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37 chapters
NOTE
NOTE
I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. Clifford W. Ashley for his kindness in reading the proof of this book and in making various corrections and suggestions. W. J. H. Lancing a Whale • Frontispiece Fitting Out • 12 Cutting-In • 74 Bailing Case • 88 Harpooning Porpoise • 122 Lowering Boats • 194 The Mate • 280 A Nantucket Sleigh-Ride • 310...
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CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
It was a rare occasion when any one of the wharves—at any rate the three or four wharves from Union Street north—had no ships lying beside it. There were usually two or three beside each wharf, and sometimes more; discharging or fitting or being repaired. My father was always at work upon some ship, on a staging in the dock alongside. I never tired of watching him at work, and would sit for hours on the stringpiece just above him or on the wharf opposite, while he removed from the side or the bo
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CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
One morning toward the end of June in the year 1872 I was on the wharf at the foot of Hamilton Street, where I was most apt to be. My father and a gang of ship carpenters were busy at the bottom of a ship that was hove down there, and they were working on float stages along her side. I have forgotten the name of the ship. It was yet early, for in those days carpenters went to work at seven and stopped at six or thereabouts, and no man that I ever knew of the old class of artisans would leave his
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CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
The Clearchus did not get off that day, and at six o’clock my father and I walked home together, my heart like lead. The evening passed somehow. We all went up to bed at nine, as we always did, while the bell on the Stone Church was ringing the curfew; but we might as well have stayed up for two or three hours longer, for I could not sleep, and I am sure that my mother could not. It had begun to rain, a dreary drizzle, before I finally fell asleep. I was awakened to find my mother standing in my
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CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
By the next morning the skies had cleared, and there was bright sun, with a light breeze from the southwest. It had begun to clear soon after midnight, and the stars had come out one by one, with drifts of ragged scud flying over. I had not seen it, but I was sleeping soundly, after some miserable hours, for I was a very homesick boy. Mother and father—even brothers—and home never seemed so dear or so far away, and I seemed to be cut off from them completely. I had no pangs of seasickness, eithe
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CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
We reached the Gulf Stream some time during that night. I remember that I was awakened before dawn by the heeling of the ship so that I was all but pitched out of my bunk. I sat up and held on, and heard the rain, and the sound of feet on deck, and orders shouted, and the hoarse singsong of the crew as they manned the sheets and the halliards and the braces, and the noise of the yards swinging, and the sails slatting. There was no singsong from the men aloft taking in sail. The ship was pitching
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CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
We stood away that night, going under very easy sail. We were in no hurry, and did not want to get far away, but Captain Nelson had a prejudice against whaling in too much company. I was out at daybreak, eager and excited, and stayed out all day when my duties did not call me below. Much of the time I spent in the maintop, which I attained for the first time, my heart in my mouth as I crawled slowly and carefully up and out on the futtock shrouds. Nothing would have induced me to go through the
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CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VII
It was past eight bells when the boats came aboard—eight bells being, in this case, noon—and all hands had dinner. I hurried through my work of helping the steward, and ran on deck. There was no sign of Mr. Baker or of anything else on that limitless sea. The whale had run to leeward, contrary to the custom of whales, which usually run to windward when they can. The ship was rolling along in her leisurely way, almost before the wind, and making a pleasant and soothing noise under her forefoot an
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CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER VIII
The water actually boiled with sharks, feasting and fighting. There was a multitude of them, big fellows, from six to twelve feet long, and they took bites about the size of a football right out of the whale’s side. It was hard to see how they could do it, with their projecting snouts, and I did not make it out very well with all my watching. A shark would glide directly at the whale, about a foot or two under the surface, there would be the flash of whitish belly as he turned over, and he would
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CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER IX
The head of the sperm whale, as seen from the side, is roughly rectangular in outline, with an exaggerated upper jaw which seems out of all manner of proportion to the lower. In large whales the height of the square forehead or nose is eleven to thirteen feet, and the width of it nine to eleven feet, while the lower jaw is slender and pointed. This exaggeration of the upper part of the head does not argue anything in regard to the size of the brain, as might naturally be supposed. The brain is p
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CHAPTER X
CHAPTER X
The cutting-in was over by the middle of the afternoon, for that first whale of ours was not very large. If our windlass had been as powerful as modern windlasses, we should have been able to get the case—or even the whole head—bodily on deck, and to get at the oil within it more quickly and completely. The holds of the cutting-falls had been cut away, and the empty case had drifted astern, sinking slowly as it went; the junk had been emptied of its oil, the pure, sweet oil following the spades
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CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XI
We were nearly a month on Hatteras grounds, with good weather, on the whole. We spoke several merchant vessels, one of which was a big five-masted schooner bound into Charleston from Batavia. None of the men had seen such a big schooner-rigged vessel before, and they all gazed at her with their mouths hanging open as long as she was in sight. There was nothing beautiful about her with her stubby-looking masts and big sails. She would have made five of us easily, and the Clearchus was fairly big
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CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XII
The first observation that the captain was able to take showed us to be in latitude 27° N., which was much farther south than he had any idea of. I was present when he worked out our position; I was supposed to be having a lesson in navigation, but I had no notion what he was doing, nor why. I remember that he could not believe it, and thought that he must have made a mistake, but a second observation confirmed the first, and I marked our position on the chart. I knew enough for that. That made
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CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIII
In 1872 the sperm whale had almost disappeared from the Atlantic Ocean, and old whalemen thought that he was doomed to practical extinction. For twenty years or more sperm-whaling voyages had been lengthened to an average of nearly four years, and it had been necessary to hunt him over all the tropic and temperate seas of the world. I had reason to believe that Captain Nelson had not really expected to find any whales on the Hatteras grounds, and I know that he expected to find none on the Weste
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CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XIV
We sighted no more whales, and made for the Azores as fast as the old Clearchus would go, which was not at a dizzying speed. Wright was in such distress that the old man was anxious to get him ashore as soon as possible. He intended to call at Fayal, anyway. In addition to Wright’s necessities, there was some slight refitting to be attended to, he wanted another spare whaleboat, some oars, provisions, and other small matters. He expected to meet the tender there, too. The tender of the whaling f
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CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XV
We had good weather to the River Plate. Our northeasterly wind continued until we were two days out of Rio, then pulled around into the southwest, and came stronger. There are not many days of calms and variable winds in this part of the ocean, and gales at this season are rare. We were making a course almost due south, and were several hundred miles from the coast. When we arrived off the Plate, early in November, we reduced sail, and cruised to and fro, keeping a sharp lookout for whales. We h
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CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVI
Nothing of note happened for very nearly a month. We had the usual variations of weather, good and bad, but mostly good, and no gales. We had no luck, however. Few whales were raised, and those that we did see were shy and wild, and we got none of them. It was December before we got another. Early one morning I was out on deck. I had been sent on some errand by Mr. Wallet. I was never very quick on Mr. Wallet’s errands, and I stopped by the windlass, where I was out of sight from aft, and looked
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CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVII
Our officers were all highly indignant at the conduct of the Battles, which was contrary to all the ethics of whaling, if not to the law of the high seas. I overheard Captain Nelson talking with Mr. Baker, who got very vehement about it, and wanted to take Starbuck’s whale away from them by force. Captain Nelson was quiet for a moment, stroking his beard, which had got pretty ragged. “Some excuse, perhaps,” he said at last. “Kind of a row with Fred three or four weeks before we sailed. My house.
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CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XVIII
There was no unfavorable change in the weather, and we cruised for three weeks without getting a whale, or even raising a spout. One morning, however, after a rather thick haze had cleared away somewhat, we found ourselves within half a mile of a pod of six or seven, which were lying on the surface, spouting lazily. They did not seem to be feeding, and I remember that I had heard a distant splash while it was still too thick to see them, and Peter, to whom I had turned inquiringly, had said that
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CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XIX
That was our last whale on these grounds, and we turned our nose again to the southwest, for the grounds off Patagonia. Nourishing the secret hope that we might land there, I carried the “Navigators” around in my pocket, and read over again and again the account of Magellan’s visit—all to no purpose, as it turned out. We saw nothing of the Battles; but she had a nasty habit of turning up when we thought we had lost her for good and least expected to see her. She had become as a thorn in the fles
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CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XX
We had the usual variations in weather, some good, some bad, but none very bad, to the Carroll grounds. For two thirds of the way the wind was mostly pretty strong from the west or southwest, giving the Clearchus what she liked best; for the last third of the way it drew in from the southeast, although we were not at any time in the region of the steady southeast trades, merely touching upon the border of that region toward the very last of the run. We ran into no gales, and made a passage of ab
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CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXI
We cleared up our whale as soon as we could. He made only thirty-three barrels, and we laid our course for the Cape with a total of three hundred and thirty-five barrels of oil in the hold. That seemed very little to show for nine months’ work, but Peter comforted me somewhat. He did not seem to mind. It was all in the day’s work to him. “I know, Timmie, lad,” he said. “Whales have got scarce as hen’s teeth in the Atlantic Ocean. But the whaling fleet ’s not what it was fifteen years ago when th
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CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXII
The day before we got into Cape Town I wrote a short letter home, and enclosed my journal. We came to in Table Bay the next morning, with the mass of Table Mountain looming to the eastward, and Devil’s Peak and the Lion’s Head and Signal Hill enclosing the town. The crew had liberty ashore, in relays, and the first boatload of liberty men were off within an hour. I do not know how the men spent their precious liberty. We laid in a stock of fresh provisions, and got off our mail, and found some m
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CHAPTER XXIII
CHAPTER XXIII
When we had the trying-out finished—the whale made about sixty-three barrels—we were not far from Bazaruta Island, and the captain thought it a good chance to lay in some wood. Two boats were sent ashore, the men taking axes, while the Clearchus lay near, and the rest of the crew were busy with their cleaning and scrubbing. I was sent ashore with the boats. The island, or at any rate the part of it which we saw, was uninhabited, and was covered with a dense jungle of woods and vines and creepers
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CHAPTER XXIV
CHAPTER XXIV
I stood at the rail, gazing at the harbor and the town. My eyes were half closed, my chin rested on my hands, which clasped the rail, and I was lost in a dream of the East. Small boats plied the near waters, the boatmen crying out shrilly now and then, but my ears were deaf to their cries. The spacious harbor lay before me, with many vessels of all kinds and nationalities lying at anchor, from large steamers flying the British flag to Arab dhows. Life was there. I did not see the filth washing t
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CHAPTER XXV
CHAPTER XXV
Our liberty men appeared in various stages of dejection from their Oriental haunts of infamy, but none were missing, and we sailed for the eastward, to cruise about the Seychelles. Smith had been assigned to Mr. Brown’s boat, to take my oar, for I was nothing but a substitute. I was chagrined, but there was nothing to be done about it. Mr. Brown was sorry, but again there was nothing to be done about it. He could not object unless he wanted to open the matter which he had resolutely kept closed—
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CHAPTER XXVI
CHAPTER XXVI
From the point where the swordfish killed the whale we laid a course southwesterly to the westward of Réunion. We had the southeast trades all the way, and did not touch a brace until we were between Réunion and Madagascar. There the trades left us, and we laid a southerly course, with shifting winds. We were getting into the “horse latitudes,” and the wind was generally strong, at first from the east and northeast; still farther south it held usually from the westward, stronger yet, and gales w
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CHAPTER XXVII
CHAPTER XXVII
For five days the wind held from the westward, and we held a course a little east of north. I saw the chart every day, and sometimes pricked the position of the ship on it. I took an occasional observation, and worked out that position, checking up my observation and the position worked out from it by the captain’s. I really think that I knew more of the mathematics of the matter than he did. In another respect Captain Nelson had an immense advantage. That was in dead reckoning, which was very i
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CHAPTER XXVIII
CHAPTER XXVIII
Mr. Baker came back to the ship about a couple of hours after the marooned men had come aboard. He had spent more than an hour in going to and fro, looking for Smith’s body, but had seen no sign of it, and had concluded that it had sunk at once. That seemed strange, for the lungs must have been full of air, but nobody gave it a second thought unless some of the most disaffected of the crew did; none of them, in all probability, gave so much as a first thought to the fact. I do not really doubt t
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CHAPTER XXIX
CHAPTER XXIX
We reached the Keelings late in April, having taken no whales since leaving Desolation. Captain Nelson found that the Bartholomew Gosnold had left a few hours before we arrived. This was unfortunate. I have no doubt that the fact made the captain regret more than ever that he had stopped to lower for the blind whale. He had had a boat stove, Captain Coffin had been laid up, he had missed the Gosnold, and he did not get the whale. Still, probably he would do the same thing again under the same ci
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CHAPTER XXX
CHAPTER XXX
At Batavia I stayed on board of the Virginia as long as I could. I had not a cent of money in my pockets, and I did not like to ask help of any kind, even of the American consul. The Virginia had some freight to be unloaded, and I watched the men breaking out that part of the cargo while Captain Marshall went ashore. The captain apparently did not see me that morning, which I suppose was his way of being indulgent. There was a good deal of freight to be taken off, and when it was out of the way
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CHAPTER XXXI
CHAPTER XXXI
We reached the Japan grounds in May of 1874, and cruised thereabouts until August. Then we stood to the southward, loafing past the Volcano Islands, the Ladrones, Carolines, Solomon and Fiji Islands, always on the lookout for whales, and taking a number of them. We were on the New Zealand grounds early in November. We had only average success on the Japan grounds and our cruise to the southward; pulled in many a fruitless chase, and most of the whales we did get made no fight worth mentioning, f
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CHAPTER XXXII
CHAPTER XXXII
For some time Captain Coffin was excited and restless; even more restless than usual, and he was always a restless and active man. Although he would sometimes sit still for long periods, he left you with the impression of activity, of tension, as though he was prepared instantly for anything. At such times his eyes were very bright, and from time to time his head turned alertly. I had no doubt that he was hatching possible plans for the recapture of the Battles, or, at any rate, that his
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CHAPTER XXXIII
CHAPTER XXXIII
As we ran to the northward, we had the wind on the beam or aft of that, most of the time, usually brisk to strong, as fair a wind as we could have wished for. The hurricane season was about to begin. Hurricanes are most frequent in March and April, although occasionally there is a severe one toward the last of February; and their tracks most commonly cross the Fiji or Samoan Islands in a general southerly direction, then curving more and more to the eastward. We stood well to the west of Fiji, a
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CHAPTER XXXIV
CHAPTER XXXIV
As soon as the trying-out was finished, we stood off to the southeast, or a little southerly of that. The trades here were blowing strong from the east, and that was as close as the Clearchus would sail. After a day of this, we came about on the other tack. We could none of us understand why, unless some of the officers did, but the large school of whales had disappeared almost directly to windward, and Captain Nelson may have been trying to see where they had gone. There was a fairly rapid drif
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CHAPTER XXXV
CHAPTER XXXV
There was no incident until we got within sight of Tahiti. I was leaning against the bench, watching Peter’s leisurely progress with the boat. This boat was the one which had been cut in two by the whale. The other one was finished, painted, and bottom up on the after house. Captain Nelson meant to trade all his spare boats, which had been stove, among the islands. Not that those boats were not good and seaworthy—Peter’s workmanship could not be other than that; but the captain seemed to think t
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CHAPTER XXXVI
CHAPTER XXXVI
Of that meeting with Jimmy Appleby the less said the better. I believe that, in my wearied and weakened state, I broke down and cried, but I have no clear recollection. The first thing that I remember clearly is being well down the lagoon, a passenger in my own boat. Our new shipmates were doing the pulling, although those of the regular crew who were able sat on the thwarts beside the fresh men, and bent their backs with them. Two of our men, severely wounded, lay on the bottom of the boat, hal
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