted to fishing operations of various kinds, that tho subject will not bear much more dealing with, if my story is to avoid being monotonous. But I beg to assure you, dear reader, that while of course I have most to say in connection with tho business of tho voyage, nothing is farther from ray plan than to neglect the very interesting portion of our cruise which relates to visiting strange, out-of-the-way corners of the world. If— which I earnestly deprecate — the description hitherto given of sperm whale-fishing and its adjuncts bo found not so interesting as could be wished, I cry you mercy. I have been induced to give more space to it because it has been systematically avoided in the works upon whale-fishing before mentioned, which, as I have said, were not intended for popular reading. True, neither may my humble tome become popular either ; but, if it does not, no one will be so disappointed as the author. We had made but little progress during the week of oil manufacture, very little attention being paid to the sails while that work was about ; but, as the south-east Hf? THE r/irrSE OF THE "rACTJAJ.OT:' trades blow steadily, we did not remain stationary alto- gether. So that the followinf,' week saw iis on the south side of tlie tropic of Capricorn, the south-east trade done, and the dirty weather and variable squalls, which nearly always precede the " westerlies," making our lives a burden to us. Here, however, we were better oflf than in an ordinary merchantman, where doldrums are enough to drive you mad. The one object being to get along, it is incessant " puUy-hauly," setting and taking in sail, in order, on the one hand, to lose no time, and, on the other, to lose no sails. Now, with us, whenever the weather was doubtful or squally-looking, we shortened sail, and kept it fast till better weather came along, being quito careless whether we made one mile a day or one hundred. But just because nobody took any notice of our progress as the days passed, we were occasionally startled to find how far we had really got. This was certainh' the case with all of us forward, even to me who had some experience, so well used had I now become to the leisurely way of getting along. To the laziest of ships, however, there comes occasionally a time when the bustling, hurrying wind will take no denial, and you've got to " git up an' git," as the Yanks put it. Such a time succeeded our " batterfanging " about, after losing the trades. We got hold of a westerly wind that, com- mencing quietly, gently, steadily, taking two or three days before it gathered force and volume, strengthened at last into a stern, settled gale that would brook no denial, to face which would have been misery indeed. To vessels bound cast it came as a boon and blessing, for it would be a crawler that could not reel ott' her two hundred and fifty miles a day before the push of such a breeze. Even the Cachalot did her one hundred and OUR FIRST CALL I SO- PLACE. 87 fifty, pounding and bruising the ill-used soa in her path, ancTspireading before her broad bows a far-reaching area of snowy foam, while her wake was as wide as any two ordinary ships ought to make. Five or six times a day the flying East India or colonial-bound English ships, under every stitch of square sail, would appear as tiny specks on the horizon astern, come up with us, pass like a flash, and fade away ahead, going at least two knots to our one. I could not help feeling a bit home-sick and tired of my present surroundings, in spite of their interest, when I saw those beautiful ocean-flyers devour- ing the distance w^hich lay before them, and reflected that in little more than one month most of them would be discharging in Melbourne, Sydney, Calcutta, or some other equally distant port, while we should probably be dodging about in our present latitude a little farther east. After a few days of our present furious rate of speed, I came on deck one morning, and instantly recognized an old acquaintance. Eight ahead, looking nearer than I had ever seen it before, rose the towering mass of Tristan d'Acunha, while farther away, but still visible, lay Nightingale and Inaccessible Islands. Their aspect was familiar, for I had sighted them on nearly every voyage I had made round the Cape, but I had never seen them so near as this. There was a good deal of excitement among us, and no wonder. Such a break in the monotony of our lives as we were about to have was enough to turn our heads. Afterwards, we learned to view these matters in a more philosophic light ; but now, being new and galled by the yoke, it was a different thing. Near as the island seemed, it was six hours before we got near enough to distinguish objects on shore. I have fi Is li ss TIIK rilUlSK OF THE "CACffALOT." \ i seen the top of Tristan peeping through a cloud nearly a hundred miles away, for its height is tremendous. St. Helena looks a towering, scowling mass when you approach it closely ; but Tristan d'Acunha is far more imposing, its savage-looking cliffs seeming to sternly forbid the venturesome voyager any nearer familiarity with their frowning fastnesses. Long before wo came within working distance of the settlement, we were con- tinually passing broad patches of kelp (fncm (jiifaHtea), whose great leaves and cable-laid stems made quite reef- like breaks in the heaving waste of restless sea. Very different indeed were these patches of marine growth from the elegant wreaths of the Gulf-weed with which parts of the North Atlantic are so thickly covered. Their colour was deep brown, almost black in some cases, and the size of many of the leaves amazing, being four to five feet long, by a foot wide, with stalks as thick as one's arm. They have their origin around these storm-beaten rocks, which lie scattered thinly over the immense area of the Southern Ocean, whence they are torn, in masses like those we saw, by every gale, and sent wandering round the world. "When we arrived within about three miles of the landing-place, we saw a boat coming off, so we imme- diately hove-to and awaited her arrival. There was no question of anchoring ; indeed, there seldom is in these vessels, unless they are going to make a long stay, for they are past masters in the art of ** standing off and on." The boat came alongside — a big, substantially- built craft of the whale-boat type, but twice the size — manned by ten sturdy- looking fellows, as unkempt and wild-looking as any pirates. They were evidently put to great straits for clothes, many curious makeshifts Oi'i; FIRST rAIJ.ISa-ri.ACK. SO l)oinf5 noticeable in their rig, while it was so patched with every conceivable kind of material that it was impossible to say which was the original or " standing part." They brought with them potatoes, onions, a few fctuntcd cabbages, some fowls, and a couple of good-sized pigs, at the sight of which good things our eyes glistened and our mouths watered. Alas ! none of the cargo of that boat ever reached our hungry stomachs. We were not surprised, having anticipated that every bit of pro- vision would be monopolized by our masters ; but of course we had no means of altering such a state of things. The visitors had the same tale to tell that seems universal — bad trade, hard times, nothing doing. How ver}' familiar it seemed, to be sure. Nevertheless, it could not be cenied that their sole means of communi- cation with the outer world, as well as market for their goods, the calling whale-ships, were getting fewer and fewer every year ; so that their outlook was not, it must be confessed, particularly bright. But their wants are few, beyond such as they can themselves supply. Groceries and clothes, the latter especially, as the winters lire very severe, are almost the only needs they require to be supplied with from without. They spoke of the "Cape" as if it were only across the way, the distance separating them from that wonderlul place being' over thirteen hundred miles in reality. Very occasionally a schooner from Capetown does visit them ; but, as the seals are almost exterminated, there is less and less inducement to make the voyage. Like almost all the southern islets, this group has been in its time the scene of a wonderfully productive seal-fishery. It used to be customary for whaling and sealing vessels to land a portion of their crews, and leave 00 THE CRVISK OF THE "CACTI A LOT:* I t them to accumulate a store of seal-skins and oil, while the ships cruised the surrounding seas for whales, which were exceedingly numerous, hoth "right" and sperm varieties. In those days there was no monotony of existence in these islands, ships were continually coming and going, and the islanders prospered exceedingly. When they increased beyond the capacity of the islands to entertain them, a portion migrated to the Cape, while many of the men took service in the whale-ships, for which they were eminently suited. They are, as might be expected, a hybrid lot, the women all mulattoes, but intensely English in their views and loyalty. Since the visit of H.M.S. Galatea, in August, 1867, with the Duke of Edinburgh on board, this sentiment had been intensified, and the little collection of thatched cottages, nameless till then, was called Edinburgh, in honour of the illustrious voyager. They breed cattle, a few sheep, and pigs, although the sheep thrive but indifferently for some reason or another. Poultry they have in large numbers, so that, could they command a market, they would do very w-ell. The steep cliffs, rising from the sea for nearly a thousand feet, often keep their vicinity in absolute calm, although a heavy gale may be raging on the other side of the island, and it would be highly dangerous for any navigator not accustomed to such a neighbourhood to get too near them. The immense rollers setting in- shore, and the absence of wind combined, would soon carry a vessel up against the beetling crags, and letting go an anchor would not be of the slightest use, since the bottom, being of massive boulders, affords no holding ground at all. All round the island the kelp grows thickly, so thickly indeed as to make a boat's progress OUli FIRST CALLINa-PLACF. 01 ng in- l soon letting ICG the lolding grows bogress through it diiheult. This, however, is very useful in one way here, as we found. Wanting more supplies, which wore to he had cheap, we lowered a couple of boats, and went ashore after them. On approaching the black, pebbly beach which formed the only landing-place, it appeared as if getting ashore would be a task of no ordinary danger and difficulty. The swell seemed to culminate as we neared the beach, lifting the boats at one moment high in air, and at the next lowering them into a green valley, from whence nothing could be seen but the surrounding watery summits. Suddenly we entered the belt of kelp, which extended for perhaps a quarter of a mile seaward, and, lo ! a transformation indeed. Those loose, waving fronds of flexible weed, though swayed hither and thither by every ripple, were able to arrest the devastating rush of the gigantic swell, so that the task of landing, which had looked so terrible, was one of the easiest. Once in among the kelp, although we could hardly use the oars, the water was quite smooth and tranquil. The islanders collected on the beach, and guided us to the best spot for landing, the huge boulders, heaped in many places, being ugly impediments to a boat. We were as warmly welcomed as if we had been old friends, and hospitable attentions were showered upon us from every side. The people were noticeably well- behaved, and, although there was something Crusoe like in their way of living, their manners and conversation were distinctly good. A rude plenty was evident, there being no lack of good food — fish, fowl, and vegetables. The grassy plateau on which the village stands is a sort of shelf jutting out from the mountain-side, the moun- tain being really the whole island. Steep roads were !I2 Tin: CRUISE OF THE "CACIIAlOrr liown out of the solid rock, leading, as we were told, to the cultivated terraces above. These reached an elevation of about a thousand feet. Above all towered the great, dominating peak, the summit lost in the clouds eight or nine thousand feet above. The rock-hewn roads and cultivated land certainly gave the settlement an old- established appearance, which was not surprising, seeing that it has been inhabited for more than a hundred years. I shall always bear a grateful recollection of the place, because my host gave me what I had long been a stranger to — a good, old-fashioned English dinner of roast beef and baked potatoes. He apologized for having no plum-pudding to crown the feast. "But, you sec," he said, "we kaint grow no corn hyar, and we'm clean run out ov flour; Lev ter make out on taters 's best we kin." I sincerely sympathized with him on the lack of bread- stuff among them, and wondered no longer at the avidity with which they had munched our flinty biscuits on first coming aboard. His wife, a buxom, motherly woman of about fifty, of dark, olive complexion, but good features, was kindness itself; and their three youngest children, who were at home, could not, in spite of repeated warn- ings and threats, keep their eyes off me, as if I had been some strange animal dropped from the moon. I felt very unwilling to leave them so soon, but time was pressing, the stores we had come for wore all ready to ship, and I had to tear myself away from ..hese kindly entertainers. I declare, it seemed like parting with old friends ; yet our acquaintance might have been measured by minutes, so brief it had been. The mate had purchased a fino bullock, which had been slaughtered and cut up for us with great celerity, four or five dozen fowls (alive), four or five sacks of potatoes, eggs. ■'OG'^J ()fj/{ FIRST VALllSG-VLACE. 03 lioavily laden for tlu' return journey to the ship. My li'iend had kindly given mo a large piece of splendid cheese, for which I was unahle to make him any return, being simply clad in a shirt and pair of trousers, neither of which necessary garments could bo spared. AVith hearty clujers from the whole population, we shoved off and ploughed through the kelp seaward again. When we got clear of it, we found the swell heavier than when we had come, and a rough journey back to the ship was the result. I>ut, to such boatmen as we were, that was u tritle hardly worth mentioning, and after an hour's hard pull we got alongside again, and transhipped our precious cargo. The weather being threatening, we at once hauled off the land and out to sea, as night was falling and we did not wish to be in so dangerous a vicinity any longer than could be helped in stormy weather. Altogether, a most enjoyable day, and one that I have ever since had a jjleasant recollection of. By daybreak next morning the islands were out of sight, for the wind had risen to a gale, which, although we carried little sail, drove us along before it some seven or eight knots an hour. Two days afterwards we caught another whale of medium size, making us fifty-four barrels of oil. As nothing out of the ordinary course marked the capture, it is unnecessary to do more than allude to it in passing, except to note that the honours were all with Goliath. He happened to be close to the whale when it rose, and immediately got fast. So dexterous and swift were his actions that before any of the other boats could " chip in " he had his lish " iiu out," the whole affair from start to finish only occupying a couple of hours. We were now in the chosen haunts of the great albatross. Cape M THE CRUISE OF THE "CACHALOT." pigeons, and Cape hens, but never in my life bad I imagined such a concourse of them as now gathered around us. When we lowered there might have been perhaps a couple of dozen birds in sight, but no sooner was the whale dead than from out of the great void around they began to drift towards us. Before we had got him fast alongside, the numbers of that feathered host were incalculable. They surrounded us until the sea surface was like a plain of snow, and their discordant cries were deafening. With the exception of one peculiar- looking bird, which has received from whalemen the in- elegant name of " stinker," none of them attempted to alight upon the body of the dead monster. This bird, however, somewhat like a small albatross, but of dirty- grey colour, and with a peculiar excrescence on his beak, boldly took his precarious place upon the carcass, and at once began to dig into the blubber. He did not seem to m u e much impression, but he certainly tried hard. It was dark before we got our prize secured by the fluke-chain, so that we could not commence operations before morning. That night it blew hard, and we got an idea of the strain these vessels are sometimes subjected to. Sometimes the ship rolled one way and the whale another, being divided by a big sea, the wrench at the fluke-chain, as the two masses fell apart down different hollows, making the vessel quiver from truck to keelson as if she was being torn asunder. Then we would come together again with a crash and a shock that almost threw everybody out of their bunks. Many an earnest prayer did I breathe that the chain would prove staunch, for what sort of a job it would be to go after that whale during the night, should he break loose, I could only faintly imagine. But all our gear was of the very best ; OUIt FIRST CALLlNO-l'LAUE. 96 no thieving sliip-chandler had any hand in supplying uur outfit with shoddy rope and faulty chain, only made to sell, and ready at the first call made upon it to carry away and destroy half a dozen valuable lives. There w^as one coil of rope on hoard which the skipper had bought for cordage on the previous voyage from a homeward-bound English ship, and it was the butt of all the ofiicers' scurrilous remarks about ]3ritishers and their gear. It was never used but for rope-yarns, being cut up in lengths, and untwisted for the ignominious purpose of tying things up — " hardly good enough for that," was the verdict upon it. Tired as we all were, very little sleep came to us that night — we were barely seasoned yet to the exigencies of a whaler's life — but afterwards 1 believe nothing short of dismasting or running the ship ashore would wake us, once we got to sleep. In the morning we commenced operations in a howling gale of wind, which placed the lives of the officers on the "cutting in" stage in great danger. The wonderful seaworthy qualities of our old ship shone brilliantly now. When an ordinary modern- built sailing-ship would have been making such weather of it as not only to drown anybody about the deck, but making it impossible to keep your footing anywhere without holding on, we were enabled to cut in this whale. True, the work was terribly exhausting and decidedly dangerous, but it was not impossible, for it was done. By great care and constant attention, the whole work of cutting in and trying out was got through with- out a single accident ; but had another whale turned up to continue the trying time, I am fully persuaded that some of us would have gone under from sheer fatigue. For there was no mercy shown. All that 1 have ever I i iMi TUK UHU18E OF TllK " CAV/rALOTr read of " i»iillin^' tin- hIuvcs tlirou<^li for all they wero worth " on the phuitations was fully realized hero, ami our worthy skipper must have hoen a lineal descendant of the doughty Simon Lugroo. The men were afraid to go on to the sick-list. Nothing short of total inahility to continue would have prevented them from working, such was the terror with which that man had inspired us all. It may ho said that we were a pack of cowards, who, without the courage to demand better treatment, deserved all we got. While admitting that such a conclusion is (juite a natural one at which to arrive, I must deny its truth. There were men in that forecastle as good citizens and as bravo fellows as you would wish to meet — men who in their own sphere would have commanded and obtained respect. But under the painful and abnormal circumstances in which they found themselves — beaten and driven like dogs while in the throes of sea-sickness, half starved and hopeless, their spirit had been so broken, ard they were so kept down to that sad level by the display of force, aided by deadly weapons aft, that no other condition could be expected for them but that of broken-hearted slaves. My own case was many degrees better than that of the other whites, as I have before noted; but I was perfectly well aware that the slightest attempt on my part to show that I resented our common treat- ment would meet with the most brutal repression, and, in addition, I might look for a dreadful time of it for the rest of the voyage. The memory of that week of misery is so strong upon me even now that my hand trembles almost to prevent- ing me from writing about it. Weak and feeble do the words seem as I look at them, making me wish for the Ol'li Fin ST ('ALI.ISn-n.ACK. 07 ditioii earted than ; but tempt treat - , and, it for tiro and force of Carlyle or Macnulay to i)ortiay our unnecessary sufferings. Like all other earthly ills, however, they canio to an end, at least for a time, and I was delighted to note that we were getting to the northward again. In making the outward passage round the Cape, it is necessary to go well south, in order to avoid the great westerly sot of the Agulhas current, which for ever sweeps steadily round the southern extremity of the African continent at an average rate of three or four miles an hour. To homeward-bound ships this is a great boon. No matter what the weather may be — a stark calm or a gale of wind right on end in your teeth — that vast, silent river in the sea steadily bears you on at the same rate in the direction of home. It is perfectly true that with a gale blowing across the set of this great current, one of the very ugliest combinations of broken waves is raised ; but who cares for tliat, when he knows that, as long as the ship holds together, some seventy or eighty miles per day nearer home must be placed to her credit ? In like manner, it is of the deepest comfort to know that, storm or calm, fair or foul, the current of time, unhasting, unresting, bears us on to the goal that we shall surely reach — the haven of unbroken rest. Not the least of the minor troubles on board the Cachalot was the uncertainty of our destination ; we never knew where we were going. It may seem a small point, but it is really not so unimportant as a landsman might imagine. On an ordinary passage, certain well-known signs are as easily read by the sea- man as if the ship's position were given out to him every day. Every alteration of the course signifies some point of the journey reached, some well-known track entered II ^1 /I h i !)S riiK ciitfsK OF Tin: "r.ir//ALOT:' upon, mid every liiiidfiill innde Ixconu'S ii lu w d»itartuic from >vliciu'(' to Imnc one h calciiIjitlonH, whicL, rough as they urc, rarely err luoro than a few (hiyn. Say, for instance, you arc hound for Cuhutta. The first of the nortii-east trades will give a fair idea of your latitude being about the edge of the tropics somewhere, or say from "iO" to 2a'' N., whether you have sighted any of the islands or not. Then away you go before the wind down towards the Equator, the approach to which is notified by the loss of the trade and the dirty, changeable weather of the " doldrums." That weary bit of work over, along come the south-east trades, making you brace " sharp up," ajid sometimes driving you un- comfortably near the Brazilian coast. Presently more " doldrums," with a good deal more wind in them than in the " wariables " of the lino latitude. The bravo " westerly " will come along by-and-by and release you, and, with a staggering press of sail carried to the reliable gale, away you go for the long stretch of a hundred degrees or so eastward. You will very likely sight Tristan d'Acunha or (^ough Island ; but, if not, the course will keep you fairly well informed of your longitude, since most ships make more or less of a great circle track. Instead of steering due East for the whole distance, they make for some southerly latitude by running along the arc of a great circle, then run due east for a thousand miles or so before gradually working north again. These alterations in the courses tell the foremast hand nearly all he wants to know, slight as they are. You will most probably sight Amsterdam Island or St. Paul's in about 77° E. ; but whether you do or not, the big change made in the course, to say nothing of the difference in the weather and temperature, say loudly that your long Un FlliS T f'A IL ISn ■ ri. A Chi 00 rturc ^h as The ' your k'hero, ightctl before It'll to dirty, iiry I'it iiiiUinj? ou un- . V more m than } bravo ISC you, reliable lUiulrecl y Bigbt e course iigitude, tt circle istance, ig along lousand These \ nearly ill most in about rjc made e in the lour long cttHtcrly run in «>vor, and you Are boun most intensely glowing fire. The coming and going of these amazing brightnesses, combined with the Egyptian dark between, was completely blinding. 80 loaded was the still air with electricity that from every point aloft pale flames streamed upward, giving the ship the appearance of a huge candelabrum with innumerable branches. One of the hands, who had been ordered aloft on some errand of securing a loose end, presented a curious sight. He was bareheaded, and from his hair the all-pervading fluid arose, lighting up his features, which were ghastly beyond description. When he lifted his hand, each separate finger became at once an additional point from which light streamed. There was no thunder, but a low hissing and a crackling which did not amount to noise, although distinctly audible to all. Sensations most unpleasant of pricking and general irritation were felt by every one, according to their degree of susceptibility. After about an hour of this state of things, a low moaning of thunder was heard, immediately followed by a few drops of rain large as dollars. The mutter- ings and grumblings increased until, with one peal that made the ship tremble as though she had just struck a rock at full speed, down came the rain. The windows of heaven were opened, and no man might stand against the steaming flood that descended by thousands of tons per minute. How long it continued, I cannot say ; ])robably, in its utmost fierceness, not more than half an hour. Then it slowly abated, clearing away as it did so the accumulation of gloom overhead, until, before midnight had struck, all the heavenly host were shedding their beautiful brilliancy ujion us again with apparently 10f{ THE cnvrsE of Tin-: "CAcnALOT." r incrciised glory, while the freshness and invigorating feel of the air was inexpressibly delightful. We did not court danger by hugging too closely any of the ugly reefs and banks that abound in this notably difBcult strait, but gave them all a respectfully wide berth. It was a feature of our navigation that, unless wo had occasion to go near any island or reef for fishing or landing purposes, we always kept a safe margin of distance away, which i)robably accounts for our con- tinued immunity from accident while in tortuous waters. Our anchors and cables were, however, always kept ready for use now, in case of an unsuspected current or sudden storm ; but beyond that precaution, I could see little or no difference in the man or of our primitive navigation. We met with no " luck " for some time, and the faces of the harpooners grew daily longer, the great heat of those sultry waters trying all tempers sorely. But Captain Slocum knew his business, and his scowling, impassive face showed no sign of disappointment, or indeed any other emotion, as day by day we crept farther north. At last we sighted the stupendous peak of Comoro mountain, which towers to nearly nine thousand feet from the little island which gives its name to the Comoro group of four. On that same day a school of medium-sized sperm whales were sighted, which appeared to be almost of a different race to those with which we had hitherto had dealings. They were exceedingly fat and lazy, moving with the greatest deliberation, and, when we rushed in among them, appeared utterly bewildered and panic-stricken, knowing not which way to flee. Like a flock of frightened sheep they huddled together, aimlessly wallowing in each other's way, J VISIT TO SOMi: STnASOK r I. ACES. 107 while wo harpooned them with the greatest ease and impunity. Even the "old man" himself lowered the fifth boat, leavinf^ the ship to the carpenter, cooper, cook, and steward, and coming on the scone as it determined to make a field-day of the occasion. lie was no "slouch" at the business either. Not that there was much occasion or opportunity to exhibit any prowess. The record of the day's proceedings would bo as tame a. to read of a day's work in a Klaughter-house. Sufiicc it to say, that we actually killed six whales, none of whom were less than fifty barrels, no boat ran out more than one hundred fathoms of line, neither was a bomb-lance used. Not the slightest casualty occurred to any of the boats, and the whole work of destruction was over in less than four hours. Then came the trouble. The fish were, of course, somewhat widely separated when they died, and the task of collecting all those immense carcasses was one of no ordinary magnitude. Had it not been for the wonderfully skilful handling of the ship, the task would, I should think, have been impossible, but the way in which she was worked compelled the admiration of anybody who knew what handling a ship meant. Htill, with all the ability manifested, it was five hours after the last whale died before we had gathered them all alongside, bringing us to four o'clock in the afternoon. A complete day under that fierce blaze of the tropical sun, without other refreshment than an occasional furtive diink of tepid water, had reduced us to a pitiable condition of weakness, so much so that the skipper judged it prudent, as soon as the fluke-chains were passed, to give us a couple of hours' rest. As soon as the sun had set we were all turned to again, three ! '\ n 108 THE C It VISE OF TTIK " CACTJALOTr cressets were prepared, and by their blaze we toiled the whole night through. Truth compels rae to state, though, that none of us foremast hands had nearly such heavy work as the oflBcers on the stage. What they had to do demanded special knowledge and skill ; but it was also terribly hard work, constant and un- remitting, while we at the windlass had many a short spell between the lifting of the pieces. f>en the skipper took a hand, for the first time, and right manfully did he do his share. By the first streak of dawn, three of the whales had been stripped of their blubber, and five heads were bobbing astern at the ends of as many hawsers. The sea all around presented a wonderful sight. There must have been thousands of sharks gathered to the feast, and their incessant incursions through the phosphorescent water wove a dazzling network of brilliant tracks which made the eyes ache to look upon. A short halt was called for breakfast, which was greatly needed, and, thanks to the cook, was a thoroughly good one. He — blessings on him ! — had been busy fishing, as we drifted slowl}', with savoury pieces of whale-beef for bait, and the result was a mess of fish which would have gladdened the heart of an i:picure. Our hunger appeased, it was " turn to " again, for there was now no time to be lost. The fierce heat soon acts upon the carcass of a dead whale, generating an immense volume of gas within it, which, in a wonderfully short space of time, turns the flesh putrid and renders the blubber so rotten that it cannot be lifted, nor, if it could, would it be of any value. So it was no wonder that our haste was great, or that the august arbiter of our destinies himself condescended to take his place among the A VISIT TO SOME STliANOK PLACES. 100 inger now n the lume ce of ibber vould haste inies the toilers. By nightfall the whole of our catch was on board, excepting such toll as the hungry hordes of sharks had levied upon it in transit. A goodly number of them had paid the penalty of their rapacity with their lives, for often one would wriggle his way right up on to the reeking carcass, and, seizing a huge frag- ment of blubber, strive with might and main to tear it away. Then the lethal spade would drop upon his soft crown, cleaving it to the jaws, and with one dap of his big tail he would loose his grip, roll over and over, and sink, surrounded by a writhing crowd of his fellows, by whom he was speedily reduced into digestible fragaients. The condition of the Cachalot's deck was now some- what akin to chaos. From the cabin door to the try- works there was hardly an inch of available space, and the oozing oil kept some of us continually baling it up, lest it should leak out through the interstices in the bulwarks. In order to avoid a breakdown, it became necessary to divide the crew into six-hour watches, as, although the work was exceedingly urgent on account of the weather, there were evident signs that some of the crew were perilously near giving in. So we got rest none too soon, and the good effects of it were soon apparent. The work went on with much more celerity than one would have thought possible, and soon the lumbered-up decks began to resume their normal appearance. As if to exasperate the '* old man " beyond measure, on the thii'd day of our operations a great school of sperm whales appeared, disporting all around the ship, apparently conscious of our helplessness to interfere with them. Notwithstanding our extraordinary haul. no 77/ A' Cli'UISR or THE "VACUA LOT." I \ Ciiptiiin Slocuin wont black with impotent ni^^c, uiul, jifter glowering at the Kportive monKters, beat a retreat Ik'Iow, unable to bear the sight any long.r. During luH abHonco we had a rare treat. The whole Kcliool Burroundeil the ship, and performed some of the strangest evolutions imaginable. As if instigated by one common impulse, they all elevated their massive heads above the surface of the sea, and remained for some time in that jjosition, solemnly bobbing up and down amid the glittering wavelets like movable boulders of black rock. Then, all suddenly reversed themselves, and, elevating their broad flukes in the air, commenced to beat them slowly and rhythmically upon the water, like so many machines. Being almost a perfect calm, every movement of the great mammals could be plainly seen ; some of them even passed so near to us that we could see how the lower jaw hung down, while the animal was swimming in a normal position. For over an hour they thus paraded around us, and then, as if startled by some hidden danger, suddenly headed off to the westward, and in a few minutes were out of our sight. We cruised in the vicinity of the Comoro Islands for two mouths, never quite out of sight of the mountain while the weather was clear. During the whole of that time we were never clear of oil on deck, one catch always succeeding another before there had been time to get cleared up. Eight hundred barrels of oil were added to our cargo, making the undisciplined hearts of all to whom whaling was a novel employment beat high with hopes of a speedy completion of the cargo, and consequent return. Poor innocents that we were ! How could we know any better ? According to Goliath, with whom I A yj>lT TO SOME STliASOK I'LACEs. Ill were kIs for tintain »f that catch time added all to |h with jquent luld we hom 1 often Imtl a fritiidly chat, tliis wa** ipjitr out of the ordinary run to havi- such hick in tlic " C'lianncl." *"\Vay hack in dc dark aRcs, wVn do whah'sliips war de pi'mcrs oh commorcf, 'n dry wan't n(» woiiyin', poofity-plunkity steanihoatH a-pounihn' alonj^, 'nouj^'h ti r galley chery whale clean eout obderc skiti, dcy war plenty whaleships till up in twelve, iiftten, twenty nionf after Icahin' home. 'N er man hcd his pick er i)laces, too— didn' hah ter go moseyin errouu' like some ol' hobo lookin* fer day's work, 'n prayin de good Lord not tcr let um fine it. No, sah ; roun ycr China Sea, coas' Japan, on de line, off shore, Vasquez, 'mong de islan's, ohmos' anywhar, you couldn' liardly git way from 'em. Neow, I clar ter ^^lory I kaint imagine irar dey all gone ter, dough we bin eout only six seven monf, 'n got over tousan bar'l below. But I bin two year on er voy'ge and doan hardly xcc a sparm whale, much less catch one. But " — and here he whispered mysteriously — "dish yer ole man's de bcry debbil's own chile, 'n his farder lookin' after him well — dat's my 'pinion. Only yew keep yer head tight shut, an' ncbber say er word, but keep er lookin', 'n sure's death you'll see." This conversation made a deep and lasting impression upon me, for I had not before heard even so much as a murmur from an officer against the tyranny of the skipper. Some of the hari)ooncr8 were fluent enough, too. Yet I had often thought that his treatment of them, considering the strenuous nature of their toil, and the willingness with which they worked as long as they had an ounce of energy left, was worth at least a little kindness and courtesy on his part. "What the period may have been during which whales • • 112 77/ A* CHUISE Of THE " CACIfALOT." ^ hi 1^ I i ! t wore i»Kiitilul here, I do not know, but it was now >rfty, and for the lust few days wo liad not seen a solitary Hpout of any kind, i'reparationrt, very slight it is true, were luade for departure ; but before wo left those parts we made an interesting call for water at Mohilla, one of the Comoro group, which brought out, i \ unmistak- able fashion, the wonderful fund of local knowledge possessed by these men. At the larger ports of Johanna and Mayotte there is a regular tariff of port charges, which are somewhat heavy, and no whaleman would bo so reckless as to incur these unless driven thereto by the necessity of obtaining provisions ; otherwise, the islands offer great inducements to whaling captains to call, since none but men hopelessly mad would venture to desert in such places. That qualification is the chief one for any port to possess in the eyes of a whaling captain. Our skipper, however, saw no necessity for entering any port. Running up under the lee of Mohilla, wo followed the land along until we came to a tiny bight on the western side of the island, an insignificant inlet which no mariner in charge of a vessel like ours could be expected even to notice, unless he were surveying. T''e approaches to this tiny harbour (save the mark) were very forbidding. Ugly- looking rocks showed up here and there, the surf over them frequently blinding the whole entry. But we came along, in our usual leisurely fashion, under two topsails, spanker, and fore- topmast staysail, and took that ugly passage like a sailing barge entering the Medway. There was barely room to turn round when we got inside, but all sail had been taken off her except the spanker, so that her way was almost stopped by the time she was fairly .1 r/.svr m home srn.iyn-: nArns. Ii:: 1 witliin tlio Imrlioui*. Down went the iinchor, and 8lio WHS riHt—iinchornl for tlio first tirno Hince leaving Now Jjo(lff)r(l seven months hcforo. Here we wore shut out entirely from the outer world, for I (loul)t Sf«'»itly whether oven IX piissin^^ dhow <'ould havo seen us from Hoa- ward. We were not here for rest, however, hut wood nnd water; so while ono party was supplied with well- sharpened axes, and sent on shore to cut down such small trees as would serve our turn, another party was busily employed gettiu^^ out a number of bij* casks for the serious business of watering. The cooper knocked olV the second or (juarter hoops from each of these casks, and drove them on again with two " beckets " or loops of rope fu'nily jammed under each of them in such a manner that the loops were in lino with each other on each side of the bunghole. They were then lowered overboard, and a long rope rove through all the beckets. When this was done, the whole number of casks floated end to end, upright and secure. Wo towed them ashore to where, by the skipper's directions, at about fifty yards from high-water mark, a spring of beautiful water bubbled out of the side of a mass of rock, losing itself in a deep crevice below. Lovely ferns, rare orchids, and trailing plants of many kinds surrounded this fairy-like spot in the wildest profusion, making a tangle of greenery that wo had considerable trouble to clear away. Having done so, we led a long eanvas hose from the spot whence the water flowed down to the shore where the casks floated. The chief officer, with great ingenuity, rigged up an arrangement whereby the hose, which had a square mouth about a foot wide, was held up to the rock, saving us the labour of baling and filling by hand. So we were able to rest r 114 TIIK CIIUISK OF Tin-: "CACHALOTr and admire at our ease the wonderful variety of beautiful plants which grew here so lavishly, unseen by mortal eye from one year's end to another. I have somewhere read that the Creator has delight in the beautiful work of His will, wherever it may be; and that while our egotism wonders at the waste of beauty, as we call it, there is no waste at all, since the Infinite Intelligence can dwell with complacency upon the glories of His handiwork, perfectly fulfilling their appointed ends. All too soon the pleasant occupation came to an end. The long row of casks, filled to the brim and tightly bunged, were towed off by us to the ship, and ranged alongside. A tackle and pair of " can-hooks " was overhauled to the water and hooked to a cask. " Hoist away ! " And as the cask rose, the beckets that had held it to the mother-rope were cut, setting it quite free to come on board, but leaving all the others still secure. In this way we took in several thousand gallons of water in a few hours, with a small expendi- ture of labour, free of cost ; whereas, had we gone into Mayotte or Johanna, the water would have been bad, the price high, the labour great, with the chances of a bad visitation of fever in the bargain. The woodmen had a much more arduous task. The only wood they could find, without cutting down big trees, which would have involved far too much labour in cutting up, was a kind of iron-wood, which, besides being very heavy, was so hard as to take pieces clean out of their axe-edges, when a blow was struck directly across the grain. As none of them were experts, the condition of their tools soon made their work very hard. But that they had taken several axes in roperve, it is doubtful whether they would have been fli hi too cut wit] .1 VISIT TO SOME STliANGE PLACES. ii:. Lful rtal lere rork our Hit, ence His an and , and )0li8 " cask. ,8 tliat fc quite :b still )UBand pendi- e into in bad, ces of . The m big labour Ibesides IS clean lirectly 3xperts, iv work laxes in ,'e been able to Ret suflicient fuel for our purpose. When thoy pitched the wood off the rocks into the harbour, it sank immediately, giving them a great deal of trouble to fish it up again. Neither could they raft it as intended, but were compelled to load it into the boats and make several journeys to and fro before all they had cut was shipped. Altogether, I was glad that the wooding had not fallen to my share. On board the ship fishing had been going on steadily most of the day by a few hands told otr for the purpose. The result of their sport was splendid, over two hundred-weight of fine fish of virious sorts, but all eatable, having been gathered in. We lay snugly anchored all night, keeping a bright look-out for any unwelcome visitors either from land or sea, for the natives are not to be trusted, neither do the Arab mongrels who cruise about those waters in their dhows bear any too good a reputation. Wj saw none, however, and at daylight we weighed and towtv. the ship out to sea with the boats, there being no wind. While busy at this uninteresting pastime, one of the boats slipped away, returning presently with a fine turtle, which they had surprised during his morning's nap. One of the amphibious Portuguese slipped over the boat's side as she neared the sleeping Sphatya, and, diving deep, came up underneath him, seizing with crossed hands the two hind flippers, and, with a sudden, dexterous twist, turned the astonis'. d creature over on his back. Thus rendered helpless, the turtle lay on the surface feebly waving his flippers, while his captor, gently treading water, held him in that position till the boat icr».ched the pair and took them on board. It was a clevei feat, neatly exe- cuted, as unlike the clumsy efforts I had before seen made with the same object as anything could possibly bo. !'. I ( : I in THE rnuiSK or tin-: "cachalot:' After an hour's tow, we had got a good offing, and a light air springing up, we returned on board, hoisted the boats, and made sail to the northward again. AVith the exception of the numerous native dhows that crept lazily about, we saw no vessels as we gradually drew out of the Mozambique Channel and stood away towards the Line. The part of the Indian Ocean in which we now found ourselves is much dreaded by merchantmen, who give it a wide berth on account of the numerous banks, islets, and dangerous currents with which it abounds. We, however, seemed quite at homo here, pursuing the even tenor of our usual way without any special precautions being taken. A bright look-out we always kept, of course — none of your drowsy lolling about such as is all too common on the "fo'lk'sle head" of many a fine ship, when, with lights half trimmed or not shown at all, she is ploughing along blindly at twelve knots or so an hour. No; while we were under way during daylight, four pairs of keen eyes kept incessant vigil a hundred feet above the deck, noting everything, even to a shoal of small fish, that crossed within the range of vision. At night we scarcely moved, but still a vigilant look-out was always kept both fore and aft, so that it would have been difficult for us to drift upon a reef unknowingly. Creeping steadily northward, we passed the Cosmoledo group of atolls without paying them a visit, which wns strange, as, from their appearance, no better fishing- ground would be likely to come in our way. They arc little known, except to the wandering fishermen from Beunion and Rodriguez, who roam about these islets and reefs, seeking anything that may be turned into coin, from wrecks to turtle, and in nowise particular as to rights t , I A VISIT TO SOME STIiASGE PLACES. 117 lolcdo i\i NV»« isliing- ^ey are from its and |», from riglitfi of ownership. When between the Cosmoledos and Astove, the next island to the northward, we sighted a " solitary " cachalot one morning just as the day dawned. It was the first for some time — nearly three weeks — and being all well seasoned to the w^ork now, we obeyed the call to arms with great alacrity. Our friend was making a passage, turning neither to the right hand nor the left as he wentc His risings and number of spouts while up, as well as the time he remained below, were as regular as the progress of a clock, and could be counted upon with quite as much certainty. Bearing in mind, I suppose, the general character of the whales we had recently met with, only two boats were I(A\v ed to attack the new-comer, who, all unconscious of ' i; ming, pursued his leisurely course unheeding. V: got a good weather-gage of him, and came flying on as usual, getting two irons planted in fine style. But a surprise awaited us. As we sheered up into the wind away from him, Louis shouted, " Fightin' whale, sir ; look out for de rush ! " Look out, indeed ! Small use in looking out when, hampered as we always were at first with the unshipping of the mast, we could do next to nothing to avoid him. Without any of the desperate flounderings generally indulged in on first feeling the iron, he turned upon us, and had it not been that he caught sight of the second mate's boat, which had just arrived, and turned his attentions to her, there would have been scant chance of any escape for us. Leaping half out of water, he made direct for our comrades with a vigour and ferocity marvellous to see, making it a no easy matter for them to avoid his tremendous rush. Our actions, at no time slow, were considerably hastened by this display of valour, so that before he could turn 118 rilE CRUISE OF THE " CACHALOT." his attentions in our direction we were ready for him. Then ensued a really big fight, the first, in fact, of my experience, for none of the other whales had shown any perious determination to do us an injury, but had devoted all their energies to attempts at escape. So quick were the evolutions, and so savage the appearance of this fellow, that even our veteran mate looked anxious as to the possible result. Without attempting to " sound," the furious monster kept mostly below the surface ; but whenever he rose, it was either to deliver a fearful blow with his tail, or, with jaws widespread, to try and bite one of our boats in half. Well was it for us that he was severely handicapped by a malformation of the lower jaw. At a short distance from the throat it turned off nearly at right angles to his body, the part that thus protruded sideways being deeply fringed with barnacles, and plated with big limpets. Had it not been for this impediment, I verily believe he would have beaten us altogether. As it was, he worked us nearly to death with his ugly rushes. Once he delivered a sidelong blow with his tail, which, as we spun round, shore off the two oars on that side as if they had been carrots. At last the second mate got fast to him, and then the character of the game changed again. Apparently unwearied by liis previous exertions, he now started off to windward at top speed, with the two boats sheering broadly out upon either side of his foaming wake. Doubtless because he himself was much fatigued, the mate allowed him to run at his will, without for the time attempting to haul any closer to him, and very grateful the short rest was to us. But he had not gone a couple of miles before he turned a complete somersault in the water, coming up behind us to rush off again in r liira. of my m any levoted ;k were of this ;s as to lound," 50 ; but ul blow bite one he was e lower rned off at thus rnacles, believe worked >nce he ive spun ley had ;o him, again, he now fo boats foaming atigued, for the lid very lot gone (lersault igain in I < I? A VISIT TO SOME STIIANGK PLACES. 110 the opposite direction at undiminished speed. This move was a startler. For the moment it seemed as if both boats would bo smashed like egg-shells against euth other, or else that some of us would be impaled upon the long lances with which each boat's bow bristled. By what looked like a hand-breadth, wo cleared each other, and the race continued. Up till now wo had not succeeded in getting home a single lance, the foe was becoming warier, while the strain was certainly telling upon our nerves. So Mv. Count got out his bomb-gun, shouting at the same time ^^ Mr. Cruce to do the same. They both hated these weapons, nor ever used them if they could help it ; but what was to be done ? Our chief had hardly got his gun ready, before we came to almost a dead stop. All was silent for just u moment ; then, with a roar like a cataract, up sprang the huge creature, head out, jaw wide open, coming direct for us. As coolly as if on the quarter-deck, the mate raised his gun, firing the bomb directly down the great livid cavern of a throat fronting him. Down went that mountainous head not six inches from us, but with a perfectly indescribable motion, a tremendous writhe, in fact ; up flew the broad tail in air, and a blow which might have sufficed to stave in the side of the ship struck the second mate's boat fairly amidships. It was right before my eyes, not sixty feet away, and the sight will haunt me to my death. The tub oarsman was the poor German baker, about whom I have hitherto said nothing, except to note that he was one of the crew. That awful blow put an end summarily to all his earthly anxieties. As it shore obliquely through the centre of the boat, it drove his poor body right through her timbers — an uudistin- guishable bundle of what was an instant before a human I ii 'i IT r I H^ i ]20 THE CItUJSE OF THE " CACHALOT." being. The other meraber.s of the crew tscapeJ the blow, and the hari)ooner managed to cut the line, so that for the present they were safe enough, clinging to the remains of their boat, unless the whale should choose to rush across them. Happily, his rushing was almost over. The bomb fired by Mr. Count, with such fatal result to poor Bam- berger, must have exploded right in the whale's throat. Whether his previous titanic efforts had completely exhausted him, or whether the bomb had broken his massive backbone, I do not know, of course, but he went into no flurry, dying as peacefully as his course had been furious. For the first time in my life, I had been face to face with a violent death, and I was quite stunned with the awfulness of the experience. Mechanically, as it seemed to me, we obeyed such orders as were given, but every man's thoughts were with the shipmate so suddenly dashed from amongst us. We never saw sign of him again. While the ship was running down to us, anothev boat had gone to rescue the clinging crew of the shattered boat, for the whole drama had been witnessed from the ship, although they were not aware of the death of the poor German. When the sad news was told on board, there was a deep silence, all work being carried on so quietly that we seemed like a crew of dumb men. With a sentiment for which I should not have given our grim skipper credit, the stars and stripes were hoisted half-mast, telling the silent sky and moaning sea, sole witnesses besides ourselves, of the sudden departure from among us of our poor shipmate. We got the whale cut in as usual without any incident worth mentioning, except that the peculiar shape of the A VISIT TO SOME STllANOE PLACES. 121 jideut )f the jaw made it an object of great curiosity to all of us who were new to the whale-fishing. Such malformations are not very rare. They are generally thought to occur when the animal is young, and its bones soft ; but whether done in fighting with one another, or in some more mysterious way, nobody knows. Cases have boon known, I believe, where the deformed whale does not appear to have suffered from lack of food in consequence of his disability ; but in each of the three instances which have come under my own notice, such was certainly not the case. These whales were what is termed by the whalers "dry-skins;" that is, they were in poor condition, the blubber yielding less than half the usual quantity of oil. The absence of oil makes it very hard to cut up, and there is more work in one whale of this kind than in two whose blubber is rich and soft. Another thing which I have also noticed is, that these whales were much more difficult to tackle than others, for each of them gave us something special to remember them by. But I must not get ahead of my yarn. The end of the week brought us up to the Aldabra Islands, one of the puzzles of the world. For here, in these tiny pieces of earth, surrounded by thousands of miles of sea, the nearest land a group of islets like unto them, is found the gigantic tortoise, and in only one other place in the wide world, the Galapagos group of islands in the South Pacific. How, or by what strange freak of Dame Nature these curious reptiles, sole survivals of another age, should come to be found in this lonely spot, is a deep mystery, and one not likely to be unfolded now. At any rate, there they are, looking as if some of them might be coeval with Noah, so venerable and storm-beaten do they appear. ill m 122 Tin: ciiuisK OF riiK " cachalot: We made the island early on a Sunday morning, and, with the usual celerity, worked the vessel into the fine har- bour, called, from one of the exploring ships, Euphrates 13ay or Harbour. The anchor dow n, and everything made snu^ below and aloft, we were actually allowed a run ashore free from restraint. I could hardly believe my ears. We had got so accustor.ied to our slavery that liberty was become a mere name ; we hardly knew what to do with it when we got it. However, we soon got used (in a very limited sense) to being our own masters, and, each following the bent of his inclinations, set out for a ramble. My companion and I had not gone far, when we thought we saw one of the boulders, with which the island was liberally besprinkled, on the move. Running up to examine it with all the eagerness of children let out of school, we found it to be one of the inhabitants, a monstrous tortoise. I had seen some big turtle around the cays of the Gulf of Mexico, but this creature dwarfed them all. We had no means of actually measuring him, and had to keep clear of his formidable- looking jaws, but roughly, and within the mark, he was four feet long by two feet six inches wide. Of course he was much more dome-shaped than the turtle are, and consequently looked a great deal bigger than a turtle of the same measurement would, besides being much thicker through. As he was loth to stay with us, we made up our minds to go with him, for he was evidently making for some definite spot, by the tracks he was following, which showed plainly how many years that same road had been used. Well, I mounted on his back, keeping well astern, out of the reach of that serious - looking head, which, having rather a long neck, looked as if it might be able to reach round and take a piece out -1 I7.S/7' 10 SOME STRASGi: VLACKS. VI?. was se he and e of much wc ently was that jack, lous- ed as ■e out of u Itllow without any trouMc. lie wiis porftctlv aniirahle, continuing his journey as if nothing luul hapi)cnt'd, and really getting over the ground at a goixl rate, eonsidering the hulk and sluipe of hitn. Kxctpt for the novelty of the thing, this sort of ride had nothing to recommend it ; so I soon tired of it, and let him waddlr along in peace. liy following the tracks aforesaid, we arrived at a fine stream of water sparkling out of a hillside, and running down a little ravino. The sides of this gully were worn quite smooth by the innumerahlo feet of the tortoises, about a dozen of which were now quietly crouching at the water's edge, filling themselves up with the cooling fluid. I did not see the patriarch upon whom a sailor once reported that he had read the k'gend carved, " The Ark, Captain Noah. Ararat for orders " ; perhaps he had at last closed his peaceful career. But strange and quaint as this exhibition of ancient reptiles was, we had other and better employment for the limited time at our disposal. There were in- numerable curious things to sec, and, unless we were to run the risk of going on board again and stopping there, dinner must, be obtained. Eggs of various kinds were exceedingly plentiful ; in many places the flats were almost impassable for sitting birds, mostly " boobies." But previous experience of boobies' eggs in otlier places had not disposed me to seek them where others were to be obtained, and as I had seen many of the well- known frigate or man-o'-war birds hovering about, we set out to the other side of the island in search of the breeding-place. These peculiar birds are, I think, misnamed. They should be called pirate or buccaneer birds, from their marauding habits. Seldom or never do they condescend V 124 riiH <;iirist: of r/f/: " vaciiai.ot:' to fivh for tliomselvcH, jtrcfcrriiiK to hover hish in the bhie, their tails optiiiiif,' and closin<» like a pair of scissors as th(;y han^ poised above the sea. Presently booby — like some honest housewife who has been a» marketing — comes flappinf? noisily iiome, her maw laden with fish for the chicks. Down comes the black watciicr from above with a swoop like an ea^^le. Booby puts all slio knows into her llifiht, but vainly ; escape is impossible, so with a despairing shriek she drops her load. Before it has touched the water the graceful thief has intercepted it, and soared slowly aloft again, to repeat the performance as occasion serves. When wo arrived on the outer shore of the island, wo found a large breeding-placo of these birds, but totally different to the haunt of the boobies. The nests, if they might be so-called, being at best a few twigs, were mostly in the hollows of the rocks, the number of eggs being two to a nest, on an average. The eggs were nearly as large as a turkey's. But I am reminded of the range of size among turkeys' eggs, so I must say they were considerably larger than a small turkey's egg. Their flavour was most delicate, as much so as the eggs of a moor-fed fowl. We saw no birds sitting, but here and there the gaunt skeleton forms of birds, who by reason of sickness or old age were unable to provide for themselves, and so sat waiting for death, appealed most mournfully to us. We went up to some of these poor creatures, and ended their long agony ; but there were many of them that we were obliged to leave to Nature. We saw no animals larger than a rat, but there were a great many of those eerie-looking land-craby, that seemed as if almost humanly intelligent as they M \i A I7S/7 TO so.v/; ^n:.\\ni: riAcrs. 12.") eggs here by vide 3alecl heso here e to Itliere [rabH, they Hcaiu|»i're(l uhout over thi' siind (ir tlinmj^h th«' undtr- ^rowth, busy about goodiiosf* knows what. Thf biauti- ful cueoa-nut pahu was pkiitiful, 8o much so that 1 wondered why there were no sitth'rs to collect *' copra," or dried cocoa-nut, for oil. My West Indian experience came in handy now, for 1 was able to climb a lofty tree in native fashiim, and cut down a grand bunch of green nuts, which form one of the most refresMng and nutritious of foods, as well as a cool and delicic n drink. We had no line with us, so we took off our belts, which, securely joined together, answered my purpose very weil. With them I made a loop round the tree and myself ; then as I climbed I pushed the loop up with me, so that whenever I wanted a rest, I had only to lean back in it, keephig my knees against the trunk, and I was almos' as comfortable as if on the ground. After getting the nuts, we made a lire and roasted some of our eggs, which, with a biscuit or two, made a delightful meal. Then we fell asleep under a shady tree, upon some soft moss ; nor did we wake agaii. until nearly time to go on board. A most enjoyable swim terminated our day's outing, and we returned to the beach abreast of the ship very pleased with the excursion. • We had no adventures, found no hidden treasure or ferocious animals, but none the less we tl* jroughly enjoyed ourselves. While we sat waiting for the boat to come and fetch us off, we saw a couplr^ of good-sized turtle come ashore quite close to us. V, e kept perfectly still until we were sure of being able to intercept them. As soon as they had got far enough away from their native element, we rushed upon them, and captured them both, so that when the boat arrived we were not 12f; THE cnrisE OF Tin: " CAriiALorr empty-lianded. AVo had also a '* jumper," or blouse, full of t'ggs, and a couple of immense bunches of cocoa-nuts. When we got on board we felt quite happy, and, for the first time since leaving America, we had a little singing. Shall I be laughed at when I confess that our musical efforts were confined to Sankey's hymns ? Maybe, but I do not care. Cheap and clap-trap as the music may bo, it tasted "real good, ' as Abner said, and I am quite sure that that Sunday night was the best that any of us had spent for a very long time. A long, sound sleep was terminated at dawn, when we weighed and stood out through a narrow passage by Kast Island, which was quite covered with fine trees — of what kind I do not know, but they presented a beautiful sight. Myriads of birds hovered about, busy fishing from the countless schools that rippled the placid sea. Beneath us, at twenty fathoms, the wonderful architec- ture of the coral was plainly visible through the brilliantly-clear sea, while, wherever the tiny builders had raised their fairy domain near the surface, an occasional roller would crown it with a snowy garland of foam — a dazzling patch of white against the sapphire sea. Altogether, such a panorama was spread out at our feet, as we stood gazing from the lofty crow's-nest, as was worth a year or two of city life to witness. I could not help pitying my companion, one of the Portuguese harpooners, who stolidly munched his quid with no eyes for any of these glorious pictures, no thought of anything but a possible whale in sight. My silent rhapsodies were rudely interrupted by something far away on the horizon. Hardly daring to breathe, I strained my eyes, and— yes, it was — " Ah bloNY-w-w-w ! " I bellowed at the top of my lung-power. )uld lese pyes ling A VISIT TO SOME STliAXni': PLACES. 127 Never before had I had the opportunity of thus dis- tinguisliing myself, and I felt a hit sore about it. There was a Uttle obliquity about the direction of the spout that made me hopeful, for the cachalot alone sends his spout diagonally upward, all the others spout vertically. It was but a school of kogia, or " short- headed " cachalots ; but as wo secured five of them, averaging seven barrels each, with scarcely any trouble, I felt quite pleased with myself. We had quite an exciting bit of sport with them, they were so lively ; but as for danger — well, they only seemed like big " black fish " to us now, and wo quite enjoyed the fun. They were, in all respects, miniature sperm whales, except that the head was much shorter and smaller in proportion to the body than their big relations. by to lAh ker. I 12H TTiK rnuisK OF THE "cachalot: CHAPTER XI. ROUND THE COCOH AND SEYCHELLES. t ( Hitherto, with the exception of a couple of gales in the North and South Atlantic, we had been singularly fortunate in our weather. It does happen so sometimes. I remember once making a round voyage from Cardiff to Hong Kong and the Philippines, back to London, in ten months, and during the whole of that time we did not have a downright gale. The worst weather we encountered was between Beachy Head and Portland, going round from London to Cardiff. And I once spoke the barque Lutterworth, a com- panion ship to us from Portland, Oregon to Falmouth, whose mate informed me that they carried their royals from port to port without ever furling them once, except to shift the suit of sails. But now a change w as evidently imminent. Of course, we forward had no access to the barometer ; not that we should have under- stood its indications if we had seen it, but we all knew that something was going to be radically wrong with the weather. For instead of the lovely blue of the sky we had been -so long accustomed to by day and night, a nasty, greasy shade had come over the heavens, which, reflected in the sea, made that look dirtv and stale also. That :|!. : nge the sty, ked Ihat nous It THE cocos Asn seyci/ellks. 129 well-known appearance of the waves Ijofore a storm was alfio very marked, which consists of 'Ui undecided sort of i)reak in tiieir tops. Instead of rnnninf? regularly, they seemed to hunch themselves up in little heaps, and throw off a tiny tlutter of spray, which generally foil in the opposite direction to what little wind there was. The pigs and fowls felt the approaching change keenly, and manifested the greatest uneasiness, leaving their food and acting strangely. We were making scarcely any headway, so that the storm was longer making its appearance than it would have heen had wo been a swift clipper ship running down the Indian Ocean. For two days we were kept in suspense ; hut on the second night the gloom began to deepen, the wind to moan, and a very uncomfortable " jobble " of a sea got up. Extra " gask(;ts " were put upon the sails, and everything movable about the decks was made as secure as it could be. Only the two close-reefed topsails and two storm stay-sails ■were carried, so that we were in excellent trim for fighting the bad weather when it did come. The sky gradually darkened and assumed a livid green tint, the effect of which was most peculiar. The wind blew iitfully in short gusts, veering con- tinually back and forth over about a (juarter of the compass. Although it was still light, it kept up an incessant mournful moan not to be accounted for in any way. Darker and darker grew the heavens, although no clouds were visible, only a general pall of darkness. Glimmering lightnings played continually about the eastern horizon, but not brilliant enough to show us the ai>proaching storm-cloud. And so came the morning of the third day from the beginning of the change. ]3ut for the clock we should hardly have known that day K 130 TiiK cnuisK or the " CAcnAiorr had broken, so gloom}' and dark was the sky. At last light came in the cast, but such a light as no one would wish to see. It was a lurid glare, such as may bo seen playing over a cupola of Bessemer steel when the speigelcisen is added, only on such an extensive scale that its brilliancy was dulled into horror. Then, beneath it we saw the mountainous clouds fringed with dull violet and with jagged sabres of lightning darting from their solid black bosoms. The wind began to rise steadily but rapidly, so that by eight a.m. it was blowing a furious gale from E.N.E. In direction it was still unsteady, the ship coming up and falling off to it several points. Now, great masses of torn, ragged cloud hurtled past us above, so low down as almost to touch the mast- heads. Still the wind increased, still the sea rose, till at la^L the skipper judged it well to haul down the tiny triangle of storm stay-sail still set (the topsail and fore stay-sail had been furled long before), and let her drift under bare poles, except for three square feet of stout canvas in the weather mizen-rigging. The roar of the wind now dominated every sound, so that it might have been thundering furiously, but we should not have heard it. The ship still maintained her splendid character as a sea-boat, hardly shipping a drop of water ; but she lay over at a most distressing angle, her deck sloping off fully thirty-five to forty degrees. Fortu- nately she did not roll to windward. It may have been raining in perfect torrents, but the tempest tore off the surface of the sea, and sent it in massive sheets con- tinually flying over us, so that we could not possibly have distinguished between fresh water and salt. The chief anxiety was for the safety of the boats. 13arly on the second day of warning they had been catf 8US| agai officl the a call not heav^ Was '■o'-ted to tl,c top.uost „„i,i, „f ,. «H thoroughly «» «,,orie„cc ' 1 ""'"'■''• """' «'''"'-«l '•nder water, while n,, „"„^ ' " '' « ""'■" 'Up them "■eather one, i„ |,y j/j' '' ' l^^'eued to ,tav,. the '''"Wins a furiou, cy „„" t 7 '™''"- " ™«' »»" '■een accurately „1 '» l"'?, "' '''^''"' ''"^ ""«• instruments of vari™ t"' ""^ "'" l'«»ent elaborate '■"wever, not to be TmL ," , "'"'' '^''"" ''<'-'•- i'. witnessed it, ewen tl,?t ^ ""•'' """' "''» ''"^ no record by wbiebmalm';!!';"''''''''^' ''"^'"""^ '■' "« e«tiraate. "«nat,c,ans may get »„ approximate Offiee, has told us hotdurin ' c T'"'' Wo'e-ologica in the ir„tsj,„r at SandhTad, H ^' "■'"''^'' ''^ ■''"'""nt tl.e three naked top^, 1 7 7','"' "' "'^' ""og'-'y weli^tested timber atl't-Tiantt:. ";'""• "'""«" "^ «" the usual network of 11 " 7' *f '"'''""«<•■'' by were snapped off and carried; ' r;"'""' "'<•' >"''''. of "- wind. It must l:r:V:'''f ^y ""* violence Sm. which did not las l„v I' T ''"' ■"" "'"-no was ever forged would ha^ ifeld hf? ''"• "" ''^'<' "-' cataclysm as that. This re„L ""."!'" "S"'™' »"eh a '"spicion, so that no "xaC "m ' '"''«"'^- ''» ""-"v-e against him, and ho had tif n °" ""'^'^ '"' "'""-ged officers and 'men t tl ! „ L,! t''""*' '-''■no V of his The terrible dav Z '^^'^ incredible fact, the temne,t'fn/'Z;;;;:-.w«''out^any lightening of a not -■ tempest, till noon when th. '\ ^ ^"^^^ «alm. Until that «nl h?. l^„! ^°? "^"^^^'^^^y *^- "- «^e z:z::s:^L!:^u^ was vicious T wate_ suddenly withdraw' Zh l"! '°""' "' ""• »™'^ "•"", «ucn a sea ai-n«o «« t i. _ """ ^^c^ous or irregular and vv7i """""«" ^^^avy, J-avy water at all? But whe th^V'* '''''''' was suddenlxr ,..:m.,,... ^^^®" *"o force of tho liny sea aro.se as I h ave i ■i It 1 :^2 rrn-: vjiuisk or tjik " rAcnALorr novel* seen before or since. Inky mountains of water raised their savage heads in wihlest confusion, smasli- ing one another in wliirlpools of foam. It was like a picture of the primeval deep out of which arose the new-born world. Suddenly out of the whirling blackness overhead the moon appeared, nearly in the zenith, send- ing down through tliB apex of a dome of torn and madly gyrating cloud a flood of brilliant light. Illumined by that startling radiance, our staunch and seaworthy ship was tossed and twirled in the hideous vortex of mad sea until her motion was distracting. It was quite impossible to loose one's hold and attempt to do any- thing without running the imminent risk of being dashed to pieces. Our decks were full of water now, for it tumbled on board at all points ; but as yet no serious weight of a sea had fallen upon us, nor had any damage been done. Such a miracle as that could not be ex- pected to continue for long. Suddenly a warning shout rang out from somewhere — "Hold on all, for your lives ! " Out of the hideous turmoil around arose, like some black, fantastic ruin, an awful heap of water. Higher and higher it towered, until it was level with our lower yards, then it broke and fell upon us. All was blank. Beneath that mass every thought, every feeling, fled but one — " How long shall I be able to hold my breath ? " After what seemed a never-ending time, we emerged from the wave more dead than alive, but with the good ship still staunch underneath us, and Hope's lamp burning brightly. The moon had been momentarily obscured, but now shone out again, lighting up brilliantly our bravely- \ battling ship. But, alas for others ! — men, like ourselves, \ whose hopes were gone. Quite near us was the battered remainder of what had been a splendid ship. Her masts nousi) THE cocoa and Seychelles. 13:) h- a be dly i>y hip nad uite Miy- shed or it rious mage e ex- 4iout ves ack, and ards, neatli one- After the still iglitly. t now avely- selves, ttered masts 01 P were gone, not even the stumps l)eing visible, and it seemed to our eaji^er eyes as if slic was settling down. It was even so, for as we looked, unmindful of our own danger, she quietly disappeared — swallowod up with her human freight in a moment, like a pebble dropped into a pond. While wo looked with hardly beating hearts at the place where she had sunk, all was blotted out in thii'k darkness again. With a roar, as of a thousand thunders, the tempest came once more, but from the opposite direc- tion now. As we were under no sail, we ran little risk of being caught aback ; but, even had we, notbing could have been done, the vessel being utterly out of control, besides the impossibility of getting about. It so happened, however, that when the storm burst upon us again, we were stern on to it, and we drove steadily for a few moments until wo had time to haul to the wind again. Great heavens ! how it blew ! Surely, I thought, this •.j,nnot last long — ^,just as we sometimes say of the rain when it is extra heavy. It did last, however, for what seemed an interminable time, although any one could see that the sky was getting kindlier. Gradually, im- perceptibly, it took off, the sky cleared, and the tumult ceased, until a new day broke in untcllable beauty over a revivified world. Years afterwards I read, in one of the hand-books treating of hurricanLS and cyclones, that " in the centre of these revolving storms the sea is so violent that few ships can pass through it and live." That is true talk. I have been tliere, and bear witness that but fur the build and sea-kindliness of the ('arinilot, she could not have come out of that horrible cauldron again, but would have joined that nameless unfortunate whom we saw ■■ •t*lK^ i:u 77/ A' CHVISE OF THE " CACIlALOTr succumb, " never again heard of." As it was, we found two of the boats stove in, whether hy breaking sea or crushing wind nobody knows. Most of the planking of the bulwarks was also gone, burst outward by the weight of the water on deck. Only the normal quantity of water was found in the well on sounding, and not even a roi)e-yarn was gone from aloft. Altogether, we came out of the ordeal triumi^hantly, where many a gallant vessel met her fate, and the behaviour of the grand old tub gave me a positive affection for her, such as I have never felt for a ship before or since. There was now a big heap of work for the carpenter, so the skipper decided to run in for the Cocos or Keeling Islands, in order to lay quietly and refit. We had now only three boats sound, the one smashed when poor Bamberger died being still unfinished — of course, the repairs had practically amounted to rebuilding. There- fore we kept away for this strange assemblage of reefs and islets, arriving off them early the next day. They consist of a true " atoll," or basin, whose rim is of coral reefs, culminating occasionally in sandy islands or cays formed by the accumulated ih'hris washed up from the reef below, and then clothed upon with all sorts of plants by the agency of birds and waves. These islands have lately been so fully described in many different journals, that I shall not burden the reader with any twice-told tales about them, but merely chronicle the fact that for a week we lay at anchor off one of the outlying cays, toiling continuously to get the vessel again in fighting trim. At last the overworked carpenter and his crew got through their heavy task, and the order was given to " man the windlass." Up came the anchor, and away ,^ nOVSl) TftE COCOfi AND SEYCIIKLI.Ks. v^:^ got 211 to I away >vc went again towards what used to bo a noted haunt of the sperm whale, the Seychelle Archipelago. Before the French, whose flag flies over these islands, had with their usual short-sighted policy, clapped on prohibitive port charges, Mahu was a specially favoured place of call for the whalers. But when whaleships iind that it does not pay to visit a place, being under no compul- sion as regards time, they soon find other harbours that serve their turn. We, of course, had no need to visit any port for some time to come, having made such good use of our opportunities at the Cocos. "NVe found whales scarce and small, so, although we cruised in this vicinity for nearly two months, six small cow cachalots were all we were able to add to our stock, representing less than two hundred barrels of oil. This was hardly good enough for Captain Slocum. Therefore, we gradually drew away from this beautiful cluster of islands, and crept across the Indian Ocean towards the Straits of Malacca. On the way, we one night encountered that strange phenomenon, a " milk " sea. It was a lovely night, with scarcely any wind, the stars trying to make up for the absence of the moon by shining with intense brightness. The water had been more phosphorescent than usual, so that every little fish left a track of light behind him, greatly disproportionate to his size. As the night wore on, the sea grew brighter and brighter, until by midnight we appeared to be sailing on an ocean of lambent flames. Every little wave that broke against the ship's side sent up a shower of diamond-like spray, wonderfully beautiful to see, while a passing school of porpoises fairly set the sea blazing as they leaped and gambolled in its glowing waters. Looking up from sea to sky, the latter seemed quite black instead of blue, and li I;^) THE <:iirisj-: ur hie '' vACiiAiorr the lustre of the stars was diminished till they only looked like points of i)olish«d steel, having (iiiitt- lost for the time their radiant sparkle. In that shining flood the hlackncss of the ship stood out in startling eontrast, and when wo looked over the side our faces were strangely lit up hy the hrilliant glow. For several hours this beautiful appearance per- sisted, fading away at last as gradually as it come. No satisfactory explanation of this curious phenomenon has ever been given, nor does it appear to portend any cliange of weather. It cannot be called a rare occur- rence, although I have only seen it thrice myself — once in theBayof Cavite, in the Philippine Islands ; once in the Paciiic, near the Kjlomon Islands; and on this occasion of which I now write. But no one who had ever witnessed it could forget so wonderful a sight. One morning, a week after we had taken our departure from the Seychelles, the officer at the main crow's-nest reported a vessel of some sort about five miles to windward. Something strange in her appear- ance made the skipper haul up to intercept her. As we drew nearer, we made her out to be a Malay " prahu ; " but, by the look of her, s-jhe was deserted. The big three- cornered sail that had been set, hung in tattered festoons from the long, slender yard, which, without any gear to steady it, swung heavily to and fro as the vessel rolled to the long swell. We drew closer and closer, but no sign of life was visible on board, so the captain ordered a boat to go and investigate. In two minutes we were speeding away towards her, and, making a sweep round her stern, prepared to board her. But we were met by a stench so awful that Mr. Count would not proceed, and at once returned to the I: norxn the coco^ A.\'f> >-!:Y('iih:u.h:s. I.r her, loarcl Mr. the rtliip. Tht b«>;it WHS (juifkly iioi.stttl aj^rtin, and tliu ship inaiKuuvicd to pans close to windward of i\\v dorolict. Then, from our nniHt-hoad, n horriblr sij^ht bt'camo visible. Lyin^ al)out tlu' woather-bcaton dock, in various postures, wire thirtit'n corpsis.all fur advanced in decay, which horriljU- fact fully atcounti'd for the intolerable Ktencli that had driven us away. It is, perhaps, hardly necessar}' to say that we promptly hauled our wind, and placed a ^ood distance between us and that awful load of death as soon as possible. I'oor wretches ! What terrible calamity had befallen them, wo could not guess ; whatever it was, it had been complete ; nor would any sane man fulling across them run the risk of closer exainination into details than we had done. It was a great pity that we were not able to sink the prahu with her ghastly cargo, and so free the air from that poisonous ftetor that was a deadly danger to any vessel getting under her lee. Next day, and for a whole week after, wo had a stark calm — such a calm as one realizes who reads sympathetically that magical piece of work, the " Ancient Mariner." What an amazing instance of the triumph of the human imagination ! For (loleridgo certainly never witnessed such a scene as he there describes with an accuracy of detail that is astounding. Very few sailors have noticed the sickening condition of the ocean when the life-giving breeze totally fails for any length of time, or, if they have, they have said but little about I it. Of course, some parts of the sea show the evil I elTects of stagnation much sooner than others; hut,/ generally speaking, want of wind at sea, if long continued,/ produces a condition of things dangerous to the healtli of any land near by. Whale-ships, penetrating as they IMS riiK chvisK OF rut-: "caciiaiot." do to piirtH carefully avoided by ordinary trading vtHHtlH, often alTord their cix-ws tin opportunity of Hccing thingH nioKtly liidd'.n from tlje Higlit of man, when, aetuate ) CIIArTKll XIII. oil- TO TIIK JAPAN (JROINDM. Vkuy tcdiouH tiiul trying; was our passage northward, altlioiiKh every ctVort was made l)y the skipper to expedite it. Nothing of advantage to our cargo was scon for a long time, which, altliough apparently what was to be expected, did not improve Captain Slocum's temper. But, to the Hurpr'sc of all, when we had arrived otT the beautiful island of Hong Kong, to which we approached closely, we " raised " a grand sperm whale. Many fishing-junks were in sight, busily plying theii- trade, and at any other time we should have i)een much interested in the quaint and euiming devices l)y which the patient, wily Chinaman succeeds so admirably as a fisherman. Our own fishing, for the time being, absorbed all our attention — the more, perhaps, that we had for so long been unable to do anything in that line. After the usual preliminaries, we were successful in getting fast to the great creature, who immediately showed fight. So skilful and wary did he prove that Captain Slocum, growing impatient at our maiueuvring with no result, himself took the field, arriving on the scene with the air of one who comes to see and conquer without more delay. He brought with him a weapon which I have not hitherto mentioned, because none of the hariiooners could be IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) (/ ^A 4^ 4is % 1.0 1.1 11.25 lliyi |25 Itt 122 g2.2 [M ^ mm ^ 1^ 12.0 FhotogFaphic Sdences Corporation :.« ^ '1^V\ V ^. 23 WIST MAIN STRIET WnSTIR,N.Y. UStO (716) •72-4503 ^"^^i^- ^4)' «> 150 777^ CRUISE OF THE "CACHALOT:' induced to use it, and consequently it liad not been much in evidence. Theoretically, it was an ideal tool for such work, its chief drawback being its cumbrousness. It was known as " Pierce's darting Run," being a combination of bomb-gun and harpoon, capable of being darted at the whale like a plain harpoon. Its construction was simple ; indeed, the patent was a very old one. A tube of brass, thickening towards the butt, at which was a square chamber firmly welded to a socket for receiving the pole, formed the gun itself. Within the chamber aforesaid a nipple protruded from the base of the tube, and in line with it. The trigger was simply a flat bit of steel, like a piece of clock spring, which was held down by the hooked end of a steel rod long enough to stick out beyond the muzzle of the gun three or four inches, and held in position by two flanges at the butt and muzzle of the barrel. On the opposite side of the tube were two more flanges, close together, into the holes of which was inserted the end of a specially made harpoon, having an eye twisted in its shank through which the whale line was spliced. The whole machine was fitted to a neat pole, and strongly secured to it by means of a " gun warp," or short piece of thin line, by which it could be hauled hack into the boat after being darted at a whale. To prepare this weapon for use, the barrel was loaded with a charge of powder and a bomb similar to those used in the shoulder-guns, the point of which just protruded from the muzzle. An ordinary percussion cap was placed upon the nipple, and tlie trigger cocked by placing the trigger-rod in position. The harpoon, with the line attached, was firmly set into the socketed flanges pre- pared for it, and the whole arrangement was then ready to be darted at the whale in the usual waj'. »» OFF TO THE J A PAX GROUNDS. 151 SuppoHingtho aim to bo good and the force sutKcient, the harpoon wouUl penetrate the bhibber until the end of the triggcr>rod was driven backwards by striking the l)lubber, releasing the trigger and firing the gun. Thus the whale would be harpooned and bomb-lanccd at the same time, and, supposing everything to work satis- factorily, very little more would be needed to finish him. But the weapon was so cumbersome and awkward, and the harpooners stood in such awe of it, that in the majority of cases the whale was either missed altogether or the harpoon got such slight hold that the gun did not go off, the result being generally disastrous. In the present case, however, the " Pierce " gun was ill the hands of a man by no means nervous, and above criticism or blame in case of failure. So when he sailed in to the attack, and delivered his " swashing blow," the report of the gun was immediately heard, proving conclusively that a successful stroke had been made. It had an instantaneous and astonishing effect. The sorely-wounded monster, with one tremendous expira- tion, rolled over and over swift as thought towards his aggressor, literally burying the boat beneath his vast bulk. Now, one would have thought surely, upon seeing this, that none of that boat's crew would ever have been seen again. Nevertheless, strange as it may appear, out of that seething lather of foam, all six heads emerged again in an instant, but on the other side of the great creature. How any of them escaped instant violent death was, and from the nature of the case must ever remain, an unravelled mystery, for the boat was crumbled into innumerable fragments, and the three hundred fathoms of line, in a perfect maze of entanglement, appeared to be wrapped about the writhing 152 THE CRUISE OF THE " CACnALOlV trunk of the whale. Happily, there were two boats dis- engaged, so that they were able very promptly to rescue the sufferers from their perilous position in the boiling vortex of foam by which they were surrounded. Mean- while, the remaining boat had an easy task. The shot delivered by the captain had taken deadly effect, the bomb having entered the creature's side low down, directly abaft the pectoral fin. It must have exploded within the cavity of the bowels, from its position, causing such extensive injuries as to make even that vast animal's death but a matter of a few moments. Therefore, we did not run any unnecessary risks, but hauled off to a safe distance and quietly watched the death-throes. They were so brief, that in less than ten minutes from the time of the accident we were busy securing the line through the flukes of our prize. The vessel was an unusually long time working up to us, so slow, in fact, that Mr. Count remarked, criti- cally, " Shouldn't wonder if th' ole man ain't hurt ; they're taking things so all-fired easy." By the time she had reached us, we had a good few visitors around us from the fishing fleet, who caused us no little anxiety. The Chinese have no prejudices ; they would just as soon steal a whale as a herring, if the conveyance could be effected without more trouble or risk to their own yellow skins. If it involved the killing of a few foreign devils — well, so much to the good. The ship, however, arrived before the fishermen had decided upon any active steps, and we got our catch alongside without any delay. The truth of Mr. Count's forecast was verified to the hilt, for wc found that the captain was so badly bruised about the body that he was unable to move, while one of the hands, a Portuguese, was injured internally, and OFF TO rni: javas orousds. 1 :»:) peps, I The Ihilt, lised one and seemed very bad indeed. Had any one told us that morning that we should he sorry to see Captain Slocum with sore bones, we should have scoffed at the notion, and some of us would probably have said that we should like to have the opportunity of making him smart. But under the present circumstances, with some hundreds of perfectly ruthless wretches hovering around us, looking with longing e^'es at the treasure we had along- side, we could not help remembering the courage and resource so often shown by the skipper, and wished with all our hearts that we could have the benefit of them now. As soon as dinner was over, we all " turned to " with a will to get the whale cut in. None of us required to be told that to lay all night with that whale alongside would be extremely unhealthy for us, great doubt existing as to whether any of us would see morning dawn again. There was, too, just a possibility that when the carcass, stripped of its blubber, was cut adrift, those ravenous crowds would fasten upon it, and let us go in peace. A.i hands, therefore, worked like Trojans. There was no need to drive us, nor was a single harsh word spoken. Nothing was heard but the almost incesssmt clatter of the windlass pawls, abrupt monosyllabic orders, and the occasional melancholy wail of a gannet overhead. No word had been spoken on the subject among us, yet somehow we all realized that wo were working for a large stake — no less than our lives. What ! says somebody, within a few miles of Hong Kong? Oh yes ; and even within Hong Kong harbour itself, if opportunity offers. Let any man go down tlu; wharf at Hong Kong after sunset, and hail a sampan from the hundreds there that are waiting to be hired. Hardly will the summons have left his lips before a white l.VI TIIK CnUISK OF THE " CAOffALOT.' I policeman will be at his side, note-book in hand, in- quiring bin name and Hhip, and taking a note of the Hanipan's number with the time of his leaving the wharf. Nothing perfunctory about the job either. Let but these precautions be omitted, and the chances that the passenger (if he have aught of value about him) will ever arrive at his destination are almost nil. So good was the progress made that by five p.m. we were busy at the head, while the last few turns of the windlass were being taken to complete the skinning of the body. With a long pent-up shout that last piece was severed and swung inboard, as the huge mass of reeking flesh floated slowly astern. As it drifted away we saw the patient watchers who had been waiting con- verging upon it from all quarters, and our hopes rose high. But there was no slackening of our efforts to get in the head. By the time it was dark we managed to get the junk on board, and by the most extraordinary efforts lifted the whole remainder of the head high enough to make sail and stand off to sea. The wind was off the land, the water smooth, and no swell on, so we took no damage from that tremendous weight surging by our side, though, had the worst come to the worst, we could have cut it adrift. When morning dawned we hove-to, the land being only dimly visible astern, and finished taking on board our " head matter " without further incident. The danger past, we were all well pleased that the captain was below, for the work proceeded quite pleasantly under the genial rule of the mate. Since leaving port we had not felt so comfortable, the work, with all its disagree- ables, seeming as nothing now that we could do it without fear and trembling. Alas for poor Jemmy ! — as OFF TO THE JAPAN GROUNDS. V. ).'> )eing Doard The inder had |gree- lo it I — as wo always persisted in calling him from inability to pronounce his proper name — his case was evidently hopeless. His fellows did their poor best to comfort his fast-fleeting hours, one after another murmuring to him the prayers of the Church, which, although they did not understand them, they evidently believed most firmly to have some marvellous power to open the gates of paradise and cleanse the sinner. Notwithstanding the grim fact that their worship was almost pure super- stition, it was far more in accordance with the fitness of things for a dying man's surroundings than such scenes as I have witnessed in the forecastles of merchant ships when poor sailors lay a-dying. I remember well once, when I was second officer of a large passenger ship, going in the forecastle as she lay at anchor at St. Helena, to see a sick man. Half the crew were drunk, and the beastly kennel in which they lived was in a thick fo2 of tobacco-smoke and the stale stench of rum. Bibald songs, quarrelling, and blasphemy made a veritable pandemonium of the place. I passed quietly through it to the sick man's bunk, and found him — dead ! He had passed away in the midst of that, but the horror of it did not seem to impress his bemused shipmates much. Here, at any rate, there was quiet and decorum, while all that could be done for the poor sufferer (not much, from ignorance of how he was injured) was done. He was released from his pain in the afternoon of the second day after the accident, the end coming suddenlj' and peacefully. The same evening, at sunset, the body, neatly sewn up in canvas, with a big lump of sandstone secured to the feet, was brought on deck, laid on a hatch at the gangway, and covered with the blue, star- spangled American Jack. Then all hands were mustered I5(J THE CRUISE OF THE " CACITALOT." in the waist, the ship's hell was toUcrl, and the ensign run up halfway. The captain was still too ill to he moved, so the mate stepped forward with a rusty old Common Prayer- book in his hands, whereon my vagrant fancy imme- diately fastened in frantic endeavour to imagine how it came to be there. The silence of death was over all. True, the man was but a unit of no special note among us, but death had conferred upon him a brevet rank, in virtue of which he dominated every thought. It seemed strange to me that we who faced death so often and variously, until natural fear had become deadened by custom, should, now that one of our number lay a rapidly-corrupting husk before us, be so tremendously impressed by the simple, inevitable fact. I suppose it was because none of us were able to realize the imma- nence of Death until we saw his handiwork. Mr. Count opened the book, fumbling nervously among the un- familiar leaves. Then he suddenly looked up, his weather-scarred face glowing a dull brick-red, and said, in a low voice, " This thing's too many fer me ; kin any of ye do it ? Ef not, I guess we'll liev ter take it as read." There was no response for a moment ; then I stepped forward, reaching out my hand for the book. Its contents were familiar enough to me, for in happy pre- arab days I had been a chorister in the old Lock Chapel, Harrow Eoad, and had borne my part in the service so often that I think even now I could repeat the greater part of it memoriter. Mr. Count gave it*me without a word, and, trembling like a leaf, I turned to the " Burial Service," and began the majestic sentences, " I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith the Iiord." I did not know ray own voice as the wonderful words OFF TO THE JAi'AN OJiOUNDS, 157 the "I I orcls Houuded clearly in the still air ; but if eve- » small hody of soul-hardoned men jclt the power of God, it was then. At the words, " Wo therefore commit his body to the deep," I paused, and, the mate making a sign, two of the harpooners tilted the hatch, from which the remains slid off into the unknown deptlis with a dull splash. Several of the dead man's compatriots covered their faces, and murmured prayers for the repose of his soul, while the tears trickled through their horny fingers. But matters soon resumed their normal course ; the tension over, back came the strings of life into position again, to play the same old tunes and discords once more. The captured whale made an addition to our cargo of one hundred and ten barrels — a very fair haul indeed. The harpooners were disposed to regard this capture as auspicious upon opening the North Pacific, where, in spite of the time we had spent, and the fair luck we had experienced in the Indian Ocean, we expected to make the chief portion of our cargo. Our next cruising-ground is known to whalemen as the " Coast of Japan " ground, and has certainly proved in the past the most prolific fishery of sperm whales in the whole world. I am inclined now to believe that there are more and larger cachalots to be fo.Mnl in the Southern Hemisphere, between the parallels of :'3° and /50° South ; but there the drawback of heavy weather and moun- tainous seas severely handicaps the fishermen. It is somewhat of a misnomer to call the Coast of Japan ground by that name, since to be successful you should not sight Japan at all, but keep out of range of the cold current that sweeps right across the Pacific, skirting the Philippines, along the coasts of the Japanese islands as far as the Kuriles, and then returns to the inn THE UHVISK OF THE *' CACHALOT:' : I eastward again to the southward of the Aleutian Archi- pelago. The greatest number of whales are always found in the vicinity of the Bonin and Volcano groups of islands, whicli lie in the eddy formed hy the north- ward bend of the mighty current before mentioned. This wonderful ground was first cruised by a London whale-ship, the Stfrcn, in 1819, when the English branch of the sperm whale-fishery was in its prime, and London skippers were proud of the fact that one of their number, in the Kmilia, had thirty-one years before first ventured around Cape Horn in pursuit of the cachalot. After the advent of the Syren, the Bonins became the favourite fishing-ground for both Americans and British, and for many years the catch of oil taken from these teeming waters averaged four thousand tuns annually. That the value of the fishery was main- tained at so high a level for over a quarter of a century was doubtless due to the fact that there was a long, self- imposed close season, during which the whales were quite unmolested. Nothing in the migratory habits of this whale, so far as has ever been observed, would have pre- vented a profitable fishing all the year round; but custom, stronger even than profit, ordained that whale-ships should never stay too long upon one fishing-ground, but move on farther until the usual round had been made, unless the vessel were filled in the mean time. Of course, there are whales whose habits lead them at certain seasons, for breeding purposes, to frequent various groups of islands, but the cachalot seems to be quite impartial in his preferences; if he "uses" around certain waters, he is just as likely to be found there in July as January. The Bonins, too, form an ideal calling-place, from OFF Tn THE J A I' AS nitorNPS. 1 59 from the whaliug cuptaiirH point of viow. Puul Islaml, the priucipal one of the cluster, has a perfect harbour in I'ort Lloyd, where a vessel can not only lie in comfort, sheltered from almost every wind that blows, but whore provisions, wood, and water are plentiful. There is no inducement, or indeed room, for desertion, and the place is healthy. It is colonized by Japs from the kingdom bo easily reached to the westward, and the busy little people, after their manner, make a short stay very agreeable. Once clear of the southern end of Formosa we hud quite a rapid run to the Bonins, carrying a press of sail day and night, as the skipper was anxious to arrive there on account of his recent injuries. He was still very lame, and he feared that some damage might have been done to him of which he was ignorant. Besides, it was easy to see that he did not altogether like anybody else being in charge of his ship, no matter how good they were. Such was the expedition we made that we arrived at Port Lloyd twelve days after clearing up our last whale. Very beautiful indeed the islands appeared, with their bold, steep sides clad in richest green, or, where no vegetation appeared, worn into a thousand fantastic shapes by the sea or the mountain torrents carving away the lava of which they were all composed. For the whole of the islands were volcanic, and Port Lloyd itself is nothing more than the crater of a vast volcano, which in some tremendous convulsion of nature has sunk from its former high estate low enough to become a haven for ships. I have said that it was a perfect harbour, but there is no doubt that getting in or out requires plenty of nerve as well as seamanship. There was so little room, and the eddying flaws of wind under the high land were KiO THE t'UUlSt: OF TIIK " CACHALOT:' 80 l»affling, that at variouH times during our paHsago in it appeartid aw if notliinj,' could prevent uh from getting stuck upon some of tlic> adjacent liungry-looking coral reefs. Nothing of the kind happtiued, however, and wo came comfortably to an anchor near three other whale- 8hii)H which were already there. They were the Dicijo Jlaiiiiir;, of Nantucket ; tin* ('nmnel, of Providence, Rhode Island ; and the OrampiiH, of New Bedford. These were the i'lrst whale-ships we hud yet seen, and it may be imagined how anxious we felt to meet men with whom wo could compare notes and exchange yarns. It might be, too, that wo should get some news of that world which, as far as we were concerned, might as well have been at the other extremity of the solar system for the last year, so completely isolated had we been. The sails were hardly fast before a boat from each of the ships was alongside with their respective skippers on board. The extra exertion necessary to pilot the ship in had knocked the old man up, in his present weak state, and he had gone below for a short rest ; so the three visitors dived down into the stuffy cabin, all anxious to interview the latest comer. Considerate always, Mr. Count allowed us to have the remainder of the day to ourselves, so we set about entertaining our company. It was no joke twelve of them coming upon us all at once, and babel ensued for a short time. They knew the system too well to expect refreshments, so we had not to apologize for having nothing to set before them. They had not come, however, for meat and drink, but for talk. And talk we did, sometimes altogether, sometimes rationally; but I doubt whether any of us had ever enjoyed talking so much before. ( I'-l ) CHAPTER XIV. LIBERTY DAY — AND AFTER. Therk is generally current among seamen a notion that all masters of ships are bound by law to give their crews twenty-four hours' liberty and a portion of their wages to spend every three months, if they are in port. I have never heard any authority quoted for this, and do not know what foundation there is for such a belief, although the practice is usually adhered to in English ships. But American whale-ships apparently know no law, except the will of their commanders, whose con- venience is always the first consideration. Thus, wo had now been afloat for well over a year, during which time, except for our foraging excursions at the Cocos and Aldabra, we had certainly known no liberty for a whole day. Our present port being one where it was impossible to desert without the certainty of prompt recapture, with subsequent suffering altogether disproportionate to the offence, we were told that one watch at a time would be allowed their liberty for a day. So we of the port watch made our simple preparations, received twenty-five cents each, and were turned adrift on the beach to enjoy ourselves. We had our liberty, but we M I \ 102 THE CKUJSE OF THE "CACHALOT: didn't know what to do with it. There was a native town and a couple of low groggeries kept by Chinamen, whore some of my shipmates promptly invested a portion of their wealth in some horrible liquor, the smell of which was enough to make an ordinary individual sick. There was no place apparently where one could get a meal, so that the prospect of our stay ashore lasting a day did not seem very great. I was fortunate enough, however, to foregather with a Scotchman who was a beach-comber, and consequently " knew the ropes." I dare say he was an unmitigated blackguard whenever he got the chance, but he was certainly on his best behaviour with me. He took me into the country a bit to see the sights, which were such as most of the Pacific islands afford. Wonderful indeed were the fantastic rocks, twisted into innumerable grotesque shapes, and, along the shores, hollowed out into caverns of all sizes, some large enough to shelter an army. He was quite familiar with the natives, understanding enough of their queer lingo to get along. By his friendly aid we got some food — yams, and fish cooked in native fashion, i.e. in heated holes in the ground, for which the friendly Kanakas would take no payment, although they looked murderous enough to be cannibals. It does not do to go by looks always. Well, after a long ramble, the Scotchman and I laid our weary bodies down in the shade of a big rock, and had a grand sleep, waking up again a little before sunset. We hastened down to the beach oflf the town, where all my watchmates were sitting in a row, like lost sheep, waiting to be taken on board again. They had had enough of liberty ; indeed, such liberty as that was hardly worth having. It seems hardly credible, I.JliKRTY DAY — AND AFTEl!. h;.t laid and efore own, like rhey that ible, 'I but we were actually glad to get on board again, it was so miserable ashore. The natives were most unsociable at the port, a"nd we could not make ourselves under- stood, 80 there was not much fun to be had. Even those who were inclined to drink had too little for a spree, which I was not sorry for, since doubtless a very unpleasant reception would have awaited them had they come on board drunk. Next day the starboard watch went on liberty, while we who had received our share were told off to spend the day wooding and watering. In this most pleasant of occupations (when the weather is fine) I passed a much more satisfactory time than when wandering about with no objective, an empty pocket, and a hungry belly. No foremast hand has ever enjoyed his op- portunities of making the acquaintance of his various visiting places more than I have ; but the circumstances attendant upon one's leave must be a little favourable, or I would much rather stay aboard and fish. Our task was over for i,uc Jtty, a goodly stoie of wood and casks of water having been shipped. We were sitting down to supper, when, in answer to a hail from the beach, we were ordered to fetch the liberty men. When wo got to them, there was a pretty how-d'ye-do. All of them were more or less drunk, some exceedingly quarrelsome. Now, Mistah Jones was steering our boat, looking as little like a man to take sauce from a drunken sailor as you could imagine. Most of the transformed crowd ya-hooing on the beach had felt the weight of his shoulder-of-mutton fist, yet so utterly had prudence for- saken them that, before we came near them, they were abusing him through all the varied gamut of filthy language they possessed. My democratic sentiments if 1()4 THE (mUJSE OF THE "CACHALOT:' arc deeply seated, but I do believe in authority, and respect for it being rigidly enforced, so this uncalled- for scene upset me, making me feel anxious that the gibbering fools might get a lesson. They got one. Goliath stood like a tower, his eyes alone betraying the fierce anger boiling within. When we touched the beach, his voice was mild and gentle as a child's, his movements calm and deliberate. As soon as we had beached the boat he stepped ashore, and in two strides was in the middle of the snarling group. Further parley ceased at once. Snatching the loudest of them by the breast of his shirt with his right hand, another one by the collar with his left, he flung himself back- wards towards the boat, knocking the interveners right and left. But a protruding fragment of rock caught his heel, bringing him with his captives to the ground in a writhing mass. The rest, maddened beyond restraint of fear, flung themselves upon the prostrate man, the glimmer of more than one knife-blade appear- ing. Two of us from the boat — one with the tiller, the other brandishing a paddle — rushed to the rescue ; but before we arrived the giant had heaved off his assailants, and, with no other weapons than his bare hands, was doing terrific execution among them. Not knowing, I suppose, whether we were friendly to him or not, he shouted to us to keep away, nor dare to interfere. There was no need. Disregarding such trifles as a few superficial cuts — not feeling them perhaps — he so un- mercifully mauled that crowd that they howled again for mercy. The battle was brief and bloody. Before hostilities had lasted five minutes, six of the aggressors were stretched insensible ; the rest, comprising as many more, were pleading for mercy, completely sober. Such LIBERTY DAY — AND AFTER. 165 prowess on the part of one man against twelve seems liardly credible ; but it must be remembered that Goliath fought, with all the moral force of the ship's ofticers behind him, against a disorganized crowd without back- bone, who would never have dared to face him but for the temporary mania induced by the stuff they had drunk. It was a conflict between x lion and a troop of jackals, whereof the issue was never in doubt as long as lethal weapons were wanting. Standing erect among the cowering creatures, the great negro looked every inch a mediaeval hero. In a stern voice ho bade his subjugated enemies to get into the boat, assisting those to do so who were too badly hurt to rise. Then wo shoved off for the ship — a sorrowful gang indeed. As I bent to my oar, I felt very sorry for what had happened. Here were half the crew guilty of an act of violence upon an ollicer, which, according to the severe code under which we lived, merited punishment as painful as could be inflicted, and lasting for the rest of the voyage. Whatever form that punishment might take, those of us who were innocent would be almost equal sufferers with the others, because discrimination in the treatment between watch an I watch is always difficult, and in our case it was certain that it would not be attempted. Except as regarded physical violence, we might all expect to share alike. Undoubtedly things looked very unpleasant. My gloomy cogitations were abruptly terminated by the order to " unrow " — we were alongside. Somehow or other all hands managed to scramble on board, and assist in hoisting the boat up. As soon as she was secured we slunk away forward, but wo had hardly got below before a tremendous Il^ 160 THE CRUISE OF THE " CACHALOT:' summons from Goliath brought us all aft again at the doable quick. Most of the fracas had been witnessed from the ship, so that but a minute or two was needed to explain how or why it begun. Directly that explana- tion had been supplied by Mistah Jones, the order was issued for the culprits to appear. I have before noticed how little love was lost between the skipper and his officers, Goliath having even once gone so far as to give me a very emphatic opinion of his about the "old man" of a most unflattering nature. And had such a state of things existed on board an English ship, the crew would simply have taken charge, for they would have seen the junior officers flouted, snubbed, and jeered at ; and, of course, what they saw the captain do, they would not be slow to improve on. Many a promising young officer's career has been blighted in this way by the feminine spite of a foolish man unable to see that if the captain shows no respect to his officers, neither will the crew, nor obedience either. But in an American ship, so long as an officer remains an officer, he must be treated as such by every man, under pain of prompt punishment. Yankee skippers have far too much nous to allow their hands to grow saucy in consequence of division among the after-guard. So now a sort of court-martial was held upon the unfortunates who had dared to attack Goliath, at which that sable hero might have been the apple of Captain Slocum's eye, so solicitous was he of Mistah Jones' honour and the reparation to be made. This sort of thing was right in his line. Naturally cruel, be seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself in the prospect of making human beings twist and writhe in pain. Nor would he be baulked of a jot of his pleasure. LIB El DAY— AND AFTER. 1(J7 Goliath approauiioil him, and mattered a few words, meant, I felt sure, to appease him by letting hira know how much they had suffered at his strong hands ; but he turned upon the negro with a savage curse, bidding him be silent. Then every one of the culprits was stripped, and secured to the lash-rail by the wrists ; scourges were made of cotton fish-line, knotted at intervals, and secured to a stout handle ; the harpooners were told off as executioners, and the flogging began. Perhaps it was necessary for the maintenance of discipline — certainly it was trivial compared with the practice, till recently, in our own army and navy; but I am glad to say that, compelled to witness it, I felt quite sick — physically sick — trembling so in every limb that my legs would not support me. It was not fear, for I had nothing to fear had I been ever such a coward. Whatever it was, I am not sorry either to have felt it or to own it, even while I fully admit that for some forms of wickedness nothing but the lash seems adequate punishment. Some of the victims fainted, not being in the best condition at the outset for undergoing so severe a trial ; but all were treated alike, buckets of salt water being flung over them. This drastic reviver, while adding to their pain, brought them all into a state of sufticient activity to get forward when they were released. Smart- ing and degraded, all their temporary bravado effectually banished, they were indeed pitiable objects, their deplor- able state all the harder to bear from its contrast to our recent pleasure when we entertained the visiting crews. Having completed our quantum of wood, water, and fresh provisions for the officers, we got under way again for the fishing grounds. I did not see how we ^t^vt%u.''»-«^^►v*-* 14 !(;$ THE CRUISE OF THE " CACHALOT." could hope for a successful season, knowing the utterly despondent state of the crew, which even affected the officers, who, not so callous or cruel as the skipper, seemed to be getting rather tired of the constant drive and kick, now the norm..! condition of affairs. But the skipper's vigilance was great. Whether he noted any sign of slackness or indifference on the part of his coadjutors or not, of course I cannot say, but he certainly seemed to put more vigour into his attentions than had been his wont, and so kept everybody up to the mark. Hitherto we had always had our fishing to ourselves ; we were now to see something of the ways of other men employed in the same manner. For though the general idea or plan of campaign against the whales is the same in all American whalers, every ship has some individual peculiarity of tactics, which, needless to say, are always far superior to those of any other ship. When we com- menced our cruise on this new ground, there were seven whalers in sight, all quite as keen on the chase as our- selves, so that I anticipated considerable sport of the liveliest kind should we ** raise " whales with such a fleet close at hand. But for a whole week we saw nothing but a grampus or so, a few loitering finbacks, and an occasional lean humpback bull certainly not worth chasing. On the seventh afternoon, however, I was in the main crow's- nest with the chief, when I noticed a ship to windward of us alter her course, keeping away three or four points on an angle that would presently bring her across our bows a good way ahead. I was getting pretty well versed in the tricks of the trade now, so I kept mum, but strained my eyes in the direction for which the other ship was steering. The chief was looking astern at some LIDEIiTF DAY — AND AFTEIi. 1(11) finbacks, the look-out men forward were both staring to leeward, thus for a minute or so I had a small arc of the horizon to myself. The time was short, but it sufficed, and for the first time that voyage I had the privilege of "raising" a sperm whale. My voice quivered with excitement as I uttered the war-whoop, "Ah blo-o-o-o-w ! " Bound spun the mate on his heel, while the hands clustered like bees roused from their hive. "Where away — where? "gasped the mate. And I pointed to a spot about half a point on the lee bow, at the same time calling his attention to the fact that the stranger to windward was keeping away. In answer to the skipper's hurried queries from below, Mr. Count gave him the general outline of affairs, to which he replied by crowding every stitch of canvas on the vessel that was available. The spout I had seen was a good ten miles off, and, for the present, seemed to belong to a " lone " whale, as it was the only one visible. There was a good breeze blowing, as much, in fact, as we could carry all sail to, the old barky making a tremendous commotion as she blundered along under the unusual press of canvas. In the excitement of the race all our woes were forgotten ; we only thought of the possibility of the ship getting there first. We drew gradually nearer to the stranger, who, like us, was carrying all the sail he had got, but, being able to go a point or two free, was outsailing us. It was anybody's race as yet, though, when we heard the skipper's hail, " 'Way down from aloft ! " as he came up to take our place. The whale had sounded, appar- ently heading to leeward, so that the weather-gage held by our rival was not much advantage to him now. We ran on for another two miles, then shortened sail. 170 THE CRUISE OF riii: "cachalot: ' if and stood by to lower away the moment he should re- appear. Meanwhile another ship was working up from to leeward, having evidently noted our movements, or else, like the albatross, " smelt whale," no great distance to windward of him. Waiting for that whale to rise was one of the most exciting experiences we had gone through as yet, with two other ships so near. Everybody's nerves seemed strung up to concert pitch, and it was quite a relief when from half a dozen throats at once burst the cry, " There she white-waters ! Ah blo-o-o-o-w ! " Not a mile away, dead to leeward of us, quietly beating the water with the flat of his flukes, as if there was no such thing in the watery world as a whale-ship. Splash ! almost simultaneously went the four boats. Out we shot from the ship, all on our mettle ; for was not the skipper's eye upon us from his lofty eerie, as well as the crew of the other ship, now not more than a mile away ? We seemed a terrible time getting the sails up, but the officers dared not risk our willingness to pull while they could be independent of us. By the time we were fairly oflf, the other ship's boats were coming like the wind, so that eight boats were now converging upon the unconscious monster. We fairly flew over the short, choppy sea, getting drenched with the flying spray, but looking out far more keenly at the other boats than at the whale. Up we came to him, Mr. Count's boat to the left, the other mate's boat to the right. Almost at the same moment the irons flew from the hands of the rival harpooners ; but while ours was buried to the hitches in the whale's side, the other man's just ploughed up the skin on the animal's back, as it passed over him and pierced our boat close behind the harpooner's leg. Not seeing what LIDEHTY DAY — ASU AFTKli. 171 bad happened to his iron, or knowing that wo were fast, the other harpooner promptly Imrlod his second iron, which struck solidly. It was a very pretty tan^irle, but our position was rather bad. The whale between us was tearing the bowels of tho deep up in his rage and fear ; we were struggling frantically to got our sail down ; and at any moment that wretchol iron through our upper strake might tear a plank out of us. Our chief, foaming at the mouth with rage and excitement, was screeching inarticulate blasphemy at the other mate, who, not knowing what was the matter, was yelling back all his copious vocabulary of abuse. I felt very glad the whale was between us, or there would surely have been murder done. At last, out drops the iron, leaving a jagged hole you could put your arm through. Wasn't Mr. Count mad ? I really thought he would split with rage, for it was impossible for us to go on with that hole in our bilge. The second mate came alongside and took our line as the whale was just com- mencing to sound, thus setting us free. We made at once for the other ship's " fast " boat, and the compli- ments that had gone before were just casual conversation to what filled the air with dislocated language now. Presently both the champions cooled down a bit from want of breath, and we got our case stated. It was received with a yell of derision from the other side as a splendid effort of lying on our part ; because the first ship fast claims the whale, and such a prize as this one ■we were quarrelling about was not to be tamely yielded. However, as reason asserted her sway over Mr. Count, he quieted down, knowing full well that the state of the line belonging to his rival would reveal the truth when the whale rose again. Therefore we returned to the 172 THE CRUISE OF THE " CACHALOT:' ship, leaving our three boats busy waiting the whale's pleaMurc to rise again. When the Hkipper heard what had happened, he had his own boat manned, i)roceeding himself to the battle-field in expectation of complications presently. 13y the time he arrived upon the scene there were two more boats lying by, which had come up from the third ship, mentioned as working up from to leeward. " I'retty fine ground this's got ter be ! " growled the old man. " Caint strike whale 'thout bein' crowded eout uv yer own propputty by a gang ov bunco steerers like this. Shall hev ter quit it, en keep a pawnshop." And still the whale kept going steadily down, down, down. Already he was on the second boat's lines, and taking them out faster than ever. Had we been alone, this persistence on his part, though annoying, would not have mattered much ; but, with so many others in company, the possibilities of complication, should we need to slip our end, were numerous. The ship kept near, and Mr. Count, seeing how matters were going, had hastily patched his boat, returning at once with another tub of line. He was but just in time to bend on, when to our great delight we saw the end slip from our rival's boat. This in no wise terminated his lien on the whale, supposing he could prove that he struck first, but it got him out of the way for the time. Meanwhile we were running line faster than ever. There was an enormous length attached to the animal now — some twelve thousand feet — the weight of which was very great, to say nothing of the many " drogues " or ** stopwaters " attached to it at intervals. Judge, then, of my surprise when a shout of " Blo-o-o-w ! " called my attention to the whale himself just breaking water about half a mile away. It was an awkward predicament ; I LIBERTY nAY—AXn AFTF.U. 17:] for if we lot go our end, the others would be on the whale immediately ; if we hold on, wo should certainly he dragged below in a twinkling ; and our disengaged boats could do nothing, for they had no lino. JJut the difliculty Boon settled itself. Out ran our end, leaving us bare of lino as pleasure skiflfs. The new-comer, who had been prowling near, keeping a close watch upon us, saw our boat jump up when released from the weight. Off he flew like an arrow to the labouring leviathan, now a *' free lish," except for such claims as tlie two first comers had upon it, which claims are legally assessed, where no dispute arises. In its disabled condition, dragging so enormous a weight of line, it was but a few minutes before the fresh boat was fast, while we looked on helplessly, boiling with impotent rage. All that we could now hope for was the salvage of some of our line, a mile and a half of which, inextricably mixed up with about the same length of our rival's, was towing astern of the fast-expiring cachalot. So great had been the strain upon that hardly-used animal that he did not go into his usual " flurry," but calmly expired without the faintest struggle. In the mean time two of our boats had been sent on board again to work the ship, while the skipper proceeded to try his luck in the recovery of his gear. On arriving at the dead whale, however, we found that he had rolled over and over beneath the water so many times that the line was fairly frapped round him, and the present possessors were in no mood to allow us the privilege of unrolling it. During the conversation we had drawn very near the carcass, so near, in fact, that one hand was holding the boat alongside the whale's "small" by a bight of 171 7//A' vnUISE OF THE " CACllAlOrr ! tlio line. I suppose the skipper's eagle eye must have caught sight of the trailing part of the lino streaming beneath, for HuJdenly he plunged overboard, reappearing almost immediately vrith the line in his hand. He scrambled into the boat with it, cutting it from the whale at once, and starting his boat's crew hauling in. Then there was a hubbub again. The captain of the XarrafiafiHctt, our first rival, protested vigorously against our monopoly of the line ; but in grim silence our skipper kept on, taking no notice of him, while wo steadily hauled. Unless he of the Xarragamett choose to fight for what he considered his rights, there was no help for him. And there was something in our old man's appearance eminently calculated to discourage aggression of any kind. At last, disgusted apparently with the hopeless turn affairs had taken, the Xarranansrtt'H boats drew off, and returned on board their ship. Two of our boats had by this time accumulated a mountainous coil of line each, with which we returned to our own vessel, leaving the skipper to visit the present holder of the whale, the skipper of the John Hampden. What arrangements they made, or how they settled the X(irra(faniiett'8 claim between them, I never knew, but I dare say there was a costly law-suit about it in New Bedford years after. This was not very encouraging for a start, nor did the next week see us do anj' better. Several times we saw other ships with whales alongside, but we got no show at all. Now, I had hoped a great deal from our cruise on these grounds, because I had heard whispers of a visit to the icy Sea of Okhotsk, and the prospect was to me a horrible one. I never did take any stock in / /// hi: t y pa r — a .v/» a ftkr. 1 4.1 Arctic wurk. Bui if wc made a f^ood Honson on tho Japaii proiimlH, wo HhouUl not go north, but gradually work dowri the ruciric again, on the other side, cruising as wo went. Day after day went by without any fresh capture or even sight of fish, until I began to believe that tho stories I had heard of the wonderful fecundity of the Coast of Japan waters were fables without foundation, in fact. Had I known what sort of fishing our next bout would be, I should not have been so eager to sight whales again. If this be not a platitude of the worst kind, I don't know the meaning of the word ; but, after all, platitudes have their uses, especially when you want to state a fact baldly. 17(1 THE CRUISE OF Till-: " cac/ialot:' CHAPTER XV. WHICH COMES UNCOMFORTABLY NEAR BEING THE LAST. All unversed as I am in the finer shades of literary craftsmanship, there is great uncertainty in my mind whether it is good or bad " art " to anticipate your next chapter by foreshadowing its contents ; but whether good or bad art, the remembrance of my miseries on the eventful occasion I wish to describe was so strong upon me as I wrote the last few lines of the previous chapter that I just had to let those few words leak out. Through all the vicissitudes of this strange voyage I had hitherto felt pretty safe, and as the last thing a man anticipates (if his digestion is all right) is the possibility of coming to grief himself, while fully prepared to see everybody else go under, so I had got to think that whoever got killed I was not to be — a very pleasing senti- ment, and one that carries a man far, enabling him to face dangers with a light heart which otherwise would make a nerveless animal of him. In this optimistic mood, then, I gaily flung myself into my place in the mate's boat one morning, as we were departing in chase of a magnificent cachalot that had been raised just after breakfast. There were no other vessels in sight — much to our satisfaction — the wind UNCOMFORTABLY NEAR BEINO THE LAST. 177 was light, with a cloudless sky, and the whalo was dead to leeward of us. We sped along at a good rate towards our prospective victim, who was, in his leisurely enjoyment of life, calmly lolling on the surface, occasion- ally lifting his enormous tail out of water a"'' letting it fall fiat upon the surface with a boom audible for miles. We were, as usual, first boat ; but, much to the mate's annoyance, when we were a short half-mile from the whale, our main-sheet parted. It became immediately necessary to roll the sail up, lest its flapping should alarm the watchful monster, and this delayed us sufficiently to allow the other boats to shoot ahead of us. Thus the second mate got fast some seconds before we arrived on the scene, seeing which we furled sail, unshipped the mast, and went in on him with the oars only. At first the proceedings were quite of the usual character, our chief wielding his lance in most brilliant fashion, while not being fast to the animal allowed us much greater freedom in our evolutions ; but that fatal habit of the mate's — of allowing his boat to take care of herself so long as he was getting in some good home-thrusts — once more asserted itself. Although the whale was exceed- ingly vigorous, churning the sea into yeasty foam over an enormous area, there we wallowed close to him, right in the middle of the turmoil, actually courting disaster. He had just settled down for a moment, when, glancing over the gunwale, I saw his tail, like a vast shadow, sweeping away from us towards the second mate, who was laying off the other side of him. Before I had time to think, the mighty mass of gristle leapt into the sunshine, curved back from us like a huge bow. Then with a roar it came at us, released from its tension of Heaven knows how many tons. Full on N i ti t 1 17S THE CliUlSE OF THE " CACHALOT:' the broadside it struck ub, sending every soul but mc flying out of the wreckage as if fired from catapults. 1 did not go because my foot was jammed somehow in the well of the boat, but the wrench nearly pulled my thigh-bone out of its socket. I had hardly released my foot, when, towering above me, came the colossal head of the great creature, as he ploughed through the bundle of dvhris that had just been a boat. There was an appalling roar of water in my ears, and darkness that might be felt all around. Yet, in the midst of it all, one thought predominated as clearly as if I had been turning it over in my mind in the quiet of my bunk aboard — " What if he should swallow me ? " Nor to this day can I understand how I escaped the portals of his gullet, which of course gaped wide as a church door. But the agony of holding my breath soon over- powered every other feeling and thought, till just as something was going to snap inside my head I rose to the surface. I was surrounded by a welter of bloody froth, which made it impossible for me to see ; but oh, the air was sweet ! I struck out blindly, instinctively, although I could feel so strong an eddy that voluntary progress was out of the question. My hand touched and clung to a rope, which immediately towed me in some direction — I neither knew nor cared whither. Soon the motion ceased, and, with a seaman's instinct, I began to haul myself along by the rope I grasped, although no definite idea was in my mind as to where it was attached. Presently I came butt up against something solid, the feel of which gathered all my scattered wits into a compact knub of dread. It was the whale ! " Any port in a storm," I murmured, beginning to haul away again nSCOMFOnTAnLY SEAR DEINO THE LAST. 17!) ') on ray friendly line. By dint of bard work I pulled myHolf right up tho sloping, slippery bank of blubber, until I roaclied the iron, which, as luck would have it, was planted in that side of the carcass now upper- most. Carcass I said— well, certainly I had no idea of there being any life remaining within the vast mass beneath mo; yet I had hardly time to take a couple of turns round myself with the rope (or whale-line, as I had proved it to be), when I felt the great animal quiver all over, and begin to forge ahead. I was now composed enough to remember that help could not bo far away, and that my rescue, providing that I could keep above water, was but a question of a few minutes, liut I was hardly prepared for the whale's next move. ]3oing very near his end, the boat, or boats, had drawn olF a bit, I supposed, for I could see nothing of them. Then I remembered the flurry. Almost at the same moment, it began ; and there was I, who with fearful admiration bad so often watched the titanic convulsions of a dying cachalot, actually involved in them. Tho turns wore off my body, but I was able to twist a couple of turns round my arms, which, in case of his sounding, I could readily let go. Then all was lost in roar and rush, as of the heart of some mighty cataract, during which I was sometimes above, sometimes beneath, the water, but always clinging, with every ounce of energy still left, to the line. Now, one thought was uppermost — " What if he should breach?" I had seen them do so when in flurry, leaping full twenty feet in the air. Then I prayed. (Quickly as all the preceding changes had passed came perfect peace. There I lay, still alive, but so weak that, although I could feel the turns slipping off 180 TtlE CJiUISE OF THE " CACHALOT^' ray arms, and knew that I should slide off the slope of the whale's side into the sea if they did, I could make no effort to secure myself. Everything then passed away from me, just as if I had gone to sleep. I do not at all understand how I kept my position, nor how long, but I awoke to the blessed sound of voices, and saw the second mate's boat alongside. Very gently and tenderly they lifted me into the boat, although I could hardly help screaming with agony when they touched me, so bruised and broken up did I feel. My arms must have been nearly torn from their sockets, for the strands of the whale-line had cut deep into their flesh with the strain upon it, while my thigh was swollen enormously from the blow I received at the onset. Mr. Cruce was the most surprised man I think I ever saw. For full ten minutes he stared at me with wide-open eyes. When at last he spoke, it was with difficulty, as if wanting words to express his astonishment. At last he blurted out, " Whar you bin all de time, ennyhaow ? 'Cawse ef you bin hangin' on to dat ar wale ev' sence j'ou boat smash, w'y de debbil you hain't all ter bits, hey ? " I smiled feebly, but was too weak to talk, and presently went off again into a dead faint. When I recovered, I was snug in my bunk aboard, but aching in every joint, and as sore as if I had been pounded with a club until I was bruised all over. During the day Mr. Count was kind enough to pay me a visit. With his usual luck, he had escaped without the slightest injury ; neither was any other member of the boat's crew the worse for the ducking but myself. He told me that the whale was one of the largest he had ever seen, and as fat as butter. The boat was an ^ UNCOMFOTtTABLY XEAIi DEI SO THE LAST. 181 entire loss, so completely smashed to pieces that nothing of her or her gear had been recovered. After spending about a quarter of an hour with me, he left me consider- ably cheered up, promising to look after me in the way of food, and also to send me some books. He told me that I need not worry myself about my inability to be at work, because the old man was not unfavourably disposed towards me, which piece of news gave mo a great deal of comfort. When my poor, weary shipmates came below from their heavy toil of cutting in, they were almost inclined to be envious of my comfort — small blame to them — though I would gladly have taken my place among them again, could I have got rid of my hurts. But I was condemned to lie there for nearly three weeks before I was able to get about once more. In my sleep I would undergo the horrible anticipation of sliding down that awful, cavernous mouth over again, often waking with a shriek, and drenched with sweat. While I lay there, three whales were caught, all small cows, and I was informed that the skipper was getting quite disgusted with the luck. At last I managed to get on deck, quite a different-looking man to when I went below, and feeling about ten years older. I found the same sullen quiet reigning that I had noticed several times before when we were unfortunate. I fancied that the skipper looked more morose and savage than ever, though of me, to my great relief, he took not the slightest notice. The third day after my return to duty we sighted whales again. We lowered three boats as promptly as usual; but when within about half a mile of the "pod" some slight noise in one of tlie boats gallicd 182 THE CHUISE OF THE " CACIIALOTr i ' them, and away they went in the wind's eye, it blowing a Htiffish breeze at the time. It was from the first evidently a hopeless task to chase them, but we per- severed until recalled to the ship, dead beat with fatigue. I was not sorry, for my recent adventure seemed to have made quite a coward of me, so much 80 that an unpleasant gnawing at the pit of my stomach as we neared them almost made me sick. I earnestly hoped that so inconvenient a feeling would speedily leave me, or I should be but a poor creature in a boat. In passing, I would like to refer to the wonderful way in which these whales realize at a great distance, if the slightest sound be made, the presence of danger. I do not use the word "hear," because so abnormally small are their organs of hearing, the external opening being quite difficult to find, that I do not believe they can hear at all well. But I firmly believe they possess another sense by means of which they are able to detect any unusual vibration of the waves of either air or sea at a far greater distance than it would be possible for them to hear. Whatever this power may be which they possess, all whalemen are well acquainted with their exercise of it, and always take most elaborate precautions to render their approach to a whale noiseless. Our extraordinary want of success at last so annoyed the skipper that he determined to quit the ground and go north. The near approach of the open season in those regions probably hastened his decision, but I learned from Goliuth that he had always been known as a most fortunate man amoD^; *he " bowieads," as the great Mi/sticetie of that puii of the Arctic seas are called by the Americans. Not that there is any UNCOMFORTABLY SEAR REINO THE LAST. IS.'] any difference, as far as I have boon able to ascertain, between them and the " right" whale of the Greenland seas, but from some caprice of nomenclature for which there is no accounting. So in leisurely fashion we worked north, keeping, of course, a bright look-out all the way for straggling cachalots, but not seeing any. From scraps of informa- tion that in some mysterious fashion leaked out, wo learned that we were bound to the Okhotsk Sea, it being no part of the skipper's intentions to go prowling around Behrings Sea, where he believed the whales to be few and far between. It may be imagined that we of the crew were not at all pleased with this intelligence, our life being, we considered, sufficiently miserable without the addition of extreme cold ; for we did not realize that in tlio Arctic regions during summer the cold is by no means unbearable, and our imagination pictured a horrible waste of perpetual ice and snow, in the midst of which wo should be compelled to freeze while dodging whales through the crevices of the floes. But whether our pictures of the prospects that awaited us were caricatures or no made not the slightest difference. " Growl you may, but go you must " is an old sea-jingle of the truest ring ; but, while our going was inevitable, growling was a luxury none of us dare indulge in. We had by no means a bad passage to the Kuriles, which form a natural barrier enclosing the immense area of the Okhotsk Sea from the vast stretch of the Pacific. Around this great chain of islands the naviga- tion is exceedingly difficult, and dangerous as well, from the ever- varying currents as from the frequent fogs and sudden storms. But these impediments to swift and i i 184 THE CRUISE OF THE " CACHALOT:' safe navigation are made light of by the whalemen, who, as I feel never weary of remarking, are the finest navigators in the world where speed is not the first consideration. The most peculiar features of these inhospitable shores to a seaman are the vast fields of seaweed sur- rounding them all, which certainly helps to keep the sea down during gales, but renders navigation most difficult on account of its concealment of hidden dangers. These islands are aptly named, the word " Kurile " being Kam- schatkan for smoke ; and whether it be regarded as given in consequence of the numerous volcancos which pour their fumes into the air, or the all-prevailing fog fostered by the Kuro Siwo, or Japanese counterpart of the Gulf stream, the designation is equally appropriate. We entered theOkhotsk Sea bytheNadeshda Channel, so-named after Admiral Krusenstern's ship, which was the first civilized vessel that passed through its turbulent waters. It separates the islands Bashau and Mataua by about twenty miles, yet so conflicting and violent are the currents which eddy and swirl in all parts of it, that without a steady, strong fair wind it is most dangerous to a sailing vessel. Thenceforward the navigation was free from difficult}^, or at least none that we could recognize as such, so we gave all our attention to the business which brought us there. Scarcely any change was needed in our equipment, except the substitution of longer harpoons for those we had been using, and the putting away of the bomb-guns. These changes were made because the blubber of the bowhead is so thick that ordinary harpoons will not penetrate beyond it to the muscle, which, unless they do, renders them liable to draw, upon a heavy strain. As for the USCOMFORTAtiLY NEAli liKlSd THE LAST. 18.) bombs, Yankees hold the mysticetic in such supreme contempt that none of them would dream of wasting so expensive a weapon as a bomb upon them. I was given to understand by my constant crony, Mistah Jones, that there was no more trouble in killing a bowhead than in slaughtering a sheep ; and that while it was quite true that accidents did occur, they were entirely due to the carelessness or clumsiness of the whalemen, and not in any way traceable to a desire on the victim's part to do any one harm. The sea was little encumbered with ice, it being now late in June, so that our progress was not at all im- peded by the few soft, brashy floes that we encountered, none of them hard enough to do a ship's hull any damage. In most places the sea was sufficiently shallow to permit of our anchoring. For this purpose we used a large kedge, with stout hawser for cable, never furling all the sails in case of a strong breeze suddenly spring- ing up, which would cause us to drag. This anchoring was very comfortable. Besides allowing us to get much more rest than when on other cruising-grounds, we were able to catch enormous quantities of fish, mostly salmon, of which there were no less than fourteen varieties. So plentiful were these splendid fish that we got quite critical in our appreciation of them, very soon finding that one kind, known as the " nerker," was far better flavoured than any of the others. But as the daintiest food palls the quickest, it was not long before we got tired of salmon, and wished most heartily for beef. Much fun has been made of the discontent of sailors with food which is considered a luxury ashore, and wonder expressed that if, as we assert, the ordinary dietary of the seaman be so bad, he should be so ready 18G THE dims/-: OF TIIK " CACHALOT.** to rebel when fed with delicacies. But in justice to the sailor, it ought to be remembered that the daintiest food may be rendered disgusting by bad cookery, such as is the rule on board merchant ships. " God sends moat, but the devil sends cooks " is a proverb which originated on board ship, and no one who has ever served any time in a ship's forecastle would deny that it is abundantly justilied. Besides which, even good food well cooked of one kind only, served many times in succession, becomes very trying, only the plainest foods, such as bread, rice, potatoes, ciC, retaining their command of the appetite continually I remember once, when upon th»' Coromandel coast in a big Greenock ship, we found fowls very cheap. At Bimliapatam the captain bought two or three hundred, which, as we had no coops, were turned loose on deck. We had also at the same time prowling about the decks three goats, twenty pigs, pud two big dogs. Consequently the state of the ship was filthy, nor could all our efforts keep her clean. This farmyard condition of things was permitted to continue for about a week, when the officers got so tired of it, and the captain so annoyed at the frequent loss of fowls by their riying overboard, that the edict went forth to feed the foremast hands on poultry till further orders. Great was our delight at the news. Fowl for dinner represented to our imagination almost the apex of high living, only indulged in by such pampered children of fortune as the officers of ships or well-to-do people ashore. "When dinner-time arrived, we boys made haste to the galley with watering mouths, joyfully- anticipating that rare delight of the sailor — a good "feed." The cook uncovered his coppers, plunged his tormentors UNCOMFOnTAIihY NKAIt IlKISQ TIIF. LAST. Ib7 therein, and produced such a succession of ugly corpses of fowls as I had never seen before. To each man a whole one was allotted, and we bore the steaming heca- tomb into the forecastle. The boisterous merriment became hushed at our approach, and faces grew lengthy when the unwholesome aspect of the "treat" was revealed. Each man secured his bird, and commenced operations. But oh, the disappointment, antl the bad words ! What little flesh there was upon the framework of those unhappy fowls was like leather itself, and utterly flavourless. It could not well have been other- wise. The feathers had been simply scalded off, the heads chopped off, and bodies split open to facilitate drawing (I am sure I wonder the cook took the trouble to do that much), and thus prepared they were cast into a cauldron of boiling salt water. There, with the water fiercely bubbling, they were kept for an hour and a half, then pitchforked out into the mess kid and set before us. We simply could not eat them ; no one but a Noumean Kanaka could, for bis teeth are equal to husking a cocoa-nut, or chopping off a piece of sugar-cane as thick as your wrist. After much heated discussion, it was unanimously resolved to protest at once against the substitution of such a fraud as this poultry for our legitimate rations of " salt horse." So, bearing the diyi'cta mnnlirn of our meal, the whole crowd marched aft, and requested an interview with the skipper. He came out of the cabin at once, saying, " Well, boys, what's the matter ? " The spokesman, a bald-headed Yankee, who had been bo'sun's mate of an American man-of-war, stepped forward and said, offering his kid, " Jest have a look at that, sir." The skipper looked, saying, inquiringly, "Well?" 88 TiiK cnursH OF Till': "cachalot." " D'yt'W think, sir," said Nat, " thrt'n proper grub for men ? " " Proper grub ! Why, you old sinner, you don't mean to say you're goin' to growl about havin' ehickea for dinner?" " Well, sir, it depends muchly upon the chick(3n. All I know is, that I've et some dam queer tack in my time, but sence I ben fishin' I never had no sucli bundles of sticks parcelled with leather served out to nic. I hn- et boot — leastways gnawed it when I was cast away in a open boat for three weeks — but it wa'n't bad boot, as boots go. Now, if yew say that these things is boots, en thet it's necessary we should eat 'em, or starve, w'y, we'll think about it. But if yew call 'em chickens, 'n say you're doin' us a kindness by stoppin' our 'lowance of meat wile we're wrastlin' with em, then we say we don't feel obliged to yew, 'n '11 thank yew kindly to keep such lugsuries for yerself, 'n give us wot we signed for." A murmur of assent confirmed this burst of eloquence, which we all considered a very fine effort indeed. A moment's silence ensued ; then the skipper burst out, " I've often heard of such things, but hang me if I ever believed 'em till now ! You ungrateful beggars ! I'll see you get your whack, and no more, from this out. When you get any little extras aboard this ship agen, you'll be thankful for 'em ; now I tell you." " All right, sir," said Nat ; " so long as we don't hev to chaw any more of yer biled Bimly crows, I dessay we shall worry along as usual." And, as the Parliamentary reports say, the proceedings then terminated. Now, suppose the skipper had told that story to some of his shore friends, how very funny the sailors' conduct would have been made to appear. On another occasion long after, wlien I was mate of a barque loading mahogany in Tonala, Mexico, the USCOMfOliTAULY SKAIi UEINO THE LAST. 1 8l> li Hkippcr thought he would prjictise economy by buying a turtle instead of beef. A large turtle was obtained for twenty-five jonts, and handed over to the cook to bo dealt with, particular instructions being given him as to the apportionment of the meal. At eight bells there was a gathering of the men in front of the poop, and a summons for the captain. When ho appeared, the usual stereotyped invitation to " have a look at that, if you please, sir," was uttered. The skipper was, I think, prepared for a protest, for he began to bluster immediately. " Look here ! " he bawled, " 1 ain't goin' to 'ave any of your dam nonsense. You nunt somethin' to growl about, you do." " Well, Cap'n George," said one of the men, " you shorely don't tliink we k'n eat shells, do ycr ? " Just then I caught sight of the kid's contents, and could hardly restrain my indig- nation. For in a dirty heap, the sight of which might have pleased an Esquimaux, but was certainly enough to disgust any civilized man, lay the calipee, or under- shell of the turtle, hacked into irregular blocks. It had been simply boiled, and flung into the kid, an unclean, disgusting heap of shell, with pieces of dirty flesh attached in ragged lumps. But the skipper, red-faced and angry, answered, " W'y, yer so-and-so ijits, that's wot the Lord Mayor of London giv^ss about a guinea a bounce for w'en 'e feeds lords n' doo.cs. Only the haris- tocracy at 'ome get a charnce to stick their teeth in such grub as that. An' 'ere are you lot a-growlin' at *avin' it for a change ! " "That's all right, cap'n," said the man ; " bein' brort up ter such lugsuries, of corse iftui kin appreshyate it. So if yer keep it fer yer own eatiu', an' giv us wot we signed for, wo shall be werry much obliged." " Now, I ain't u-goin* io 'uve none o' i/oiir ■li 100 THE CRUISE OF THE " CACUALOT." cheek, sc you'd better git forrard. You can betcher life you won't get no more fresh messes this voy'ge." So, with grumbling and ill-will on both sides, the conference came to an end. But I thought, and still think, that the mess set before those men, who had been working hard since six a.m., was unfit for the food of a good dog. Out of my own experience I might give many other instances of the kind, but I hope these will suffice to show that Jack's growling is often justified, when both sides of the story are heard. ( loi ) CHAPTER XVI. " howhead" FISHIX(l. Day and night being now only distinguishable by the aid of the clock, a constant look-out aloft was kept all through the twenty-four hours, watch and watch, but whales were apparently very scarce. We did a good deal of "pelagic" sealing; that is, catching seals swimming. But the total number obtained was not great, for these creatures are only gregarious when at their rocky haimts during the breeding season, or among the ice just before that season begins. Our sealing, therefore, was only a way of passing the time in the absence of nobler game, to bo abandoned at once with whales in sight. It was on the ninth or tenth morning after our arrival on the grounds that a bowhead was raised, and two boats sent after him. It was my first sight of the great Myaticctns, and I must confess to being much impressed by his gigantic bulk. From the difference in shape, he looked much larger than the largest sperm whale we had yet seen, although we had come across some of the very biggest specimens of cachalot. The contrast between the two animals is most marked, so much so, in fact, that one would hardly credit them with belonging to the same order. Popular ideas of the I l')2 T/IE CRUISE OF THE " CACHALOT:' n I 1 whale are almost invariably taken from the MijHticeliiH, so that the average individual generally defines a whale as a big fish which spouts water out of the top of his head, and cannot swallow a herring. Indeed, so lately as last year a popular M.P., writing to one of the religious papers, allowed himself to say that " science will not hear of a whale with a gullet capable of admit- ting anything larger than a man's fist " — a piece of crass ignorance, which is also perpetrated in the appendix to a very widely-distributed edition of the Authorized Version of the Bible. This opinion, strangely enough, is almost universally held, although I trust that the admirable models now being shown in our splendid Natural History Museum at South Kensington will do much to remove it. Not so many people, perhaps, believe that a whale is a fish, instead of a mammal, but few indeed are the individuals who do not still think that a cetacean possesses a sort of natural fountain on the top of its head, whence, for some recondite reason, it ejects at regular intervals streams of water into the ah*. But a whale can no more force water through its spiracle or blow-hole than you or I through our nostrils. It inhales, when at the surface, atmospheric air, and ex- hales breath like ours, which, coming warm into a cooler medium, becomes visible, as does our breath on a frosty morning. Now, the Mjjstivctas carries his nostrils on the summit of his head, or crown, the orifice being closed by a beautifully-arranged valve when the animal is beneath the water. Consequently, upon coming to the surface to breathe, he sends up a jet of visible breath into the air some ten or twelve feet. The cachalot, on the other hand, has the orifice at the point of his square " now HEAD' FISiriNO. 103 Hnout, tlio internal channel running in a Hlightly diagonal direction downwards, and back through tiie skull to tho lungs. So when /<*; spouts, the breath is projected forward diagonally, and, from some peculiarity which I do not pretend to explain, expends itself in a short, bushy tuft of vapour, very distinct from the tall vortical spout of tho bowhead or right whale. There was little or "o wind when we sighted tho individual I am now speaking of, so we did not attempt to set sail, but pulled straight for him " head and head." Strange as it may appear, the Myatkeim' best point of view is right behind, or " in his wake," as we say ; it is therefore part of the code to approach him from right ahead, in which direction he cannot see at all. Some time before wo reached him he became aware of our presence, showing by his uneasy actions that he had his doubts about his personal security. But before he had made up his mind what to do we were upon him, with ouk' harpoons buried in his back. The difiference in his behaviour to what wo had so long been accustomed to was amazing. He did certainly give a lumbering splash or two with his immense flukes, but no one could possibly have been endangered by them. The water was so shallow that when he sounded it was but for a very few minutes ; there was no escape for him that way. As soon as ho returned to the surface he set off at his best gait, but that was so slow that we easily hauled up close alongside of him, holding the boats in that position without the slightest attempt to guard ourselves from reprisals on his part, while the officers searched his vitals with tho lances as if they were probing a haystack. Iteally, the whole affair was so tame that it was o 1U4 THE CliUJSE OF THE '' VACJfALOT:' ; S impossible to got up any lighting enthusiasm over it; the poor, unwieldy creature died meekly and quietly as an overgrown seal. In less than an hour from the time of leaving the ship we were ready to bring our prize alongsiue. Upon coming up to the whale, sail was shortened, and as soon as the fluke-chain was passed we anchored. It was, I heard, our skipper's boast that he could " skin a bowhead in forty minutes ; " and although we were certainly longer than that, the celerity with which what seemed a gigantic task was accomplished was marvellous. Of course, it was all plain-sailing, very unlike the complicated and herculean task inevitable at the com- mencement of cutting-in a sperm whale. Except for the head work, removing the blubber was effected in precisely the same way as in the case of the cachalot. There was a marked difference between the quantity of lard enveloping this whale and those we had hitherto dealt with. It was nearly double the thickness, besides being much richer in oil, which fairly dripped from it as we hoisted in the blanket-pieces. The upper jaw was removed for its long plates of whalebone or baleen — that valuable substance which alone makes it worth while nowadays to go after the Mysticctiis, the price obtained for the oil being so low as to make it not worth while to fit out ships to go in search of it alone. " Trying-out " the blubber, with its accompani- ments, is carried on precisely as with the sperm whale. The resultant oil, when recent, is of a clear white, unlike the golden-tinted fluid obtained from the cachalot. As it grows stale it developes a nauseous smell, which sperm does not, although the odour of the oil is otto of roses compared with the horrible mass of putridity landed " DO WIIEA n " FISUISG. 1*)3 from the tanks of a Greenlaud whaler at the termination of a cruise. For in those vessels, the fishing-time at their disposal hein^r so hrief, they do not wait to boil down the blubber, but, chopping it into small pieces, pass it below as it is into tanks, to be rendered down by the oil-mills ashore on the ship's return. This first bowhead yielded us eighteen tuns of oil and u ton of baleen, which made the catch about equal in value to that of a seven-tun cachalot. But the amount of labour and care necessary in order to thoroughly dry and cleanse the baleen was enormous ; in fact, for months after we began the bowhead fishery there was almost always something being done with the wretched stuff — drying, scraping, etc. — which, as it was kept below, also necessitated hoisting it up on deck and getting it down again. After this beginning, it was again a considerable time before we sighted any more; but when we did, there were quite a number of them — enough to employ all the boats with one each. I was out of the fun this time, being almost incapable of moving by reason of several boils on my legs — the result, I suppose, of a long absti- nence from fresh vegetables, or anything to supply their place. As it happened, however, I lost no excitement by remaining on board ; for while all the boats were away a large bowhead rose near the ship, evidently being harassed in some way by enemies, which I could not at first see. He seemed quite unconscious of his proximity to the ship, though, and at last came so near that the whole performance was as visible as if it had been got up for my benefit. Three "killers" were attacking him at once, like wolves worrying a bull, 1 I 1!»G THE CRUISE OF THE " CACHALOT:' except that bis motions were far less lively than those of any bull would have been. The " killer," or Oira ffladiator, is a true whale, but, like the cachalot, has teeth. He differs from that great cetacean, though, in a most important particular ; i.e. by having a complete set in both upper and lower jaws, like any other carnivore. For a carnivore indeed is he, the very wolf of the ocean, and enjoying, by reason of his extraordinary agility as well as comparative worth- lessness commercially, complete immunity from attack by man. By some authorities he is thought to be identical with the grampus, but whalers all consider the animals quite distinct. Not having had very long acquaintance with them botu, I cannot speak emphatically upon this difference of opinion; so far as personal observation goes, I agree with the whalers in believing that there is much variation both of habits and shape between them. But to return to the fight. The first inkling I got of what was really going on was the leaping of a killer high into the air by the side of the whale, and descending upon the victim's broad, smooth back with a resounding crash. I saw that the killer was provided with a pair of huge fins — one on his back, the other on his belly — which at first sight looked as if they were also weapons of offence. A little observation convinced me that they were fins only. Again and again the aggressor leaped into the air, falling each time on the whale's back, as if to beat him into submission. The sea around foamed and boiled like a cauldron, so that it was only occasional glimpses I was able to catch of the two killers, until presently the worried whale lifted his head clear out of the surrounding smother, revealing the two furies hanging — one on either side — nownsAD' Fisnisa. 107 to his lips, as if endeavouring to drag his month open — which I afterwards saw was their principal object, as whenever during the tumult I caught sight of them, they were still in the same position. At last the tremendous and incessant blows, dealt by the most active member of the trio, seemed actually to have exhausted the immense vitality of the great bowhead, for he lay supine upon the surface. Then the three joined their forces, and succeeded in dragging open his cavernous mouth, into which they freely entered, devouring his tongue. This, then, had been their sole object, for as soon as they bad finished their barbarous feast they departed, leaving him helpless and dying to fall an easy prey to our returning boats. Thus, although the four whales captured by the boats had been but small, the day's take, augmented by so great a find, was a large one, and it was a long time before we got clear of the work it entailed. From that time forward we saw no whales for six weeks, and, from the reports we received from two whalers we ** gammed," it appeared that we r light con- sider ourselves most fortunate in our cate' , dince they, who had been longer on the ground than ourselves, had only one whale apiece. In consequence of this information, Captain Slocum decided to go south again, and resume the sperm whaling in the North Pacific, near the line — at least so the rumour ran ; but as we never heard anything definitely, we could not feel at all certain of our next destination. Ever since the fracas at the Bonins between Goliath and his watch, the relations between Captain Slocum and the big negro had been very strained. Even before the outbreak, as I have remarked upon one occasion, it was ' !)8 THE CnUISE OF THK " CAOIlALOTr noticeable that little love was lost between thcra. Why this was so, without anything definite to guide one's reasoning, was difficult to understand, for a better sea- man or a smarter whaleman than Mistah Jones did not live — of that every one was quite sure. Still, there was no gainsaying the fact that, churlish and morose as our skipper's normal temper always was, he was never so much so as in his behaviour towards his able fourth mate, who, being a man of fine, sensitive temper, chafed under his unmerited treatment so much as to lose flesh, becoming daily more silent, nervous, and depressed. Still, there had never been an open rupture, nor did it appear as if there would be, so great was the power Captain Slocum possessed over the will of everybody on board. One night, however, as we were nearing the Kuriles again, on our way south, leaving the Sea of Okhotsk, I was sitting on the fore side of the try-works alone, meditating upon what I would do when once I got clear of this miserable business. Futile and foolish, no doubt, my speculations were, but only in this way could I forget for awhile my surroundings, since the inestimable comfort of reading was denied me. I had been sitting thus absorbed in thought for nearly an hour, when Goliath came and seated himself l)y my side. We had always been great friends, although, owing to the strict dis- cipline maintained on board, it was not often we got a chance for a "wee bit crack," as the Scotch saj'. Besides, I was not in his watch, and even now he should rightly have been below. He sat for a minute or two silent ; then, as if compelled to speak, he began in low, fierce whispers to tell me of his miserable state of mind. At last, after recai)itulating many slights and insults he had " Z/0 WIIEAD " FISH ISO. 11)9 recoived silently from the captain, of which I had pre- vijuslj' known nothing?, ho became stransuly caUn. In tones quite unlike his usual voice, he said that he was not an American-born negro, but a pure African, who had been enslaved in his infancy, with his mother, somewhere in the " Hinterland " of Guinea. While still a child, his mother escaped with him into Liberia, where he had remained till her death. She was, according to him, an Obeah woman of great power, venerated exceed- ingly by her own people for her prophetic abilities. Before her death, she had told him that he would die suddenly, violently, in a struggle with a white man in a far-off country, but that the white man would die too by his hand. She had also told him that ho would be a great traveller and hunter upon the sea. As he went on, his speech became almost unintelligible, being mingled with fragments of a language I had never heard before ; moreover, he spoke as a man who is only half awake. A strange terror got hold of me, for I began to think he was going mad, and perhaps about to run a-mok, as the Malays do when driven frantic by the infliction of real or fancied wrongs. But he gradually returned to his old self, to my great relief, and I ventured somewhat timidly to remind him of the esteem in which he was held by all hands ; even the skipper, I ventured to say, respected him, although, from some detestable form of ill-humour, he had chosen to be so sneering and insulting towards him. He shook his head sadly, and said, " My dear boy, youse de only man aboard dis ship — wite man, dat is — dat don't hate an' despise me becawse ob my colour, wich I cain't he'p ; an' de God you beliebe in bless you fer dat. As fer me, w'at I done tole you's true, 'n befo' bcry ■? 1 u -w- im 200 THE cjivisi: OF THE "cachalot:' little w'ile you hcc it nmc true. 'N w'en dat happens w'at's gwino ter happen, I'se real glad to tink it gwine ter be better fer you — gwine ter be better fer eberybody 'bord de Cach'lot; but I doan keer nuffin 'bout anybody else. So long." He held out his great black hand, and shook mine heartily, while a big tear rolled down his face and fell on the deck. And with that he left mo a prey to a very whirlpool of conflicting thoughts and fears. The night was a long and weary one — longer and drearier perhaps because of the absence of the darkness, which always made it harder to sleep. An incessant day soon becomes, to those accustomed to the relief of the night, a burden grievous to be borne ; and although use can reconcile us to most things, and does make even the persistent light bearable, in times of mental distress or great physical weariness one feels irresistibly moved to cry earnestly, " Come, gentle night." When I came on deck at eight bells, it was a stark calm. The watch, under Mistah Jones' direction, were busy scrubbing decks with the usual thoroughness, while the captain, bare-footed, with trouser-legs and shirt- sleeves rolled up, his hands on his hips and a portentous frown on his brow, was closely looking on. As it was my spell at the crow's-nest, I made at once for the main- rigging, and had got halfway to the top, when some unusual sounds below arrested me. All hands were gathered in the waist, a not unusual thing at the changing of the watch. In the midst of them, as I looked down, two men came together in a fierce struggle. They were Goliath and the skipper. Captain Slocum's right hand went naturally to his hip pocket, where ho always carried a revolver ; but before he " n WIIKA D " FJSIIISO. •201 could draw it, the long, black arms of his advcrwary wrapped around him, making him helpless as a bahe. Then, with a rush that sent every one flying out of his way, Goliath hurled himself at the bulwarks, which were low, the top of the rail about thirty-three inches from the deck. The two bodies struck the rail with a heavy thud, instantly toppling overboard. That broke the spell that bound, everybody, so that there was an instantaneous rush to the side. Only a hardly noticeable ripple remained on the surface of the placid sea. But, from my lofty perch, the whole of the ghastly struggle had been visible to the least detail. The two men had struck the water locked in closest embrace, which relaxed not even when far below the surface. When the sea is perfectly smooth, objects are visible from aloft at several feet depth, though apparently diminished in si-^e. The last thing I saw was Captain Slocum's white face, with its starting black eyes looking their last upon the huge, indefinite hull of the ship whose occupants ho had ruled so long and rigidly. The whole tragedy occupied such a brief moment of time that it was almost impossible to realize that it was actual. Reason, however, soon regained her position among the officers, who ordered the closest watch to be kept from aloft, in case of the rising of either or both of the men. A couple of boats were swung, ready to drop on the instant. But, as if to crown the tragedy with com- pleteness, a heavy squall, which had risen unnoticed, suddenly burst upon the ship with great fury, the lashing hail and rain utterly obscuring vision even for a few yards. So unexpected was the onset of this squall that, for the only time that voyage, we lost some canvas through not being able to get it in quick enough. The topgallant M '» ^ n '( , •202 TIIK CRUISE or TUK " CAClLlLoT.' lialyanls were let go ; but while the Hails were being clewed up, the fierce wind following the rain caught them from their confining gear, rending them into a thousand Hhreds. For an hour the Hquall raged — a tempest in brief — then swept away to the south-cast on its furious journey, leaving peace again. Needless perhaps to say, that after such a squall it was hopeless to look for our missing ones. The sudden storm had certainly driven u» several miles a>vay from the spot where they dis- appeared, and, although we carefully made wnat hasto was possible back along the lino we were supposed to have come, not a vestige of hope was in any one's mind that we should ever see them again. Nor did we. Whether that madness, which I had feared was coming upon Goliath during our previous night's conversation, suddenly overpowered him and impelled him to commit the horrible deed, what more had passed between him and the skipper to even faintly justify so awful a retaliation — these things were now matters of purest speculation. As if they had never been, the two men were blotted out— gone before God in full-blown heat of murder and revengeful fury. On the same evening Mr. Count mustered all hands on the quarter-deck, and addressed us thus : " Men, Captain Slocum is dead, and, as a consequence, I com- mand the ship. Behave yourself like men, not pre- suming upon kindness or imagining that I am a weak, vacillating old man with whom you can do as you like, and you will find in me a skipper who will do his duty by you as far as lies in his power, nor expect more from you than you ought to render. If, however, you do try any tricks, remember that I am an old hand, equal to most of the games that men get up to. I do want — if you " now/ihAP" nsiii.ya. '20 A will help mc — to make tliis a comfortable as well as u successful ship. I hope with all my heart wo rIuiII succeed." In answer to this manly and alTeoting little speech, which confirmed my previous estimate of Captain Count's character, were ho hut free to follow the hont of his natural, kindly inclinations, and which I have endeavoured to translate out of his usual dialect, n hearty cheer was raised hy all hands, the first ebullition of general good feeling manifested throughout tho voyage. Hearts rose joyfully at the prospect of comfort to bo gained hy thoughtfulness on the part of tho commander ; nor from that time forward did any sign of weariness of the ship or voyage show itself among us, either on deck or below. The news soon spread among us that, in consequence of the various losses of boats and gear, tli»' cupiain deemed it necessary to make for Honol'ilu, where fresh supplies could readily be obtained. "We had heard many glowing accounts from visitors, when "gamming," of the (1( li.qhts of this well-known port of call for whalers, and under our new commander we had little doubt that wo should be allowed considerable liberty during our stay. So we were quite impatient to get along, fretting con- siderably at the persistent fogs which prevented our making much progress while in the vicinity of the Kuriles. But we saw no more bowheads, for which none of us forward were at all sorry. We had got very tired of the stink of their blubber, and the never-ending worry connected with the preservation of the baleen ; besides, we had not yet accumulated any fund of enthusiasm about getting a full ship, except as a reason for shortening the voyage, and we quite understood f 204 THK CRUISE OF THE " CACHALOT." that what black oil we had got would be landed at Hawaii, so that our visit to the Okhotsk Sea, with its resultant store of oil, had not really brought our return home any nearer, as we at first hoped it would. A great surprise was in store for me. I knew that Captain Count was favourably inclined towards me, for he had himself told me so, but nothing was further from my thoughts than promotion. However, one Sunday afternoon, when we were all peacefully enjoying the unusual rest (we had no Sundays in Captain Slocum's time), the captain sent for me. He informed me that, after mature consideration, he had chosen me to fill the vacancy made by the death of Mistah Jones. Mr. Cruce was now mate ; the waspish little third had become second ; Louis Silva, the captain's favourite harpooner, was third; and I was to be fourth. Not feeling at all sure of how the other harpooners would take my stepping over their heads, I respectfully demurred to the compliment offered me, stating my reasons. But the captain said he had fully made up his mind, after consultation with the other officers, and that I need have no apprehension on the score of the harpooners' jealousy ; that they had been spoken to on the subject, and they were all agreed that the captain's choice was the best, especially as none of them knew anything of navigation, or could write their own names. In consequence of there being none of the crew fit to take a harpooner' s place, I was now really harpooner of the captain's boat, which he would continue to work, when necessary, until we were able to ship a harpooner, which he hoped to do at Hawaii. The news of my promotion was received in grim silence by the Portuguese forward, but the white men all BOWHEAD FISHING. 205 seemed pleased. This was highly gratifying to me, for I had tried my best to be helpfal to all, as far as my limited abilities would let me ; nor do I think I had an enemy in the ship. Behold me, then, a full-blown "mister," with a definite substantial increase in my prospects of pay of nearly one-third, in addition to many other advantages, which, under the new captain, promised exceedingly well. More than half the voyage lay behind us, looking like the fast-settling bank of storm-clouds hovering above the tempest-tossed sea bo lately passed, while ahead the bright horizon was full of p ;omise of fine weather for the remainder of the journey. 20fi THE CRUISE OF THE " CACHALOT:' CHAPTER XVII. VISIT TO HONOLULU. KiaHT glad were we all when, after much fumbling and box-hauling about, we once more felt the long, familiar roll of the Pacific swell, and saw the dim fastnesses of the smoky islands fading into the lowering gloom astern. Most deep-water sailors are familiar, by report if not by actual contact, with the beauties of the Pacific islands, and I had often longed to visit them to sec for myself whether the half that had been told me was true. Of course, to a great number of seafaring men, the loveliness of those regions counts for nothing, their desirability being founded upon the frequent opportuni- ties of unlimited indulgence in debauchery. To such men, a " missionary " island is a howling wilderness, and the missionaries themselves the subjects of the vilest abuse as well as the most boundless lying. No one who has travelled with liis eyes open would assert that all missionaries were wise, prudent, or even godly men ; while it is a great deal to be regretted that so much is made of hardships which in a large pro- portion of cases do not exist, the men who are supposed to be enduring them being immensely better off and more comfortable than they would ever have been at VISIT TO nONOLUlU. 20: home. I'ntloubtedly the pioneers of missionary enter- priHc had, almost without exception, to face dangers and miseries past telling, but that is the portion of pioneers in general. In these days, however, the missionary's lot in Polynesia is not often a hard one, and in many eases it is infinitely to be preferred to a life among the very poor of our great cities. But when all has been said that can be said against the missionaries, the solid bastion of fact remains that, in consequence of their labours, the whole vile character of the populations of the Pacific has been changed, and where wickedness runs riot to-day, it is due largely to the hindrances placed in the way of the noble efforts of the missionaries by the unmitigated scoundrels Vklio vilify them. The task of spreading Christianity would not, after all, be so difficult were it not for the efforts of those apostles of the devil to keep the islands as they would like them to be — places where lust runs riot day and night, murder may be done with impunity, slavery iiourishes, and all evil may be indulged in free from law, order, or restraint. It speaks volumes for the inherent might of the Gospel that, in spite of the object-lessons continually pro- vided for the natives by white men of the negation of all good, that it has stricken its roots so deeply into the soil of the Pacific islands. Just as the best proof of the reality of the Gospel here in England is that it survives the incessant assaults upon it from within by its professors, by those who are paid, and highly paid, to propagate it, by the side of whose deadly doings the efforts of so-called infidels are but as the battery of a summer breeze ; so in Polynesia, were not the principles of Christianity vital with an immortal and divine life, 208 TIIK CRUISE OF THE " CACHALOT:' .1! missionary efforts might long ago have ceased in utter despair at the fruitlessness of the field. We were enjoying a most uneventful passage, free from any serious changes either of wind or weather, which quiet time was utilized to the utmost in making many much-needed additions to running gear, repair- ing rigging, etc. Any work involving the use of new material had been put off from time to time during the previous part of the voyage till the ship aloft was really in a dangerous condition. This was due entirely to the peculiar parsimony of our late skipper, who could scarcely bring himself to broach a coil of rope, except for whaling purposes. The same false economy had prevailed with regard to paint and varnish, so that the vessel, while spotlessly clean, presented a worn- out, weather-beaten appearance. Now, while the con- dition of life on board was totally different to what it had been, as regards comfort and peace, discipline and order were mpintained at the same high level as always, though by a different method — in fact, I believe that a great deal more work was actually done, certainly much more that was useful and productive ; for Captain Count hated, as much as any foremast hand among us, the constant, remorseless grind of iron-work polishing, paint-work scrubbing, and holystoning, ail of which, though necessary in a certain degree, when kept up continually for the sole purpose of making work — a sort of elaborated tread-mill, in fact — becomes the refinement of cruelty to underfed, unpaid, an^. hopeless men. So, while the Cachalot could have fearlessly challenged comparison with any ship afloat for cleanliness and neatness of appearance, the hands no longer felt that they were continually being "worked up" or "hazed" \JsiT TO tiosoLnr. 20!) for the sole, diabolical satiBfaction of keeping them "at it." Of course, the incidence of the work was divided, since so many of the crew were quite unable to do any sailorizing, as we term work in sails and rigging. Upon them, then, fell all the common labour, which can be done hy any unskilled man or woman afloat or ashore. Of this work a sailor's duties are largely made up, but when good people ashore wonder " whatever sailors do with their time," it would be useful for them to remember that a ship is a huge and complicated machine, needing constant repairs, which can only be efficiently performed by skilled workmen. An " A.B." or able seaman's duties are legally supposed to be defined by the three ex- pressions, " hand, reef, and steer." If he can do those three things, which mean furling or making fast sails, reefing them, and steering the ship, his wages cannot be reduced for incompetency. Yet these things are the A B C of seamanship only. A good hi a man is able to make all the various knots, splices, and other arrange- ments in hempen or wire rope, without which a ship cannot be rigged ; he can make a sail, send up or down yards and masts, and do many other things, the sum total of which need several years of steady application to learn, although a good seaman is ever learning. Such seamen are fast becoming extinct. They are almost totally unnecessary in steamships, except when the engines break down in a gale of wind, and the crowd of navvies forming the crew stand looking at one another when called upon to set sail or do any other job aloft. Then the want of seamen is rather severely felt. But even in sailing ships — the great, overgrown tanks of two thousand tons and upwards — mechanical genius has p 210 THE cjwisK OF Tin: " vacuai.ot:' utilized iron to such aii coitcnt in their rigging that sailor-work has become very largely a matter of black- smithing. I make no complaint of this, not believing that the " old was better ; " but, since the strongest fabric of man's invention comes to grief sometimes in conflict with the irresistible sea, some provision should be made for having a sufiSciency of seamen who could exercise their skill in refitting a dismasted ship or temporarily replacing broken blacksmith work by old-fashioned rope and wood. But, as the sailing ship is doomed inevitably to dis- appear before steam, perhaps it does not matter much. The economic march of the world's progress will never be stayed by sentimental considerations, nor will all the romance and poetry in the world save the seaman from extinction, if his place can be more profitably filled by the engineer. From all appearances, it soon will be, for even now marine superintendents of big lines are sometimes engineers, and in their hands lie the duty of engaging the officers. It would really seem as if the ship of the near future would be governed by the chief engineer, under whose direction a pilot or sailing-master would do the necessary navigation, without power to interfere in any matter of the ship's economy. Changes as great have taken place in other professions ; seafaring cannot hope to be the sole exception. So, edging comfortably along, we gradually neared the Sandwich Islands without having seen a single spout worth watching since the tragedy. At last the lofty summits of the island mountains hove in sight, and presently we came to an anchor in that paradise of whalers, missionaries, and amateur statesmen — Honolulu. As it is as well known to most reading people as our own K/.S/7' TO IIOSOLULU. 211 ports — better, perhaps — I shall not attempt to describe it, or pit myself against the able writers who have made it so familiar. Yet to me it was a new world. All things were so strange, so delightful, especially the lovable, lazy, fascinating Kanakas, who could be so limply happy over a dish of poii, or a green cocoa-nut, or even a lounge in the sun, that it seemed an outrage to expect them to work. In their sports they could be energetic enough. I do not know of any more delightful sight than to watch them bathing in the tremendous surf, simply atoxicated with the joy of living, as unconscious of danger as if swinging in a hammock while riding triumphantly upon the foaming summit of an incoming breaker twenty feet high, or plunging with a cataract over the dizzy edge of its cliff, swallowed up in the hissing vortex below, only to reappear with a scream of riotous laughter in the quiet eddy beyond. As far as I could judge, they were the happiest of people, literally taking no thought for the morrow, and content with the barest necessaries of life, so long as they were free and the sun shone brightly. We had many op- portunities of cultivating t)ieir acquaintance, for the cap- tain allowed us much liberty, quite one-half of the crew and officers being ashore most of the time. Of course, the majority spent all their spare time in the purlieus of the town, which, like all such places anywhere, were foul and filthy enough ; but that was their own faults. I have often wondered much to see men, who on board ship were the pink of cleanliness and neatness, fastidious to a fault in all they did, come ashore and huddle in the most horrible of kennels, among the very dregs and greaves of the 'long-shore district. It certainly wants a grep.t deal of explanation ; but I suppose the most potent M . n 019 mm X »m THE CRUISE OF THE "CACffALOT: reason is, that sailors, as a class, never learn to enjoy themselves rationally. They are also morbidly suspicious of being taken in hand by anybody who would show them anything worth seeing, preferring to be led by the human sharks that infest all seaports into ways of strange nastiness, and so expensive withal that one night of such wallowing often costs them more than a month's sane recreation and good food would. All honour to the devoted men and women who labour in our seaports for the moral and material benefit of the sailor, passing their lives amidst sights and sounds shocking and sicken- ing to the last degree, reviled, unthanked, unpaid. Few are the missionaries abroad whose lot is so hard as theirs. We spent ten happy days in Honolulu, marred only by one or two drunken rows among the chaps forward, which, however, resulted in their getting a severe dress- ing-down in the forecastle, where good order was now kept. There had been no need for interference on the part of the officers, which I was glad to see, remember- ing what would have happened under such circumstances not long ago. Being short-handed, the captain engaged a number of friendly islanders for a limited period, on the understanding that they were to be discharged at their native place, Vau Vau. There were ten of them, fine, stalwart fellows, able-bodied, and willing as possible. They were cleanly in their habits, and devout members of the Wesleyan body, so that their behaviour was quite a reproach to some of our half-civilized crew. Berths were found for them in the forecastle, and they took their places among us quite naturally, being fairly well used to a whale-ship. 2i;j ) ll CHAPTER XVIII. ON THE " LINE " GROUNDS. We weighed at last, one morning, with a beautiful breeze, and, bidding a long farewell to the lovely isles and their amiable inhabitants, stood to sea, bound for the "line" or equatorial grounds on our legitimate business of sperm whaling. It was now a long while since we had been in contact with a cachalot, the last one having been killed by us on the Coast of Japan some six months before. But we all looked forward to the coming campaign with considerable joy, for we were now a happy family, interested in the work, and, best of all, even if the time was still distant, we were, in a sense, homeward bound. At any rate, we all chose so to think, from the circumstance that we were now work- ing to the southward, towards Cape Horn, the rounding of which dreaded point would mark the final stage of our globe-encircling voyage. We had, during our stay at Honolulu, obtained a couple of grand boats in addition to our stock, and were now in a position to man and lower five at once, if occasion should arise, still leaving sufficient crew on board to work the vessel. The captain had also engaged an elderly seaman of his acquaintance — out of pure 'i«iH"»"8Upy^ 214 77//; CnVlSE OF TIIK " CACrfALOT.' pliilantliropy, as we all thought, fiinco he was in a state of serai-starvation ashore — to act as a kind of sailing- master, so as to relieve the ciiptain of ship duty at whaling time, allowing him still to head his boat. This was not altogether welcome nev/s to me, for, much as I liked the old man and admired his pluck, I could not help dreading his utter recklessness when on a whale, which had 80 often led to a smash-up that might have been easily avoided. Moreover, I reasoned that if he had been foolhardy before, he was likely to be much more so now, having no superior to look black or use language when a disaster occurred. For now I was his harpooner, bound to take as many risks as he chose to incur, and anxious also to earn a reputation among the more seasoned whalemen for smartness sufficient to justify my promotion. The Kanakas shipped at Honolulu were distributed among the boats, two to each, being already trained whalemen, and a fine lot of fellows they were. My two — Samuela and Polly — were not very big men, but sturdy, nimble as cats, as much at home in the water as on deck, and simply bubbling over with fun and good- humour. From my earliest sea-going, I have always had a strong liking for natives of tropical countries, finding them affectionate and amenable to kindness. Why, I think, white men do not get on with darkies well, as a rule, is, that they seldom make an appeal to the man in them. It is very degrading to find one's self looked down upon as a sort of animal without reason or feelings ; and if you degrade a man, you deprive him of any incentive to make himself useful, except the brute one you may feel bound to apply yourself. My experience has been limited to Africans (of sorts). Kanakas, natives of Hindostan, ny mi: "link' onousns. 21.". 3on as if you make bound ited to ostan, Malagasy, and Chineso ; but with all those I have found a little camnvadcru' answer excellently. True, they are lazy ; but what inducement have they to work ? The complicated needs of our civilized existence compel »•< to work, or bo run over by the unresting machine ; but I take leave to doubt whether any of us with a primitive environment would not be as lazy as any Kanaka that ever dozed under a banana tree through daylight hours. Why, then, make an exalted virtue of the necessity which drives us, and objurgate the poor black niiin because ho prefers present ease to a doubtful prospective retirement on a competency ? Australian blackfellows and Malays are said to be impervious to kind treatment by a great number of witnesses, the former appearing incapable of gratitude, and the latter unable to resist the frequent temptation to kill somebody. Not knowing anything personally of either of these races, I can say nothing for or against them. All the coloured individuals that I have had to do with have amply repaid any little kindness shown them with fidelity and affection, but especially has this been the case with Kanakas. The soft and melodious language spoken by them is easy to acquire, and i.^ so pleasant to speak that it is well worth learning, to say nothing of the convenience to yourself, although the Kanaka speedily picks up the mutilated jargon whica does duty for English on board ship. What I specially longed for now was a harpooner, or even two, so that I might have my boat to myself, the captain taking his own boat with a settled harpooner. Samuela, the biggest of my two Kanakas, very earnestly informed me that he was no end of a " number one " whale slaughterer ; but I judged it best to see how things % •\:\ l|!| 21(1 riiK cJiuisK OF 77/ a; " cAciiALorr ^v»'nt lic'forc asking to have him promoted. My chance, and his, came very promptly ; so nicely arranged, too. that I could not have wished for anything better. The skipper had got a fine, healthy boil on one knee-cap, and another on his wrist, so that he was, as you may say, hnn lit' ronihat, AVhile he was impatiently waiting to get about once more, sperm whales were raised. Although nearly frantic with annoyance, he was compelled to leave the direction of things to Mr. Cruce, who was quite puffed up with the importance of his opportunity. Such a nice little school of cow-whales, a lovely breeze, clear sky, warm weather — I felt as gay as a lark at the prospect. As we were reaching to windward, with all boats ready for lowering, the skipper called me aft and said, " Naow, Mr. Bullen, I cain't lower, because of this condemned leg 'n arm of mine ; but how'r yew goin' ter manage 'thout a harpooneer ? " I suggested that if ho would allow me to try Samuela, who was suffering for a chance to distinguish himself, we would "come out on top." " All right," he said ; " but let the other boats get fast first, 'n doan be in too much of a hurry to tie yerself up till ye see what's doin'. If everythin's goin' bizness-fashion', 'n yew git a chance, sail right in ; yew got ter begin some time. But ef tliet Kanaka looks skeered goin' on, take the iron frum him ter onct." I promised, and the interview ended. AVhen I told Samuela of his chance, he was beside himself with joy. As to his being scared, the idea was manifestly absurd. He was as pleased with the prospect as it was possible for a man to be, and hardly able to contain himself for impatience to be off. I almost envied him his exuberant delight, for a sense of responsibility began to weigh upon me with somewhat depressing effect. o.V TTtE "USE" (UiOl'NDS. 2 I AVo gjiint'd a good wcathcr-gage, rouiidod to, uiul lowered four boats. Getting away in good stylo, we liiul barely got the sails up, when something gallied the school. We saw or heard nothing to account for it, but undoubtedly the " fish " were off at top speed dead to wind- ward, so that our sails were of no use. "We had them in with as little delay as possible, and lay "^o our oars for all we were worth, being i -esh and stron; , as well as anxious to get amongst thtem. But I fancy all our efforts would have availed us littlo had it not been for the experience of Mr. Cruce, whose coyer eye dete kd the fact that the fish were running on a gr' at eurvo, and shaped our course to cut them off aloi : v, chord of the arc. Two and a half hours of energeti.. u^rk was required of us before we got on terms with the fleeing monsters ; but at last, to our great joy, they broke water from sounding right among us. It was a considerable sur- prise, but we were all ready, and before they had spouted twice, three boats were fast, only mysicif keeping out, in accordance with my instructions. Samuela was almost distraught with rage and grief at the condition of things. I quite pitied him, although I was anything Imt pleased myself. However, when I ranged up alongside the mate's fish, to render what assistni. - was needed, he shouted to me, ** We's all right ; go'n git fas', if yew kin." That was enough, and away we flew after a retreating spout to leeward. Before ^.l; got there, though, there was an upheaval in the w iter just ahead, and up came a back like a keelless ship bottom up. Out came the head belonging to it, and a spout like an explosion burst forth, denoting the presence of an enormous bull-cachalot. Close by his side was a cow of about one-third his size, ,. '■k'W.r^— ^■^■■^-»-Ji^»--- r .it i I I 21S THE CliUISE OF THE " CACHALOIT the favoured sultana of his harem, I suppose. Prudence whispered, " Go for the cow ; " Ambition hissed, " All or none — the bull, the bull." Fortunately emergencies of this kind leave one but a second or two to decide, as a rule ; in this case, as it happened, I was spared even that mental conflict, for as wo ran up between the two vast creatures, Samuela, never even looking at the cow, hurled his harpoon, with all the energy that he had been bursting with so long, at the mighty bull. I watched its flight — saw it enter the black mass and disappear to the shaft, and almost immediately came the second iron, within a foot of the first, burying itself in the same solid fashion. " Starn — starn all ! " I shouted ; and we backed slowly away, considerably hampered by the persistent attentions of the cow, who hung round us closely. The temptation to lance her was certainly great, but I remembered the fate that had overtaken the skipper on the first occasion we struck whales, and did not meddle with her ladyshij). Our iirey was not apparently disposed to kick up much fuss at first, so, anxious to settle matters, I changed ends with Samuela, and pulled in on the whale. A good, steady lance-thrust — the first I had ever delivered — was obtained, sending a thrill of triumph through my whole body. The recipient, thoroughly roused by this, started otf at a great lick, accompanied, somewhat to my surprise, by the cow. Thenceforward for another hour, in spite of all our efforts, we could not get within striking distance, mainly because of the close attention of the cow, which stuck to her lord like a calf to its mother. I was getting so impatient of this hindrance, that it was all I could do to restrain myself from lancing the cow, though T felt convinced that, if I did, I should spoil a OS THE " J.ISK" OliOl'NDS. 210 I much langed good, — was whole started irprise, spite tance, which [ was as all I cow, poil a good job. Suddenly I caught sight of the ship right ahead. We were still flying along, so that in a short time we were comparatively close to her. My heart heat high, and I burned to distinguish myself under the friendly and appreciative eye of the skipper. None of the other boats were in sight, from our level at least, so that I had a reasonable hope of being able to finish my game, with all the glory thereunto attaching, unshared by any other of my fellow-officers. As we ran quite closely past the ship, calling on the crew to haul up for all they were worth, we managed actually to squeeze past the cow, and I got in a really deadly blow. The point of the lance entered just between the fin and the eye, but higher up, missing the broad plate of the shoulder-blade, and sinking its whole four feet over the hitches right down into the animal's vitals. Then, for the first time, he threw up his flukes, thrashing them from side to side almost round to his head, and raising such a turmoil that we were half full of water in a moment. But Samuela was so quick at the steer-oar, so lithe and forceful, and withal appeared so to anticipate every move of mine, that there seemed hardly any danger. After a few moments of this tremendous exertion, our victim settled down, leaving the water deeply stained with his gushing blood. With him disappeared his con- stant companion, the faithful cow, who had never left his side a minute since we first got fast. Down, down they went, until my line began to look very low, and I was compelled to make signals to the ship for more. We had hardly elevated the oars, when down dropped the last boat with four men in her, arriving by my side in a few minutes with two fresh tubs of tow-line. We took them on board, and th<^ boat returned again. ii 220 THE CnUISK OF THE " CACHALOT." ^ ' By the time the slack came we had about four hundred and fifty fathoms out — a goodly heap to pile up loose in our stern-sheets. I felt sure, however, that we should have but little more trouble with our fish ; in fact, I was half afraid that he would die before getting to the surface, in which case he might sink and be lost. We hauled steadily away, the line not coming in very easily, until I judged there was only about another hundred fathoms out. Our amazement maybe imagined, when suddenly we were compelled to slack away again, the sudden weight on the line suggesting that the fish was again sounding. If ever a j'^oung hand was perplexed, it was I. Never before had I heard of such unseemly behaviour, nor was my anxiety lessened when I saw, a short distance away, the huge body of my prize at the surface spouting blood. At the same time, I was paying out line at a good rate, as if I had a fast fish on which was sounding briskly. The skipper had been watching me very closely from his seat on the taffrail, and had kept the ship within easy distance. Now, suspecting something out of the common, he sent the boat again to my assistance, in charge of the cooper. When that worthy arrived, he said, ** Th' ol' man reckens yew've got snarled erp 'ith thet ar' loose keow, 'n y'r irons hev draw'd from th' other. I'm gwine ter wait on him, 'n get him 'longside 'soon's he's out'er his flurry. Ole man sez yew'd best wait on what's fast t' yer an' nev' mine th' other." Away he went, reaching my prize just as the last feeble spout exhaled, leaving the dregs of that great flood of life trickling lazily down from the widely-expanded spiracle. To drive a harpoon into the carcass, and run the line on board, was the simplest of jobs, for, as the captain had foreseen, my irons were drawn clean. I luid no leisure to take any notice undrcd 0080 in slioukl b, I was jurfaco, hauled until I 'athoms iiddenly L weight unding. Never nor was e away, g blood, od rate, •iskly. ly from in easy ommon, re of the Th' ol' ir' loose ai gwine s out'cr at's fast caching leaving ly down harpoon was the ny irons y notice 0\ TfJK "UXF" niiOUSDS. 221 of them now, thouj.:!!, for whatever was on my line was coming up hand-ovci-nst. With a bound it reached the surface — the identical cow so long attendant upon the dead whale. Having boon 80 long below for such a small whale, she was quite oxiiaustod, and before she had recovered we had got alongside of her and lanced her, so thoroughly that she died without a struggle. The ship was so close that we had her alongside in a wonderfully short time, and with scarcely any trouble. Wlien I reached the deck, the skipper called me, and said several things that made feel about six inches taller. He was, as may be thought, exceedingly pleased, saying that only once in his long career had he seen a similar case ; for I forgot to mention that the line was en- tangled around the cow's down-hanging jaw, as if she had actually tried to bite in two the rope that held her consort, and only succeeded in sharing his fate. I would not like to say tliat whales do not try to thus sever a line, but, their teeth being several inches apart, conical, and fitting into sockets in the uppev jaw instead of meeting the opposed surfaces of other teeth, the accom- plishment of sucb a feat must, I think, be impossible. The sliip being now as good as anchored by the vast mass of flesh hanging to her, there was a tremendous task awaiting us to get the other fish alongside. Of course they were all to windward ; they nearly always are, unless the ship is persistently " turned to windward " while the fishing is going on. Whalers believe that they always work up into the wind while fast, and, when dead, it is certain tliat they drift at a pretty good rate right in This is accounted i m ll ill eye. by the play the body, wliich naturally lies head to wind ; and the ! 000 THE ciivisr: of tuk " cAaiiAi.nrr wasli of the flukes, which, acting somewhat like the "sculling" of an oar at the stern of a boat, propel the carcass in the direction it is pointing. Consequently we had an awful amount of towing to do before we got the three cows alongside, Many a time we blessed ourselves that they were no bigger, for of all the clumsy' things to tow with boats, a sperm whale is about the worst. Owing to the great square mass of the head, they can hardly be towed head-on at all, the practice being to cut off the tips of the flukes, and tow them t..il first. But even then it is slavery. To dip your oar about three times in the same hole from whence you withdrew it, to tug at it with all your might, apparently making as much progress as though you were fast to a dock-wall, and to continue this fun for four or five hours at a stretch, is to wonder indeed whether you have not mistaken your vocation. However, " it's dogged as does it," so by dint of sheer sticking to the oar, we eventually succeeded in getting all our prizes alongside before eight bells that evening, securing them around us by hawsers to the cows, but giving the big bull the post of honour alongside on the best fluke-chain. We were a busy company for a fortnight thence, until the last of the oil was run below — two hundred and fifty barrels, or twenty-five tuns, of the valuable fluid having rewarded our exertions. During these operations we had drifted night and day, apparently without anybody taking the slightest account of the direction we were taking ; when, therefore, on the day after clearing up the last traces of our fishing, the cry of " Land ho ! " came ringing down from the crow's-nest, no one was surprised, although the part of the Pacific in which we were cruising has but few patches of tnra firma scattered o.v Till': " USE" nnocsDs. 22.'» about over its iiuuienso area when compared with the crowded archipelagoes lying farther south and east. We could not see the reported land from the deck for two hours after it was first seen from aloft, although the odd spectacle of z. scattered group of cocoa-nut trees apparently growing out of the sea was for some time presented to us before the island itself came into view. It was Christmas Island, where the indefatigable Captain Cook landed on December 24, 1777, for the purpose of making accurate observations of an eclipse of the sun. He it was who gave to this lonely atoll the name it has ever since borne, with characteristic modesty giving his own great name to a tiny patch of coral which- almost blocks the entrance to the central lagoon. Hero we lay " off and on " for a couple of days, while foraging parties went ashore, returning at intervals with abundance of turtle and sea-fowls' eggs. But any detailed account of their proceedings must be ruthlessly curtailed, owing to the scanty limits of space remaining. ft H 1 If 221 THE cnvisr. of the '' c.xcuAiorr CHAPTER XIX. 'I < I i EDGING SOUTHWAIID. TiiR line whaling grounds embrace an exceedingl}' extensive area, over the whole of which sperm whales may be found, generally of medium size. No means of estimating the probable plenty or scarcity of them in any given part of the grounds e>dst, so that falling in with them is purely a matter of coincidence. To m« it seems a conclusive proof of the enormous numbexs of sperm whales frequenting certain large breadths of ocean, that they should be so often fallen in with, remembering what a little spot is represented by a day's cruise, and that the signs which denote almost infallibly the vicinity of right whales are entirely absent in the case of the cachalot. In the narrow waters of the Greenland seas, with quite a small number of vessels seeking, it is hardly possible for a whale of any size to escape being seen ; but in the open ocean a goodly fleet may cruise over a space of a hundred thousand square miles without meeting any of the whales that may yet be there in large numbers. So that when one hears talk of the extinction of the cachalot, it is well to bear in mind that such a thing would take a long series of years to effect, even were the whaling business waxing instead sight obtail exhal did we hi thefij tohaj as it idingly whales means hem in [ling in To m*^ iimbcis readths jn with, a day's ifallibly in the of the vessels size to [dly fleet square lay yet iG hears bear in of years instead EDGING SOUTHWAJilh 225 of wanin<^. While, however, South Sea whaling is con- ducted on such old-world methods as still obtain ; while steam, with all the power it gives of rapidly dealing with a catch, is not made use of, the art and mystery of the whale-fisher must continually decrease. No such valuable lubricant has ever been found as sperm oil ; but the cost of its production, added to the precarious nature of the supply, so handicaps it in the competition with sui)stitutes that it has been practically eliminated from the English markets, except in such greatly adulterated forms as to render it a lie to speak of the mixture as sperm oil at all. Except to a few whose minds to them are kingdoms, and others who can hardly be said to have any minds at all, the long monotony of unsuccessful seeking for whales is very wearying. The ceaseless motion of the vessel rocking at the centre of a circular space of blue, with a perfectly symmetrical dome of azure enclosing her above, unflecked by a single cloud, becomes at last almost unbearable from its changeless sameness of environment. Were it not for the trivial round and common task of everyday ship duty, some of the crew must become idiotic, or, in sheer rage at the want of interest in their lives, commit mutiny. Such a weary time was ours for full four weeks after sighting Christmas Island. The fine haul we had obtained just previous to that day seemed to have exhausted our luck for the time being, for never a spout did "we see. And it was with no ordinary delight that we hailed the advent of an immense school of black-fish, the first we had run across for a long time. Determined to have a big catch, if possible, we lowered all five boats, as it was a beautifully calm day, and the ship might i M m r.ili ^i i- ; ! i ' t 226 THE CRUISE OF THE " CACHALOT." ulmoBt Mufuly liuvu been left tu luok after herself. After what we had recently been accuHtomed to, the game seemed trifling to get up much excitement over ; but still, for a good day's sport, commend me to a few hvely black-fish. In less than ten minutes we were in the thick of the crowd, with harpoons flying right and left. Such a scene of wild confusion and uproarious merriment ensued as I never saw before in my life. The skipper, true to his traditions, got fast to four, all running different ways at once, and making the calm sea boil iigain with their frantic gyrations. Each of the other boats got hold of three ; but, the mate getting too near me, our fish got so inextricably tangled up that it was hopeless to try and distinguish between each other's prizes. However, when we got the lances to work among them, the hubbub calmed down greatly, and the big bodies one by one ceased their gambols, floating supine. So far, all had been gay ; but the unlucky second mate must needs go and do a thing that spoiled a day's fun entirely. The line runs through a deep groove in the boat's stem, over a brass roller so fitted that when the line is running out it remains fixed, but when hauling in it revolves freely, assisting the work a great deal. The second mate had three fish fast, like the rest of us — the first one on the end of the main line, the other two on " short warps," or pieces of whale-line some eight or ten fathoms long fastened to harpoons, with the other ends running on the main line by means of bowlines round it. By some mistake or other he had allowed the two lines to be hauled together through the groove in his boat's stem, and before the error was noticed two fish spurted off in opposite directions, After game ; but lively of the luch a riment kippei'. unning ea boil e other 00 near t it was other's Ic among the big supine. second a day's rroove in lat when it when a great like the ain line, hale-line arpoons, )y means he had •ough the rror was irections, KDGINO SOUTHWARD 007 ripping tlu; boat in two halves lengthways, like u Dutchman splitting a salt herring. Away went the lish with tlie whole of the line, nobody being able to get at it to cut; and, but for the presence of mind shown by the crew in striking out and away from the tangle, a most ghastly misfortune, in- volving the loss of several lives, must have occurred. As it was, the loss was considerable, almost outweighing the gain on the day's lishing, besides the inconvenience of having a boat useless on whaling grounds. The accident was the fruit of gross carelessness, and should never have occurred ; but then, strange to say, disasters to whale-boats are nearly always due to want of care, the percentage of unavoidable casualties being very small as compared with those like the one just related. When the highly dangerous nature of the work is remem- bered, this statement may seem somewhat overdrawn; but it has been so frequently corroborated by others, whose experience far outweighs my own, that I do not hesitate to make it with the fullest confidence in its truth. Happily no lives were lost on this occasion, for it would have indeed been grievous to have seen our ship- mates sacrificed to the manes of a mere black-fish, after successfully encountering so many mighty whales. The episode gave us a great deal of unnecessary work getting the two halves of the boat saved, in addition to securing our fish, so that by the time we got the twelve remaining carcasses hove on deck we were all quite fagged out. But under the new regime we were sure of a good rest, so that did not trouble us ; it rather made the lounge on deck in the balmy evening air and the well-filled pipe of peace doubly sweet. Our next day's work completed the skinning of the m K .;? 228 TIIK aitUISK OF THE "CACHALOT.'' I haul wo had made, the last of the carcasscH going over- board with a thunderouB splash at four in the afternoon. The aHscmblage of sharks round the ship on this occaHion was incredible for its number and the great size of the creatures. Certainly no mariners see so many or such huge sharks as whalemen ; but, in spite of all our previous experience, this day touched high-water mark. Many of these fish were of a wize undreamed of by the ordinary seafarer, some of them full thirty feet in length, more like whales than sharks. Most of them wee striped diagonally with bands of yellow, contrasting curiously with the dingy grey of their normal colour. From this marking is derived their popular name — " tiger sharks," not, as might be supposed, from their ferocity. That attribute cannot properly be applied to the sqiialiia at all, which is one of the most timid fish afloat, and whose ill name, as far as regards blood-thirstiness, is quite undeserved. Rapacious the shark certainly is ; but what sea-fish is not ? He is not at all particular as to his diet ; but what sea-fiah is ? With such a great bulk of body, such enormous vitality and vigour to support, he must needs be ever eating ; and since he is not constructed on swift enough lines to enable him to prey upon living fish, like most of his neighbours, he is perforce compelled to play the humble but useful part of a sea-scavenger. He eats man, as he eats anything else eatable, because in the water man is easily caught, and not from natural depravity or an acquired taste begetting a decided pre- ference for human flesh. All natives of shores infested by sharks despise him and his alleged man-eating propensities, knowing that a very feeble splashing will suffice to frighten him away even if ever so hungry. Kuaiso sorr/nvAnn. •j.jH g over- jrnoon. BcaHion > of the )r Hucli »revious klany of fi'dinary h, more striped uriously •om this sharks," y. That inalua at oat, and ihiess, is ainly is; icular as a great rigour to [lice he is him to urs, he is ul part of , because n natural ided pre- s infested lan-eating hing will ) hungry. Demerara Uivor literally swarms with sharks, yot I have often seen a negro, clad only in a beaming Htnilo, slip into its muddy waters, and, after a fow Hlmrp blows with his open hand upon thu surfucu, calmly swhu down to the bottom, clear a ship's anchor, or do whatever job was required, coming up again as leisurely as if in a swimming-bath. A similar disregard of the dangerous attributes awarded by popular consent to the shark may be witnessed everywhere among the people who know him best. The cruelties perpetrated upon sharks by seamen generally are the result of ignorance and super- stition combined, the most infernal forces known to humanity. What would be said at home of such an act, if it could be witnessed among us, as the disembowelling of a tiger, say, and then letting him run in that horrible condition somewhere remote from the possibility of retaliating upon his torturers ? Yet that is hardly com- parable with a similar atrocity performed upon a shark, because he will live hours to the tiger's minutes in such a condition. I once caught a shark nine feet long, which we hauled on board and killed by cutting off its head and tail. It died very speedily — for a shark — all muscular motion ceasing in less than fifteen minutes. It was my inten- tion to prepare that useless and unornamental article so dear to sailors — a walking-stick made of a shark's backbone. But when I came to cut out the vertebra, I noticed a large scar, extending from one side to the other, right across the centre of the back. Beneath it the backbone was thickened to treble its normal size, and perfectly rigid ; in fact, it had become a mass of solid bone. At some time or other this shark had been harpooned so severely that, in wrenching himself free, 'IS V. -.n Tmm u:JO 77/ A' cniJiSE OF Tin: " r AC //A lot: ho must have nearly torn his body in two halves, sever- ing the spinal column completely. Yet such a wound as that had been healed by natural process, the bone knit together again with many times the strength it had before -minus, of course, its flexibility — and I can testify from the experience of securing him that ho could not possibly have been more vigorous than he was. A favourite practice used to be — I trust it is so no longer — to catch a shark, and, after driving a sharpened stake down through his upper jaw and out underneath the lower one, so that its upper portion pointed diagonally forward, to let him go again. The consequence of this cruelty would be that the fish was unable to open his mouth, or go in any direction without immediately coming to the surface. How long he might linger in snch torture, one can only guess ; but unlcos his fellows, finding him thus helpless, came along and kindly devoured him, no doubt he would exist in extreme agony for a very long time. Two more small cows were all that rewarded our search during the next fortnight, and we began to feel serious doubts as to the success of our season upon the line grounds, after all. Still, on the whole, our voyage up to the present had not been what might fairly be called unsuccessful, for we were not yet two years away from New Bedford, while we had considerably more than two thousand barrels of oil on board — more, in fact, than two-thirds of a full cargo. But if a whale were caught every other day for six months, and then a mouth elapsed without any being seen, grumbling would be loud and frequent, all the previous success being forgotten in the present stagnation. Perhaps it is not so different in other professions nearer home ? /: no I ya f^ovrnwAnn. 2:5 1 Christmas Day drow nojir, bolovod of EnsIiHlimpn all tho world over, though thought littlo of by Amoricans. Tho two previous ones spent on board the Curhfilnf havo been passed over without mention, absolutely no notice being taken of tho soiison by any one on board, to all appearance. In Enfjlish ships some attempt is always made to give tho day somewhat of a festive character, and to maintain the national tradition of good-cheer and goodwill in whatever part of the world you may happen to be. For some reason or other, perhaps because of the great increase in comfort we had all experienced lately, I felt the approach of th(^ great Christian anni- versary very strongly ; although, had I been in London, I should probably liavo spent it in lonely gloom, having no relatives or friends whom I might visit. But what of that ? Christmas is Christmas ; and, if we have no home, we think of tho place where our home should be ; and whether, as cynics sneer, Dickens invented the English Christmas or not, its observance has taken deep root among us. ^Nfay its shadow never hv less ! On Christmas morning I mounted to thc! crow's-nest at daybreak, and stood looking with never-failing awe at the daily marvel of the sunrise. Often and often have I felt choking for words to express the tumult of thoughts aroused by this sublime spectacle. Hanging there in cloudland, the tiny microcosm at one's feet forgotten, the grandeur of the celestial outlook is overwhelming. Many and many a time I have bowed my head and wept in pure reverence at the majesty manifested around me while the glory of the dawn in- creased and briglitened, till with one exultant bound the sun appeared. For some time I stood gazing straight ahead of me il i I I 232 Till': (JliUISK OF THE " CACHALOT:' ' i\ \ I with eyes that saw not, filled with wonder and admiration. I must have been looking directly at the same spot for quite a quarter of an hour, w hen suddenly, as if I had but just opened my eyes, I saw the well-known bushy spout of a sperm whale. I raised the usual yell, which rang through the stillness discordantly, startling all hands out of their lethargy like bees out of a hive. After the usual preliminaries, we were all afloat with sails set, gliding slowly over the sleeping sea tov.ards the un- conscious objects of our attention. The captain did not lower this time, as there only appeared to be three fish, none of them seeming large. Though at any distance it is extremely difficult to assess the size of whales, the spout being very misleading. Sometimes a full-sized whale will show a small spout, while a twenty-barrel cow will exhale a volume of vapour extensive enough for two or three at once. Now although, according to etiquette, I kept my position in the rear of my superior officers, I had fully determined in my own mind, being puffed up with previous success, to play second fiddle to no one, if I could help it, this time. Samuela was decidedly of the same opinion ; indeed, I Itelieve he would have been delighted to tackle a whole scliool single-handed, while my crew were all willing and eager for the fight. We had a long, tedious journey before we came up with them, the wind being so light that even with the occasional assistance of the paddles our progress was wretchedly slow. When at last we did get into their water, and the mate's harpooncr stood up to dart, his foot slipped, ;/ad down he came with a clatter enough to scare a cachalot twenty miles away. It gallied our friends effectually, sending them flying in different directions at EDOISG SOUTH WA Itl>. 'l:VA the top of their speed. But being some distance astern of the other boats, one of the fish, in his headlong retreat, rose for a final blow some six or seven fathoms away, passing us in the opposite direction. His appearance was only momentary, yet in that moment Samuela hurled his harpoon into the air, where it described a beautiful parabola, coming down upon the disappearing monster's back just as the sea was closing over it. Oh, it was a splendid dart, worthy of the finest harpooner that ever lived ! There was no time for congratulations, however, for we spun round as on a pivot, and away we went in the wake of that fellow at a great rate. I cast one look astern to see whether the others had struck, but could see nothing of them ; we seemed to have sprung out of their ken in an instant. The speed of our friend was marvellous, but I comforted myself with the knowledge that these animals usually run in circles — sometimes, it is true, of enormous diameter, but seldom getting far away from their starting- point. But as the time went on, and we seemed to fly over the waves at undiminished speed, I began to think this whale might be the exception necessary lo prove the rule, so I got out the compass and watched his course. Due east, not a degree to north or south of it, straight as a bee to its hive. The ship was now far out of sight astern, but I knew that keen eyes had been watching our movements from the masthead, and that every effort possible would be made to keep the run of us. The speed of our whale was not only great, but unflagging. He was more like a machine than an animal capable of tiring ; and though we did our level best, at the faintest symptom of slackening, to get up closer and lance him, it was for some time impossible. After, at a rough i' 234 THE CRUISE OF THE " CACHALOT.' estimate, running in a direct easterly course for over two hours, he suddenly sounded, without having given us the ghost of a chance to " land him one where he lived." Judging from his previous exertions, though, it was hardly possible he would be able to stay down long, or get very deep, as the strain upon these vast creatures at any depth is astonishingly exhausting. After a longer stay below than usual, when they have gone extra deep, they often arrive at the surface manifestly ** done up " for a time. Then, if the whaleman be active and daring, a few well-directed strokes may be got in which will promptly settle the business out of hand. Now, when my whale sounded he was to all appearance as frightened a beast as one could wish — one who had run himself out endeavouring to get away from his enemies, and as a last resource had dived into the quieti. ss below in the vain hope to get away. So I regarded him, making up my mind to wait on him with diligence upon his arrival, and not allow him to get breath before I had settled him. But when he did return, there was a mighty difference in him. He seemed as if he had been getting some tips on the subject from some school below where whales are trained to hunt men ; for his first move was to come straight for me with a furious rush, carrying the war into the enemy's country with a vengeance. It must l»(i rera(!iii- bered that I was but young, and a comparat'vely n(!W hand at this sort of thing ; so when I confess that I felt more than a little scared at this sudden change in the tactics of my opponent, I hope I shall be excused. Eemembering, however, that all our lives depended on keeping cool, I told myself that even if I was frightened I must not go all to pieces, but compel myself to think over two en us the tie lived." h, it was I long, or eatures at r a longer | fj j ixtra deep, done up " ,nd daring, wliicb will appearance le who had y from his 3d into the ,way. So 1 m him with him to get 7hen he did n him. He n the subject •e traine