CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER IV.FAIRLY AT SEA.—THE FIRST LOOKOUT.—INTRODUCTIONS.By noon the ship had run the land nearly down to the horizon line, and having sufficient offing, with the open sea before her, and all being well satisfied with her performance, she was brought to the wind with the maintopsail thrown aback for the pilot-boat; and after the most affectionate leave-takings and handshakings, the owner and the rest of our shore friends left us; many of them with, literally, veryturbulentfeelings. Mr. Richards was not so indisposed but that he was able to take the hand of each of his young friends in turn, and bid us godspeed, at the same time leaving in our hands copies of our outfit bills (receipted in full by order on the owners), as a parting token of his esteem. Three cheers were given as they shoved off from the ship—or rather attempted, with but indifferent success, and somewhat more feeble returned by the stay-at-homes; and in a few minutes we again filled away on our course to the eastward. The anchors were stowed and well secured, the chain cables run down into the lockers, and the breeze fresheningin the afternoon, the ship was brought down to double-reefed topsails; an operation requiring considerable time for its performance, with new sails and running gear, and a green crew; and one adapted to develop not only our agility, but the power of grip in our hands; while the rigging was embraced so affectionately that I had no reason to wonder at the complaint of the second mate that we had robbed all the tar from it, and transferred it to our clothes. Jeff had his fill of growling at the "children," as if they were to blame that they had not been born able seamen, or trained as "reefers" in the district school; while Manoel was kind enough to undo all my part of the work and do it over again, instructing me at the same time hownotto tie a "gr-r-r-annee-knot," enunciating the r with a noise like that made in tearing a strong rag.At sundown, all hands were called aft, and requested to "spread" ourselves in full view of the officers, and the process of choosing watches was gone through with, the mate and second mate selecting a man alternately, till all were disposed of except the "idlers," such as the cook, steward, cooper, etc. As we were chosen, we were formed in two divisions, one each side of the deck, according as we were billeted in the starboard or larboard watch. Next came the choice of oarsmen for the respective boats, a still more important matter in a whaler; and here there was much competition among the officers, and evidently some anxiety, with a little ill-concealed jealousy of feeling. I found myself a member of the larboard watch, andalso assigned to the bow oar of the larboard, or chief mate's boat.When we all understood our places, Captain Upton introduced his officers in form, as Mr. Grafton, his mate, Mr. Dunham his second mate, and Johnson, his third mate."These are my officers," said he, "and I look for you all to respect and obey them as you do myself; and remember that when either of them is on deck in charge of the ship, he representsme, and his orders aremine."He told us he should allow no fighting among ourselves, he wanted to see nosogering, and, above all, to hear no "back answers." He wound up with a peroration after the most approved and stereotyped form, which has been handed down from ancient sea-captains; indeed, it is supposed to date back to the patriarchal system of government, and to have originated with Noah when he first closed the doors of the ark:"All you've got to do is, go when you are sent, and come when you are called; and if you don't have enough to eat, come aft and let me know. Set the watch, Mr. Grafton."The starboard watch had eight hours on deck, following the established seaman's rule that the captain must take the ship out, and the mate take her home. When our watch was summoned at eleven o'clock, the ship was still under double reefs, but the wind had hauled round to the northward-and-east-ward, causing an ugly cross sea, and she was braced sharp on theport tack, and plunging into it smartly. The weather was quite chilly, and as our end of the deck was "all afloat," we naturally made our way aft to explore for drier quarters. Mr. Grafton was on hand to meet and count us at the mainmast. Being satisfied the quota was full:"Now, boys," said he, "you will remember this. In your watch on deck, you are expected to stay on deck; and so that you are all ready for a call when I want you, you may pass the time about as you please, and make yourselves as comfortable as you can—except one man at the wheel and one looking out ahead. I shall want one of you always on the lookout at night, and you must arrange the tricks among yourselves so that I may always find one there. I want him mounted up somewhere where he can see all around on both bows, and where I can see him if I come forward. If I find him asleep, I'll—never mind—I'll fix him so that he will keep his eyes open next time. Now go forward, one of you; and mind, all the rest of you keep above deck. You understand the wheel and lookout are to be relieved every two hours, and whoever has the next trick, I expect him to be travelling along at once when the bell rings; if he don't—he'll hear from me."I volunteered to take the first lookout, and my offer was accepted with enthusiasm. I struggled forward, clutching at the weather-rail, and finding some difficulty in keeping my equilibrium on the wet, slippery deck, as the buoyant ship rose and fell, rolling at times heavily, and righting with a sudden recoil. Ilooked at the station between the knight-heads; but just at that moment she made a heavy pitch forward, and meeting a head sea in full career, sent it flying high over the bows, and rushing down the heel of the bowsprit, inboard; giving ocular evidence that I should be more than half drowned as the reward of my temerity, if I ventured up there. The foretopsail sheet bitts presented the next eligible place, and here I "mounted guard." Planting myself in a Colossus-of-Rhodes attitude, with my back against the foremast, and one arm round each chain sheet for a firm hold, I stared intently into the black void ahead of the ship, regardless of the drenching sprays which every now and then flew over the weather bow upon my head, rattling down my sou'wester, and penetrating my new monkey jacket, which, so far from being water-proof, might have been aptly classified with Mr. Weller's hat, as "wentilatin' gossamer." I was the possessor of an oil-cloth suit, but it was below in the forecastle; and so profoundly was I impressed with a sense of the responsibility resting upon me, that I would not for an instant have stirred from my post until relieved, for anything short of an earthquake; a contingency not likely to occur so far out in the Atlantic Ocean, in this latitude. No one came near me during the two hours, but I had been reconnoitred from time to time by Mr. Johnson, who was skilled in working traverses round the tryworks, and saw a great deal without being seen himself. At one o'clock the relief bell struck, and soon after a voice issued from the darkness:"Hallo! Blacksmith, where you?""Here!" I answered, turning half round."Come down! I 'lieve you!" hailed Antone, from the fore-hatches."Leave me? what for? I've been left here two hours now.""No, I'lieveyou! I take you place!" shouted the Portuguese. "Youwet, no?"Just at the moment a gush of water came flying in over the galley, and I jumped down on deck, gasping for breath, and streaming from every thread. The Portuguese roared with laughter."What for you stop up dere? You nosabestand lookout. By'mby you see me no all e' same," continued Antone, who was favoring himself under the lee of the foremast, and all ready for a rapid retreat, if necessary.But this was myfirstlookout. I proved myself, in time, an apt scholar, and learned to "favor myself" in many particulars; and while I obeyed orders, and gave satisfaction to my superiors, to leave responsibility, like a true Jack, to those who were better paid for it, and to cultivate close acquaintances with the softest planks about the decks on all convenient occasions.Those who predicted a good voyage for the Arethusa did not, in this instance, as in many others, do so without reason; and they did no more than justice to Captain Upton and his officers when they pronounced her well appointed. The captain himself was a man of great energy and undaunted courage, still in theprime of life, who always headed his own boat, and took the initiative himself in whaling. He was rather taciturn, saying little more than was really necessary on any occasion, but possessed great firmness and an iron will. There was nothing of the Tartar about him, and very little to justify Old Jeff's bugbear statement as to his being "a hard one." He had his peculiarities, however, not to say failings. No man could study more closely the interest of his owners; and as he was now identified with them, being a part owner himself in the new ship, we felt the effects of it in the commissariat department. Moreover, he was very proud of his vessel; so much so as to be old-maidish in regard to the neatness of her appearance, and devoted more time and labor to this end than was at all agreeable either to his crew or officers. On the whole, however, he was justly regarded as a most efficient man for his station, and ranked A. 1. on the list of crack whaling captains.His chief-executive and prime minister, Mr. Grafton, was a tall, massive-looking man, of fine personal appearance, something older than his superior. He had made three voyages in the same capacity, being one of those choice mates, who, by some chance, never get command of a ship, perhaps in virtue of a saying much in vogue among shipowners, and in many instances acted upon, "that it is a pity to spoil a good mate by making him master." A man of rather thoughtful cast of mind, of much intelligence, and possessed of an extensive stock of information upon many subjects, with a habit of generalizing and a clearness,of expression which rendered him an agreeable companion to all with whom he came in contact. Though a good whaleman, Grafton was not what is known to theconnoisseuras a "fishy man;" he had no lungs to blow his own trumpet, and sometimes distrusted his own powers, though generally found equal to any emergency after it arose. This want of confidence sometimes led him to hesitate, where a more impulsive or less thoughtful man would act at once. In the course of his career he had seen many "fishy" young men lifted over his head; but as he was very highly esteemed in his station, and received nearly a captain's pay, he was well contented as he was. He was devotedly attached to his family at home, personated the gentleman in all he said and did, and well sustained the character.Dunham, the second officer, was a smart young fellow of two-and-twenty, active, strong, and "fishy to the backbone." His chief fault, as an officer, lay in his being an inveterate sleeper; he could never, upon any consideration, keep awake a whole four-hour watch.The mulatto Johnson had steered a boat with Captain Upton before in the Colossus, and was well known in Nantucket as "a long-dart man." He was somewhat of the Shanghai build—tall and long-shanked, with great strength of limb, and could plug a whale better if four fathoms distant than he could "wood and blackskin." He had an eye like a hawk, and could see a spout as far with his natural optics as most men could through a telescope. Hewas ignorant of everything out of his own immediate line, and sometimes rather overbearing. He was not disliked, in the main, by the crew, if we except Jeff and the cook, who being old shipmates of his, and themselves of thepure blood, were averse to tolerating anything of a mongrel description, or "milk-and-molasses color," as they termed it. "No compromise" was their platform, on this particular issue.The cooper of the Arethusa was an important personage, as, indeed, the cooper always is in a whaler. The duties of this functionary are of a peculiar character, and about as independent of all the rest as those of a surgeon in a man-of-war. He is neither officer nor man, strictly speaking, his lay or pay being nearly equal to that of a second mate. He lives aft with the officers, but makes himself at home in all parts of the ship, occupying a sort of neutral ground—a kind of connecting link between republicanism and oligarchy, neither too high nor too low to consort or joke with anybody and everybody. As a general rule, he stands no watch, but does his day's work and sleeps all night, and in many ways evinces consciousness of his own value, and of the indispensable character of his services. For a whaler may, and, in fact, often does, go to sea without a blacksmith or without a carpenter; but the cooper is an essential part of her equipage. An officer or a boatsteerer may, in case of emergency, be created at sea, by promotion; but the cooper is not so easily replaced.The cooper in question was a stout, grave-looking man of forty or thereabouts, with a shaggy mass ofgrey hair, and a patriarchally long beard. His mechanical work was of excellent quality, what little he accomplished; for he always worked on the principle of the tortoise in the race—"slow and sure." He scraped indifferently well on the violin, but delighted especially in drawing a longer bow. In virtue of this latter accomplishment, he might have claimed near relationship with a certain gentleman known in classic lore as Thomas Pepper, without having his title questioned for a moment. He always told his yarns as gospel truth, and would back them with any oath, if required.The two young boatsteerers, Bunker and Fisher, with the Portuguese steward, completed the "afterguard." In the forecastle there was, in addition to the personages already mentioned, the usual variety of character and disposition to be found among a dozen young men, recruited at random in this manner. Now that we were getting initiated to a sea life, we were beginning to have opinions, and to express them, no longer leaving the whole field to Jeff and the sea-lawyer. As for the Nantucket boys, Kelly and Hoeg (or Obed B., as I still persisted in calling him), they made rapid progress in knowledge and confidence. As I have before intimated, these young "natives to the manor born" seemed to look upon this life with the eye of fatalists. It was foreordained that they should be sailors, and nothing in their new way of life seemed to surprise or disturb them for a moment. Everything took place as a matter of course with them. They never seemed to think they could, byany possibility, have followed any other business for a livelihood; and each new event or circumstance of the voyage was merely another link in the chain of their inevitable destiny. They were born to go whaling and a station on the quarterdeck was the goal of their ambition.They had not been more than a week at sea before they had taken some of the starch out of the sea-lawyer, who had attempted to assert his "rights" by hazing them about, and calling upon them to perform various menial services for him, which he said it was a "boy's place to do."One morning he ordered Kelly, in a very arbitrary way, to go on deck and bring him down some water, which Kelly flatly refused to do. The sea-lawyer declared he would "make him do it;" and upon Kelly's expressing a doubt as to his ability to perform that feat, he proceeded to enforce his command,vi et armis. But he was met by the boy with a spirit that he had not looked for, and before he could get a good hold upon the youngster, so as to chastise him, as he expected easily to do, he was attacked in the rear by Obed B., who arrived on the field just in time to reinforce his chum and schoolmate. This gave Kelly a chance to rally and assume the offensive; and Burley, who was a most arrant coward, finding himself roughly handled between the two, was fain to call for an armistice. A parley ensued, and the boys gave him to understand that they did not come to sea to be boys, but to make themselves men, and that they would not submit to be bullied by him. And the upshot of thematter was, that the champion of "rights" made rather an ignominious retreat from the field, as compared with the vigor of his first attack. All this was nuts, of course, to the rest of us youngsters, who desired nothing more earnestly than to see the bully humbled a little; while the emotion of Manoel was too powerful to find utterance—in intelligible English. He patted the two boys on the shoulder, in the exuberance of his spirits, while his tongue rattled until I thought all his teeth were loose in the jaws; but to save my life, I could not have told what he was trying to say.There was plenty of work for all hands on the passage out, as every one will understand who has ever performed a voyage in a new ship. We found our duties very fatiguing, as we were kept at work all day, and had a watch to stand at night. There was all the new rigging to be stretched and set up over and again, in addition to the thousand and one other matters to be attended to, to put everything in trim for whaling against the opening of the campaign. The old salts growled night and day in the forecastle about having no "watch below;" but as we verdant ones had but a vague idea of what they meant by it, we had but little to say about this grievance.CHAPTER V.THE WESTERN ISLANDS.—"YARNS" AND ANECDOTES.On the eighteenth day out from Nantucket, the high peak of Pico was visible from the masthead, and having a fair breeze, we were lying off and on at the port of Fayal the same afternoon. The captain, with the starboard boat's crew, went ashore, and the ship made short boards to await his return, the Pandora and two whaleships from New Bedford in company. Two more ships were at anchor having taken some oil on the outward passage and put in to land it to be shipped home. Several Portuguese boats came alongside, of the most clumsy and primitive construction imaginable, characteristic of a people who are a couple of centuries behind the times. The boatmen appeared to be, "like Captain Copperthorne's crew, all officers," and jabbered and shouted all at once, in most admirable discord, and at such a furious rate that I found myself wondering whether they really could understand each other or not, and certainly never contemplated the possibility of any American having the remotest idea what they were talking about. But I found that Mr. Grafton could converse with them quite fluently whenever he could make himself heard in the din and confusion. These boats broughta few inferior oranges, sour enough to make a pig squeal (if he would touch them at all, which of course he wouldn't, if a sensible pig), with some miniature cheeses, which, with a little more drying, might have been made available as sheaves for small blocks without much alteration in size, form or consistency of material. These they either sold for money or bartered for various articles of ship's provisions, and were perfect Jews at a bargain.Just before sundown a large launch, deeply loaded, was seen coming out, with a rag hoisted on a pole as a signal. This launch was of even more primitive appearance than the smaller ones. She might have been the longboat of one of Vasco de Gama's fleet, of four centuries ago; at any rate, if his ship had any longboats, they were exactly of this model. We stood well in to meet her, and wearing off shore with the maintopsail aback, took her alongside. Her cargo of potatoes, onions and live stock was to be taken on board and stowed away, and, as the captain arrived soon afterwards, with his boat laden to the gunwale streak with vegetables, it was quite dark before she was again in her place on the cranes, and sail made on the ship.Among the live stock brought on board was a handsome little boy, who was to help the steward in the cabin, much to the enhancement of that functionary's importance, as he could now attend to many calls by deputy which before he was compelled to answer in person; and would also have some one to lay all little mishaps to, such as dishes broken and lamps untrimmed.The Pandora braced full about the same time as the Arethusa, but it was soon apparent that she could not compete in sailing qualities with the new ship, and she gradually dropped astern. The breeze was light from the north-west, with fine weather, and we now had leisure to get supper, and to listen, to the yarns of those who had been ashore.Manoel and Antone had seen their relatives and friends—meeting them after years of absence, to part again in an hour or two—and had found time to visit the priest and get full absolution, balancing the account up to date, and opening a new page, ready to run up another score. Farrell, a young Irishman who pulled the captain's bow oar, had become considerably elevated by imbibing too much sour wine and aguardiente, and was full of stories of his own prowess in knocking over a "Portinghee" who had dared to remonstrate against his kissing a pretty, black-eyed girl, his sister, he supposed; for, like a true Milesian, he had been the hero of a drinking bout, a love intrigue and a knockdown row, all within half an hour after he landed."I jist took him a nate clip betwane the eyes," said Farrell, "and laid him out foreninst the door of his shanty. Thin you see, five or six murtherin' Portinguese pitched intil me, and was afther carryin' me off, body and sowl, to the lock-up; but the ould man interfared, and settled it somehow. Afther he'd paid me fine, he tould me I'd betther go down to the boat, and not lave her again. So I went and got int'l her and shoved her off the length of hertather, and there was a crowdof the nagurs jabberin' and squintin' at me wid their corkindile eyes; but I knowed I was in sanctyeary thin. I'd half a bottle of that blackguard potteen what they calldent, so I jist sot and looked at 'em back again, and dhrank their healths. I suppose the ould man'll be chargin' me the fine on the ship's books.""Yes, you can bet high on that," said Jeff, "and the interest, too.""Yes," said the sea-lawyer, "but you needn't be fool enough to pay it. If every man stood up for his rights, they wouldn't gouge him in that style. A man can't go ashore and drink a drop, and have a bit of a time—and that's what he goes ashore for, of course—but he must have a long bill of calaboose fees tacked to his account; and that d—d twenty-five per cent added on. If they charge it tome, they'll never get it, that's all. I know what they've got a right to do.""I don't know nothin' about the rights," said Jeff, "but I know the old man will charge it to you, and make you pay it, too.""Well, you'll see," said Burley. "I'll have my rights.""What are you blowing about your rights?" put in the cooper, who had just come forward with his pipe freshly loaded, an indication that some ridiculous lie was also charged and ready to be fired with the tobacco. "You've got no rights. The rights are all in one end of the ship, and the wrongs in the other. Why, when I was out in the old Deucalion," pausing to clear his pipe, and thereby fixing the attention of all his auditors,"we had a black fellow called Sam. He had a head harder than Rock Redonda. We used to put pieces of tobacco on top of the windlass-bitts, and then let him butt the bitts till he brought the tobacco down and put it in his pocket. He would let a man split a serving mallet on his head any time, for a drink of grog. But most of the serving mallets were soft wood or ash, made out of old oar looms, so they'd split quite easily. Well, I come it over him once. I was to give him a whole bottle of liquor to stand up under anywoodenmallet that I chose to use. I had awhite oakone down in my chest, and I brought it up and struck him about ten blows as tight as I could spring before I shivered it. The darkey stood his ground like a rock, and won the bottle of liquor, and drank it, too. His skull wasn't hurt a bit, but his eyes were knocked all asquint, and he never got 'em straight afterwards!""Here, Cooper, take my hat. It's the only one I've got, but you've earned it," said Jeff."No, no," said the indignant disciple of Pepper. "I don't want your old jug. Maybe you think I'm romancing, but I'm just telling you the plain truth. But you've put me out, and I haven't finished my story. The point I was going to illustrate was, that the rights were all in one end of the ship, and the wrongs in the other. Well, on the passage home, one day we were reefing the maintopsail, and this black Sam fell on the yard, and went smack through the bottom of the waist boat, head first, overboard. We lowered a boat and managed to save him.Hewasn'tmuch hurt, but theboatwas ruined. She was a boat that we had bought out of an English colonial whaler, and was built of that sweet-scented yellow wood that grows in Van Diemen's land. You've seen it, Jeff, and you know just how brittle it is. Well, when Sam's head struck in the bottom of the boat, the splits flew in all directions, just like throwing a stone in the middle of a pane of glass. So the boat was past all repairing. Well, when we got home, would you believe it? Old Captain Harper had charged Sam sixty dollars, the whole value of a new boat, and Sam had to pay it out of his voyage! He made inquiries, and found it would be cheaper to pay the bill than to stand a lawsuit about it.""O, I've heard that story, or something like it, in Nantucket," said the boy Kelly."Yes, so have I," said Obed B."But you boys never believed it was true, did you?" asked the cooper."No, of course not," protested both the boys at once."You may do so hereafter," said the cooper, gravely. "You may say that you had it from an eye-witness." And having finished his yarns for the night, he went puffing away aft, leaving all hands staring at each other in blank astonishment."That be hanged for a yarn," growled Burley, after he was gone. "Even if it had been true, the man needn't have paid a cent, if he had stood up for his rights.""Well, dere, it aint no use to talk any after datstory," said the cook, with a meditative shake of the head, "We's heard enough. I guess Cooper can take de belt."It was my trick at the wheel from nine to eleven, and when I went aft, I found the captain still on deck, leaning over the companionway on our side, with "Father Grafton," as we had fallen into the habit of calling him, on the other; and I am afraid I did not steer the ship so accurately as I might have done under other circumstances. Their conversation, however, served to distract their attention from my shortcomings, as well as to distract mine from the proper management of the helm."I was thinking," said the mate, reflectively, as he looked at the high peak looming astern, "one can hardly believe that the Portuguese were once a great maritime nation, taking the lead in navigation and discovery. I was thinking, too, that it must have required some pluck and nerve to make the voyages that they used to make, with no more tools than they had to work with. Just imagine, now, we are steering south-west from these islands, with no chart of the sea ahead of us, and no nautical instrument better than a rude cross-staff to get a latitude with, in a vessel not as big as one of our sloop-rigged coasters, and not decked over at that. And the island astern of us is, so far as we know, the veryUltima Thuleof western discovery.""It is just like you, Mr. Grafton, to be thinking of those things," returned the captain. "Yes, it's true, as you say, there must have been anxious hearts andvigilant eyes on board of those little caravels. And yet there was a romantic excitement about those voyages, too, that I think would have been fascinating to me, if I had lived in that age. I have often thought I should have enjoyed a voyage like that of Columbus, or perhaps better, with the ships and facilities of a later period, say those of Anson or Cook. But we were born too late for that, Mr. Grafton; the work is nearly all done for us.""Yes, sir," replied the mate, "and we are obliged to complain, like Alexander of Macedon, that there are no more worlds to discover. I cannot help wishing, every voyage that I visit these Azores, that they belonged to some more liberal and progressive people than the Portuguese. With their position and climate, they might be a station of some importance, if in different hands.""Yes, I have often thought the same thing; for, however enterprising the Portuguese might have been in the days of De Gama and Columbus, it must be admitted they have made no progress since, but rather gone astern. Well, we have had a fine day for our work, Mr. Grafton, and we have got recruits enough to carry us round Cape Horn, I think, without fear of the scurvy. I am rather disappointed in one respect," continued Captain Upton. "I had hoped to have taken some oil on the passage, to send home from here. I have been lucky enough, every voyage before this, to get a whale or two near these islands.""The Pandora has got nothing yet," said Father Grafton, "by the looks of the paint in her waist.""No," replied the captain, "but she has seen whales twice on the passage, and has been fast, and had a boat stove. I saw Captain Worth ashore.""I have a presentiment," said the mate, "that we shall get a whale yet before we get far from the islands. We shall hardly run Pico out of sight between now and morning, with this little breeze, and we have a promise of a fine whaling day to-morrow.""The voyage that I was mate of the Colossus," said the captain, "we took two large whales at one fare—more to the westward. We had Flores and Corvo both in sight when we were cutting them. It came on very rugged weather, and we had a hard time saving them. We muckled them after a fashion, but I suppose we lost thirty or forty barrels of oil on the two, and the deficiency, of course, was mostly on the head matter. I know that the oil we shipped home did not bring full price, because there was not the full proportion of head. Ever since that, I always meant tomakethe full proportion, anyhow," said the captain, with a sly laugh."Yes, sir," said Father Grafton. "I don't blame you for that, but it wont do to smuggle too much. Now, when I was on my first voyage, with Hosea Coffin, he used to pile it on rather too steep. He wasn't satisfied with one third head: he was famous for working in the core of the hump, and other fat parts with it; and if we came out with an ullage cask of head on the stowdown, he'd be sure to fill it up with body oil, and scratch a big H. on it. So that we had a large quantity of head oil, but the qualitywasn't well up to the standard. Well, when he was going out in the same ship next voyage, 'Cousin Ephraim,' the old Quaker owner, said to him:"'Hosea, there's one thing I'd advise thee not to do, this voyage.'"'What's that?' asked Captain Coffin."'I think,' said Cousin Ephraim, in his sly, chuckling way, 'thee'd better not cut off thy whale's heads abaft the hump!'"They both laughed so heartily at this story that I had a quiet laugh, too, in sympathy with them, though I did not then appreciate the point of it as well as I afterwards did."There's a deal of sly fun in some of those old Quakers," said Captain Upton. "I recollect when I went down to ship in the Poor Richard, as boatsteerer, 'Uncle Peleg' offered me the eightieth lay, but I struck for the seventieth. I knew I could get it in another ship, though I rather preferred to go in this one for the same lay. So I was as independent as a woodsawyer's clerk, and wouldn't budge tack nor sheet. After chaffering for some time, Uncle Peleg began to scratch the sand with his ivory-headed cane, in a meditative way. Said he:"'James I want thee to go in the ship, and I will give thee—'Here he marked a 7 in the sand, and then slowly carried his cane round in a circle, and resting the point of it, looked in my face."'Yes,' said I, 'I'll go for that.'"But as I spoke, with a slight movement of thewrist he finished the last figure, by swinging a tangent to the circle. As I looked down again, it read 79."'No,' said I, indignantly, 'I'll see you hanged first!'"'James, James,' said Uncle Peleg, 'don't lose thy temper. Thee shall go in the Poor Richard, and,'—nudging me in the ribs,'we'll have notailto the matter at all.'"'All right,' I answered. He rubbed it out again with his foot."'Now,' said he, 'come right up to the store and put thy name down. Thee must go in the ship; but really, James, I didn't think thee would ask me such a lay as that. Thee needn't tell the other boatsteerers what thee gets.'"Father Grafton shook his sides with merriment at this anecdote, and the captain now rose to go below."Well, Blacksmith," said he, "you are making rather a crooked wake. If you don't keep her straighter, the Pandora will overhaul us. Well, what do you think of these Portuguese?""I didn't go ashore, sir," answered I. "I only saw the boatmen that came off, and I thought they had all broken out of a lunatic asylum.""I don't wonder at that," he said. "They were all talkers and no listeners. But did you notice any of them with a finger cut off?""Yes, sir, I saw two, and I thought it a little remarkable; and now I remember, our Antone has lost his, too.""Yes," said he, "about every third man has his forefinger amputated. That's to escape military service, by disabling themselves from pulling a trigger. You see there's a certain proportion of them conscripted every year, and sent off to Portugal to serve in the army.""Do you mean, sir," I asked, "that they cut the forefinger off, or have it cut off, designedly?""Certainly," said the captain. "I suppose the treatment is not very good in their army, and there is not much to excite patriotic feeling, as they seldom do any fighting except among themselves; so these young 'Guese will make a sacrifice of a finger to escape service. But I wonder that they are allowed to escape in that way. In the English or French service, they would be held; and if they couldn't fire a musket, they would have to serve as pioneers or something else. That is, if it was known that they maimed themselves intentionally. But it is time to go below," said he abruptly. "I have strong hopes of seeing whales to-morrow, and I will give five dollars to the man that 'raises' a large whale; that is, if we get him.""But how large a one?" I asked."Say over fifty barrels. I will give five dollars bounty for fifty barrels of oil. Pass the word among all hands, when the watch is called. Good-night, Mr. Grafton. Let her go south-by-west through the night.""South-by-west, sir," answered Father Grafton. "Good-night."CHAPTER VI.THE FIRST WHALE.The next morning, having the first masthead, I was in the fore-topgallant crosstrees at sunrise, thinking, of course, of the five dollars' bounty all the way up the rigging. The dim outline of the peak was still visible, and the topsails of the Pandora just in sight astern, the wind still continuing moderate at W. N. W. both ships steering S. by W. As I looked astern, when I first got my footing aloft, I caught sight of something like a small puff of steam or white smoke, rising a little and blowing off on the water. Looking intently, at the same spot, after a short interval, another puff rose like the former, satisfying me, from the descriptions I had heard, that some sort of whale was there, and I instinctively shouted:"There she blows!""Where away?" hailed Mr. Johnson, who was just climbing the maintopmast rigging. "O yes! I see him! sperm whale, I believe—hold on a bit till he blows again—yes—thar' sh' blo-o-ows! large sperm whale! two points off the larboard! Blo-o-ows! headed to windward!""How far off?" shouted Mr. Grafton, from the deck."Three miles! 'Ere sh' blo-o-ows!"By this time the old man was on deck, and ready for action. "Call all hands out, Mr. Grafton! Hard a starboard, there! Stand by to brace round the yards. Cook! get your breakfast down as fast as you can. Keep the run of him, there, aloft! Maintop bowline, boat steerers! Sure it's a sperm whale, eh, Mr. Johnson? Steward! give me up the glass—I must make a cleet in the gangway for that glass soon. Muster 'em all up, Mr. Grafton, and get the lines in as fast as you can (mounting the shearpole). Sing out when we head right, Mr. Johnson! Mr. Grafton, you'll have to brace sharp up, I guess (just going over the maintop). See the Pandora, there? O yes! I see her (half way up the topmast rigging). Confound him! he's heading just right to see the whale, too! ('There goes flukes!' shouted the mulatto.) Yes! yes! I see him—just in time to see him (swinging his leg over the topmast crosstrees), a noble fan, too! a buster! Haul aboard that maintack! We must have that fellow, Mr. Johnson. Steady-y! Keep her along just full and by.We mustn't let the Pandora get him, either!"The Arethusa bent gracefully to the breeze, as, braced sharp on the port tack, she darted through the water, as though instinctively snuffing her prey. The whale was one of those patriarchal old bulls, who are often found alone, and would probably stay down more than an hour before he would be seen again. Meantime, the two ships were rapidly nearing each other; and the Pandora's lookouts were not long in discovering that "something was up," as was evinced by her setting the main royal and foretopmast studdingsail,though they could not possibly have seen the whale yet. But the whale was apparently working slowly to windward, and the Pandora coming with a flowing sheet, all of which was much in her favor. The old man remained aloft, anxiously waiting the next rising, from time to time hailing the deck to know "what time it was?" and satisfying himself that the boats were in readiness, and breakfast served out to those who wanted it. As three quarters of an hour passed, he grew more anxious and fidgety, shifting his legs about in the cross trees, and clutching the spyglass in his nervous grasp."Are you all ready, Mr. Grafton?""Ay, ay, sir," answered the mate from the maintop, where he had mounted to get a look at the whale when he should rise again."Let them hoist and swing the boats.""Ay, ay, sir.""I think I saw a ripple then," said the second mate, from the topsail yard directly beneath him."Where?" demanded the captain."Four points off the lee bow.""O! no, you didn't, he won't come there. He'll rise right ahead or a little on the weather-bow. I don't think he'll go much to windward—good gracious! see that Pandora come down! She'll be right in the suds here, directly! I think we've run far enough, eh, Mr. Grafton? Haul the mainsail up, then! and square the main yard!"Silence for a few minutes after this evolution was performed."He can't be far off when he comes up again. Look at the men old Worth has got aloft there, his crosstrees swarming, and every rattlin manned.—Look sharp! all of ye! We must see that whale when he first breaks water. That helm eased down? Haul the foresail up? and let the jib-sheets flow a little more. It can't be possible that whale has been up—no, we couldn't help seeing him, some of us—Iknow'twas a sperm whale. I saw his fan; besides, there's Mr. Johnson—best eyes in the ship. What time is it, there? An hour and ten minutes that whale has been down—a long-winded old dog! We shall have to wear round, I'm afraid we shall forge.Blo-o-ows!right ahead, not one mile off! Down there and lower away! Now, Mr. Grafton, work carefully—Mr. Dunham, too; if you don't strike this rising, spread your chances well, and don't crowd each other—but don't you let the Pandora get him!" The captain was by this time in the stern of his own boat. "All ready, Mr. Johnson? Where's Old Jeff at my midship oar? O, here you are, eh? You aint turned white yet—lower away! Cooper! Where's Cooper? As soon as we are all clear, wear round—Let run that davit fall?—Wear round and make a short board—haul up your tackle, boy. Keep to windward all you can, Cooper! Pull a little off the weather-bow, Mr. Grafton, and then set your sail! Haul in these gripes towing over the quarter—By thunder, there's Worth's boats all down! coming with fair wind, too! Out oars, lads."The Pandora had luffed to and dropped her boats amile to windward, and they were coming down before the breeze, wing-and-wing, with their paddles flashing in the sunlight, and their immense jibs guyed out on the bow-oar as studdingsails, promising to stand about an equal chance for the whale with ourselves. The larboard boat to which I belonged proved the fastest of the three, and had a little the lead. After pulling a few quiet strokes to windward, Father Grafton set his sails, and, as he gave the order to "peak the oars and take the paddles," seemed as cool and calm as when engaged in the most ordinary duty on board. There was no confusion or bustle in his boat, but with his practised eye fixed upon the huge spermaceti, he kept encouraging us in a low, dry tone, as he conned the steering oar with such skill, that he seemed to do it without effort."Now, lads, you face round to paddle, you can all see him. I declare, he's a noble fellow—ninety barrels under his hide, if there's a drop. Bunker, do you see that fellow? he's got a back like a ten-acre lot—paddle hard, lads—if you miss him, go right overboard yourself, and don't come up again—long and strong stroke, boys, on your paddles. See that boat coming? that's Ray, the second mate of the Pandora—three or four more spouts, and we'll have him—he's ours sure! they can't get here in time—scratch hard, boys! don't hit your paddles on the gunwale. Stand up, Bunker, and get your jibtack clear! Don't let them 'gally' you, if they shout in that boat.""All right!" said his boatsteerer, with his eager hand resting on the iron pole. "Never fear, sir.""Paddle hard, lads, a stroke or two. That's right, Bunker. Keep cool, my boy. Keep cool, and make sure of him."A wild and prolonged shout rang on the air from six sturdy pairs of lungs in the Pandora's waist-boat, as Mr. Ray, seeing that he was baffled, let fly his sheets and rounded to, a ship's length to windward. It was too late, however."All right," said Father Grafton, in the same dry, quiet tone, as before. "Hold your hand, Bunker. Hold your hand, boy, till you're past his hump—another shoot, lads—way enough, in paddles. Now, Bunker! give it to him! Down to your oars the rest.Give him t'other one, boy!Well done! both irons to the hitches. Hold water, all! Bear a hand, now, and roll up that sail. Wet line, Tom! wet line! Where's your bucket? All ready with your sail, Bunker? Let her come then—all right. Come aft here, now, and let me get a dig at him."The line was spinning round the loggerhead with a whizzing noise, and a smoking heat, as the huge leviathan, stung to the quick, darted down into the depths of the ocean. Bunker threw on the second round turn to check him, and jamming the bight of the line over the stern sheets, watched it carefully as it flew through his grasp; while the mate cleared his lance, and got ready to renew the attack. Every moment his anxiety increased as he kept turning his head, and looking at the tub of line, rapidly settling, as the whale ran it out. "I declare, I believe he'll take all my line. Blacksmith! pass along the drug! Check him hard, Bunker!"then, seeing the other boats near at hand, he opened his throat, and, for the first time, we learned the power of Father Grafton's lungs."Spring hard, Mr. Dunham! I want your line! Cast off your craft, and stand by to throw your line to me! Spring hard!Do!"The ash sticks in the waist-boat were doing their best, as the loud "Ay, ay!" was borne back o'er the water from Dunham, while the old man could be seen in the rear of the picture, wildly straining every nerve to be "in at the death," and heaving desperately at the after oar, with his hat off, his hair flying loosely in the breeze, and his whole frame writhing with eager excitement. Our line was going, going; already there was but one flake in the tub, when the waist-boat ranged up on our quarter, and Fisher, with the coil gathered in his hand, whirled it over his head, making ready for a cast. At this instant, the strain was suddenly relieved, and the line slacked up."Never mind!" roared Mr. Grafton. "Hold on Fisher! All right, he's coming! Never mind your line, Mr. Dunham, he's coming up! pull ahead and get fast! Get a lance at him if you can! Haul line,us! Face round here, all of ye, and haul line! Careful, Bunker, about coiling down! He'll be up now, in a minute, haul lively!"The waist-boat had shot ahead under a fresh impulse of her oars, and the captain came drawing up abreast of the fast boat."Are you well fast, Mr. Grafton?""Ay, ay, sir; both irons chock to the socket.""That's the talk! Got 'most all your line, hasn't he.""Yes, sir.""Well, gather in as fast as you can. Spring hard,us! Spring! I want to grease a lance in that fish! There he is up!" he shouted as the tortured monster broke water, shoving his whole head out in his agony, and started to windward.Fisher had bent on his craft again, and was about two ships' lengths from the whale when he rose."Haul quick, my lads!" said the mate, "and get this stray line in! There's Mr. Dunham going on, and the old man will be with him in a minute. There he brings to!" as the whale suddenly stopped short in his mad career, and lay swashing up and down, as if rallying his strength for a fresh effort."There's 'stand up' in the waist-boat! There he darts! Hurrah! two boats fast! Haul lively,us, and get this line in!"The whale seemed staggered by this accumulation of cold iron in his system, and lay wallowing in the trough of the waves. It was a critical moment for him; for Mr. Dunham was getting his lance on the half-cock, ready for darting, and, as the whale suddenly "milled short round" to pass across the head of his boat, the young man saw his advantage, and cried:"Pull ahead! Pull ahead, and we'll get a 'set' on him! Lay forward, Fisher! Lay forward hard, my lad! right on for his fin! Pull ahead! So, way enough—hold water, all;" and, driven by a strong arm,the sharp lance entered his "life," its bright shank disappearing till the pole brought it up."Hold her so!" said the second mate. "Way enough! just hold her so till he rises again!" as the whale hollowed his back under the sea, now crimsoned with his life-tide, and again rising, received the lance anew in his vitals; but the first "set" was enough, and the gush of clotted blood from his spiracle told how effectually it had done its work."There," said Father Grafton, who had just got his line gathered in, and was ready to renew the assault, "there's the red flag flying at his nose! Blacksmith, we may as well put up our lance, we sha'n't want it to-day. Well done, Mr. Dunham! Thick as tar the first lance! Hold on line, Bunker! heave on a turn!" as the whale, making a dying effort, started up to windward, passing among the Pandora's boats within easy hail."Give us your warp, Pitman, if you want a tow," said Bunker in passing to Mr. Ray's boatsteerer."Every dog has his day," growled Pitman, in reply."Yes. Come aboard to-morrow and I'll give you a 'scrap' for luck."The whale went in his "flurry," and turned up under the stern of the Pandora, as she luffed to for her boats; but Captain Worth could not afford to lose the breeze long, and, by the time the last boat was on the cranes, his helm was up and his mizzen-topsail shivering. The old ship fell off to her former course, and setting her royal and studding sails, left her more fortunate consort "alone in her glory."Captain Upton had no occasion to "grease his lance," but seeing that the work was done, and the victory won, made the best of his way on board. He made a short stretch, fetching to windward of us, and then stood along under easy sail, till Mr. Grafton, having "cut a hole" and got his line all clear for running, set a waif for the ship. She then ran down for us, and luffing to handsomely with the head yards aback, and the foretopsail on the cap, the line was "streamed," and led into the "chock." The jib being run down, and the helm lashed a-lee, so as completely to deaden the ship's way, the whale was hauled down to the ship, with the inspiring and time-honored chorus of "Cheerly, men!" the burden being led off by Old Jeff; and at ten o'clock, the monster, who when the sun rose appeared like a monarch of the deep sporting in all the consciousness of sovereign power, lay securely chained up alongside the good ship Arethusa."Well, Bunker," said the old man to the blushing young boatsteerer, "you plugged this fellow solid, at any rate, if you never do another. The Pandora's crew tried to gally you, didn't they?""Yes, sir," said Bunker, "either me or the whale, I don't know which. But they were too late with their yells.""Well, I don't know as I can blame Mr. Ray," said the captain. "I suppose he thought, if he could gally you of the whale, he would stand as good a chance as any of us next rising, as there is no telling,with any certainty, where a gallied[1]whale will come up.""I don't think Worth feels in very good-humor to-day," continued the old man, turning to Mr. Grafton. "I'm sure I shouldn't, if he had got this whale right under my nose. But it's our turn to crow to-day, and perhaps at another time it may be his. I was mighty afraid at one time he would take all your line before we could get to you. And when I saw the strain slack up suddenly, I was more anxious than ever, for I feared you were loose from him. But it's all right as it is. Couldn't be better—and the weather is promising for taking care of him. The new ship will get her christening now, and she will work all the better for being greased. It is too late to ship the oil home, for I shall not put back to the Western Islands now."

CHAPTER IV.FAIRLY AT SEA.—THE FIRST LOOKOUT.—INTRODUCTIONS.By noon the ship had run the land nearly down to the horizon line, and having sufficient offing, with the open sea before her, and all being well satisfied with her performance, she was brought to the wind with the maintopsail thrown aback for the pilot-boat; and after the most affectionate leave-takings and handshakings, the owner and the rest of our shore friends left us; many of them with, literally, veryturbulentfeelings. Mr. Richards was not so indisposed but that he was able to take the hand of each of his young friends in turn, and bid us godspeed, at the same time leaving in our hands copies of our outfit bills (receipted in full by order on the owners), as a parting token of his esteem. Three cheers were given as they shoved off from the ship—or rather attempted, with but indifferent success, and somewhat more feeble returned by the stay-at-homes; and in a few minutes we again filled away on our course to the eastward. The anchors were stowed and well secured, the chain cables run down into the lockers, and the breeze fresheningin the afternoon, the ship was brought down to double-reefed topsails; an operation requiring considerable time for its performance, with new sails and running gear, and a green crew; and one adapted to develop not only our agility, but the power of grip in our hands; while the rigging was embraced so affectionately that I had no reason to wonder at the complaint of the second mate that we had robbed all the tar from it, and transferred it to our clothes. Jeff had his fill of growling at the "children," as if they were to blame that they had not been born able seamen, or trained as "reefers" in the district school; while Manoel was kind enough to undo all my part of the work and do it over again, instructing me at the same time hownotto tie a "gr-r-r-annee-knot," enunciating the r with a noise like that made in tearing a strong rag.At sundown, all hands were called aft, and requested to "spread" ourselves in full view of the officers, and the process of choosing watches was gone through with, the mate and second mate selecting a man alternately, till all were disposed of except the "idlers," such as the cook, steward, cooper, etc. As we were chosen, we were formed in two divisions, one each side of the deck, according as we were billeted in the starboard or larboard watch. Next came the choice of oarsmen for the respective boats, a still more important matter in a whaler; and here there was much competition among the officers, and evidently some anxiety, with a little ill-concealed jealousy of feeling. I found myself a member of the larboard watch, andalso assigned to the bow oar of the larboard, or chief mate's boat.When we all understood our places, Captain Upton introduced his officers in form, as Mr. Grafton, his mate, Mr. Dunham his second mate, and Johnson, his third mate."These are my officers," said he, "and I look for you all to respect and obey them as you do myself; and remember that when either of them is on deck in charge of the ship, he representsme, and his orders aremine."He told us he should allow no fighting among ourselves, he wanted to see nosogering, and, above all, to hear no "back answers." He wound up with a peroration after the most approved and stereotyped form, which has been handed down from ancient sea-captains; indeed, it is supposed to date back to the patriarchal system of government, and to have originated with Noah when he first closed the doors of the ark:"All you've got to do is, go when you are sent, and come when you are called; and if you don't have enough to eat, come aft and let me know. Set the watch, Mr. Grafton."The starboard watch had eight hours on deck, following the established seaman's rule that the captain must take the ship out, and the mate take her home. When our watch was summoned at eleven o'clock, the ship was still under double reefs, but the wind had hauled round to the northward-and-east-ward, causing an ugly cross sea, and she was braced sharp on theport tack, and plunging into it smartly. The weather was quite chilly, and as our end of the deck was "all afloat," we naturally made our way aft to explore for drier quarters. Mr. Grafton was on hand to meet and count us at the mainmast. Being satisfied the quota was full:"Now, boys," said he, "you will remember this. In your watch on deck, you are expected to stay on deck; and so that you are all ready for a call when I want you, you may pass the time about as you please, and make yourselves as comfortable as you can—except one man at the wheel and one looking out ahead. I shall want one of you always on the lookout at night, and you must arrange the tricks among yourselves so that I may always find one there. I want him mounted up somewhere where he can see all around on both bows, and where I can see him if I come forward. If I find him asleep, I'll—never mind—I'll fix him so that he will keep his eyes open next time. Now go forward, one of you; and mind, all the rest of you keep above deck. You understand the wheel and lookout are to be relieved every two hours, and whoever has the next trick, I expect him to be travelling along at once when the bell rings; if he don't—he'll hear from me."I volunteered to take the first lookout, and my offer was accepted with enthusiasm. I struggled forward, clutching at the weather-rail, and finding some difficulty in keeping my equilibrium on the wet, slippery deck, as the buoyant ship rose and fell, rolling at times heavily, and righting with a sudden recoil. Ilooked at the station between the knight-heads; but just at that moment she made a heavy pitch forward, and meeting a head sea in full career, sent it flying high over the bows, and rushing down the heel of the bowsprit, inboard; giving ocular evidence that I should be more than half drowned as the reward of my temerity, if I ventured up there. The foretopsail sheet bitts presented the next eligible place, and here I "mounted guard." Planting myself in a Colossus-of-Rhodes attitude, with my back against the foremast, and one arm round each chain sheet for a firm hold, I stared intently into the black void ahead of the ship, regardless of the drenching sprays which every now and then flew over the weather bow upon my head, rattling down my sou'wester, and penetrating my new monkey jacket, which, so far from being water-proof, might have been aptly classified with Mr. Weller's hat, as "wentilatin' gossamer." I was the possessor of an oil-cloth suit, but it was below in the forecastle; and so profoundly was I impressed with a sense of the responsibility resting upon me, that I would not for an instant have stirred from my post until relieved, for anything short of an earthquake; a contingency not likely to occur so far out in the Atlantic Ocean, in this latitude. No one came near me during the two hours, but I had been reconnoitred from time to time by Mr. Johnson, who was skilled in working traverses round the tryworks, and saw a great deal without being seen himself. At one o'clock the relief bell struck, and soon after a voice issued from the darkness:"Hallo! Blacksmith, where you?""Here!" I answered, turning half round."Come down! I 'lieve you!" hailed Antone, from the fore-hatches."Leave me? what for? I've been left here two hours now.""No, I'lieveyou! I take you place!" shouted the Portuguese. "Youwet, no?"Just at the moment a gush of water came flying in over the galley, and I jumped down on deck, gasping for breath, and streaming from every thread. The Portuguese roared with laughter."What for you stop up dere? You nosabestand lookout. By'mby you see me no all e' same," continued Antone, who was favoring himself under the lee of the foremast, and all ready for a rapid retreat, if necessary.But this was myfirstlookout. I proved myself, in time, an apt scholar, and learned to "favor myself" in many particulars; and while I obeyed orders, and gave satisfaction to my superiors, to leave responsibility, like a true Jack, to those who were better paid for it, and to cultivate close acquaintances with the softest planks about the decks on all convenient occasions.Those who predicted a good voyage for the Arethusa did not, in this instance, as in many others, do so without reason; and they did no more than justice to Captain Upton and his officers when they pronounced her well appointed. The captain himself was a man of great energy and undaunted courage, still in theprime of life, who always headed his own boat, and took the initiative himself in whaling. He was rather taciturn, saying little more than was really necessary on any occasion, but possessed great firmness and an iron will. There was nothing of the Tartar about him, and very little to justify Old Jeff's bugbear statement as to his being "a hard one." He had his peculiarities, however, not to say failings. No man could study more closely the interest of his owners; and as he was now identified with them, being a part owner himself in the new ship, we felt the effects of it in the commissariat department. Moreover, he was very proud of his vessel; so much so as to be old-maidish in regard to the neatness of her appearance, and devoted more time and labor to this end than was at all agreeable either to his crew or officers. On the whole, however, he was justly regarded as a most efficient man for his station, and ranked A. 1. on the list of crack whaling captains.His chief-executive and prime minister, Mr. Grafton, was a tall, massive-looking man, of fine personal appearance, something older than his superior. He had made three voyages in the same capacity, being one of those choice mates, who, by some chance, never get command of a ship, perhaps in virtue of a saying much in vogue among shipowners, and in many instances acted upon, "that it is a pity to spoil a good mate by making him master." A man of rather thoughtful cast of mind, of much intelligence, and possessed of an extensive stock of information upon many subjects, with a habit of generalizing and a clearness,of expression which rendered him an agreeable companion to all with whom he came in contact. Though a good whaleman, Grafton was not what is known to theconnoisseuras a "fishy man;" he had no lungs to blow his own trumpet, and sometimes distrusted his own powers, though generally found equal to any emergency after it arose. This want of confidence sometimes led him to hesitate, where a more impulsive or less thoughtful man would act at once. In the course of his career he had seen many "fishy" young men lifted over his head; but as he was very highly esteemed in his station, and received nearly a captain's pay, he was well contented as he was. He was devotedly attached to his family at home, personated the gentleman in all he said and did, and well sustained the character.Dunham, the second officer, was a smart young fellow of two-and-twenty, active, strong, and "fishy to the backbone." His chief fault, as an officer, lay in his being an inveterate sleeper; he could never, upon any consideration, keep awake a whole four-hour watch.The mulatto Johnson had steered a boat with Captain Upton before in the Colossus, and was well known in Nantucket as "a long-dart man." He was somewhat of the Shanghai build—tall and long-shanked, with great strength of limb, and could plug a whale better if four fathoms distant than he could "wood and blackskin." He had an eye like a hawk, and could see a spout as far with his natural optics as most men could through a telescope. Hewas ignorant of everything out of his own immediate line, and sometimes rather overbearing. He was not disliked, in the main, by the crew, if we except Jeff and the cook, who being old shipmates of his, and themselves of thepure blood, were averse to tolerating anything of a mongrel description, or "milk-and-molasses color," as they termed it. "No compromise" was their platform, on this particular issue.The cooper of the Arethusa was an important personage, as, indeed, the cooper always is in a whaler. The duties of this functionary are of a peculiar character, and about as independent of all the rest as those of a surgeon in a man-of-war. He is neither officer nor man, strictly speaking, his lay or pay being nearly equal to that of a second mate. He lives aft with the officers, but makes himself at home in all parts of the ship, occupying a sort of neutral ground—a kind of connecting link between republicanism and oligarchy, neither too high nor too low to consort or joke with anybody and everybody. As a general rule, he stands no watch, but does his day's work and sleeps all night, and in many ways evinces consciousness of his own value, and of the indispensable character of his services. For a whaler may, and, in fact, often does, go to sea without a blacksmith or without a carpenter; but the cooper is an essential part of her equipage. An officer or a boatsteerer may, in case of emergency, be created at sea, by promotion; but the cooper is not so easily replaced.The cooper in question was a stout, grave-looking man of forty or thereabouts, with a shaggy mass ofgrey hair, and a patriarchally long beard. His mechanical work was of excellent quality, what little he accomplished; for he always worked on the principle of the tortoise in the race—"slow and sure." He scraped indifferently well on the violin, but delighted especially in drawing a longer bow. In virtue of this latter accomplishment, he might have claimed near relationship with a certain gentleman known in classic lore as Thomas Pepper, without having his title questioned for a moment. He always told his yarns as gospel truth, and would back them with any oath, if required.The two young boatsteerers, Bunker and Fisher, with the Portuguese steward, completed the "afterguard." In the forecastle there was, in addition to the personages already mentioned, the usual variety of character and disposition to be found among a dozen young men, recruited at random in this manner. Now that we were getting initiated to a sea life, we were beginning to have opinions, and to express them, no longer leaving the whole field to Jeff and the sea-lawyer. As for the Nantucket boys, Kelly and Hoeg (or Obed B., as I still persisted in calling him), they made rapid progress in knowledge and confidence. As I have before intimated, these young "natives to the manor born" seemed to look upon this life with the eye of fatalists. It was foreordained that they should be sailors, and nothing in their new way of life seemed to surprise or disturb them for a moment. Everything took place as a matter of course with them. They never seemed to think they could, byany possibility, have followed any other business for a livelihood; and each new event or circumstance of the voyage was merely another link in the chain of their inevitable destiny. They were born to go whaling and a station on the quarterdeck was the goal of their ambition.They had not been more than a week at sea before they had taken some of the starch out of the sea-lawyer, who had attempted to assert his "rights" by hazing them about, and calling upon them to perform various menial services for him, which he said it was a "boy's place to do."One morning he ordered Kelly, in a very arbitrary way, to go on deck and bring him down some water, which Kelly flatly refused to do. The sea-lawyer declared he would "make him do it;" and upon Kelly's expressing a doubt as to his ability to perform that feat, he proceeded to enforce his command,vi et armis. But he was met by the boy with a spirit that he had not looked for, and before he could get a good hold upon the youngster, so as to chastise him, as he expected easily to do, he was attacked in the rear by Obed B., who arrived on the field just in time to reinforce his chum and schoolmate. This gave Kelly a chance to rally and assume the offensive; and Burley, who was a most arrant coward, finding himself roughly handled between the two, was fain to call for an armistice. A parley ensued, and the boys gave him to understand that they did not come to sea to be boys, but to make themselves men, and that they would not submit to be bullied by him. And the upshot of thematter was, that the champion of "rights" made rather an ignominious retreat from the field, as compared with the vigor of his first attack. All this was nuts, of course, to the rest of us youngsters, who desired nothing more earnestly than to see the bully humbled a little; while the emotion of Manoel was too powerful to find utterance—in intelligible English. He patted the two boys on the shoulder, in the exuberance of his spirits, while his tongue rattled until I thought all his teeth were loose in the jaws; but to save my life, I could not have told what he was trying to say.There was plenty of work for all hands on the passage out, as every one will understand who has ever performed a voyage in a new ship. We found our duties very fatiguing, as we were kept at work all day, and had a watch to stand at night. There was all the new rigging to be stretched and set up over and again, in addition to the thousand and one other matters to be attended to, to put everything in trim for whaling against the opening of the campaign. The old salts growled night and day in the forecastle about having no "watch below;" but as we verdant ones had but a vague idea of what they meant by it, we had but little to say about this grievance.

FAIRLY AT SEA.—THE FIRST LOOKOUT.—INTRODUCTIONS.

By noon the ship had run the land nearly down to the horizon line, and having sufficient offing, with the open sea before her, and all being well satisfied with her performance, she was brought to the wind with the maintopsail thrown aback for the pilot-boat; and after the most affectionate leave-takings and handshakings, the owner and the rest of our shore friends left us; many of them with, literally, veryturbulentfeelings. Mr. Richards was not so indisposed but that he was able to take the hand of each of his young friends in turn, and bid us godspeed, at the same time leaving in our hands copies of our outfit bills (receipted in full by order on the owners), as a parting token of his esteem. Three cheers were given as they shoved off from the ship—or rather attempted, with but indifferent success, and somewhat more feeble returned by the stay-at-homes; and in a few minutes we again filled away on our course to the eastward. The anchors were stowed and well secured, the chain cables run down into the lockers, and the breeze fresheningin the afternoon, the ship was brought down to double-reefed topsails; an operation requiring considerable time for its performance, with new sails and running gear, and a green crew; and one adapted to develop not only our agility, but the power of grip in our hands; while the rigging was embraced so affectionately that I had no reason to wonder at the complaint of the second mate that we had robbed all the tar from it, and transferred it to our clothes. Jeff had his fill of growling at the "children," as if they were to blame that they had not been born able seamen, or trained as "reefers" in the district school; while Manoel was kind enough to undo all my part of the work and do it over again, instructing me at the same time hownotto tie a "gr-r-r-annee-knot," enunciating the r with a noise like that made in tearing a strong rag.

At sundown, all hands were called aft, and requested to "spread" ourselves in full view of the officers, and the process of choosing watches was gone through with, the mate and second mate selecting a man alternately, till all were disposed of except the "idlers," such as the cook, steward, cooper, etc. As we were chosen, we were formed in two divisions, one each side of the deck, according as we were billeted in the starboard or larboard watch. Next came the choice of oarsmen for the respective boats, a still more important matter in a whaler; and here there was much competition among the officers, and evidently some anxiety, with a little ill-concealed jealousy of feeling. I found myself a member of the larboard watch, andalso assigned to the bow oar of the larboard, or chief mate's boat.

When we all understood our places, Captain Upton introduced his officers in form, as Mr. Grafton, his mate, Mr. Dunham his second mate, and Johnson, his third mate.

"These are my officers," said he, "and I look for you all to respect and obey them as you do myself; and remember that when either of them is on deck in charge of the ship, he representsme, and his orders aremine."

He told us he should allow no fighting among ourselves, he wanted to see nosogering, and, above all, to hear no "back answers." He wound up with a peroration after the most approved and stereotyped form, which has been handed down from ancient sea-captains; indeed, it is supposed to date back to the patriarchal system of government, and to have originated with Noah when he first closed the doors of the ark:

"All you've got to do is, go when you are sent, and come when you are called; and if you don't have enough to eat, come aft and let me know. Set the watch, Mr. Grafton."

The starboard watch had eight hours on deck, following the established seaman's rule that the captain must take the ship out, and the mate take her home. When our watch was summoned at eleven o'clock, the ship was still under double reefs, but the wind had hauled round to the northward-and-east-ward, causing an ugly cross sea, and she was braced sharp on theport tack, and plunging into it smartly. The weather was quite chilly, and as our end of the deck was "all afloat," we naturally made our way aft to explore for drier quarters. Mr. Grafton was on hand to meet and count us at the mainmast. Being satisfied the quota was full:

"Now, boys," said he, "you will remember this. In your watch on deck, you are expected to stay on deck; and so that you are all ready for a call when I want you, you may pass the time about as you please, and make yourselves as comfortable as you can—except one man at the wheel and one looking out ahead. I shall want one of you always on the lookout at night, and you must arrange the tricks among yourselves so that I may always find one there. I want him mounted up somewhere where he can see all around on both bows, and where I can see him if I come forward. If I find him asleep, I'll—never mind—I'll fix him so that he will keep his eyes open next time. Now go forward, one of you; and mind, all the rest of you keep above deck. You understand the wheel and lookout are to be relieved every two hours, and whoever has the next trick, I expect him to be travelling along at once when the bell rings; if he don't—he'll hear from me."

I volunteered to take the first lookout, and my offer was accepted with enthusiasm. I struggled forward, clutching at the weather-rail, and finding some difficulty in keeping my equilibrium on the wet, slippery deck, as the buoyant ship rose and fell, rolling at times heavily, and righting with a sudden recoil. Ilooked at the station between the knight-heads; but just at that moment she made a heavy pitch forward, and meeting a head sea in full career, sent it flying high over the bows, and rushing down the heel of the bowsprit, inboard; giving ocular evidence that I should be more than half drowned as the reward of my temerity, if I ventured up there. The foretopsail sheet bitts presented the next eligible place, and here I "mounted guard." Planting myself in a Colossus-of-Rhodes attitude, with my back against the foremast, and one arm round each chain sheet for a firm hold, I stared intently into the black void ahead of the ship, regardless of the drenching sprays which every now and then flew over the weather bow upon my head, rattling down my sou'wester, and penetrating my new monkey jacket, which, so far from being water-proof, might have been aptly classified with Mr. Weller's hat, as "wentilatin' gossamer." I was the possessor of an oil-cloth suit, but it was below in the forecastle; and so profoundly was I impressed with a sense of the responsibility resting upon me, that I would not for an instant have stirred from my post until relieved, for anything short of an earthquake; a contingency not likely to occur so far out in the Atlantic Ocean, in this latitude. No one came near me during the two hours, but I had been reconnoitred from time to time by Mr. Johnson, who was skilled in working traverses round the tryworks, and saw a great deal without being seen himself. At one o'clock the relief bell struck, and soon after a voice issued from the darkness:

"Hallo! Blacksmith, where you?"

"Here!" I answered, turning half round.

"Come down! I 'lieve you!" hailed Antone, from the fore-hatches.

"Leave me? what for? I've been left here two hours now."

"No, I'lieveyou! I take you place!" shouted the Portuguese. "Youwet, no?"

Just at the moment a gush of water came flying in over the galley, and I jumped down on deck, gasping for breath, and streaming from every thread. The Portuguese roared with laughter.

"What for you stop up dere? You nosabestand lookout. By'mby you see me no all e' same," continued Antone, who was favoring himself under the lee of the foremast, and all ready for a rapid retreat, if necessary.

But this was myfirstlookout. I proved myself, in time, an apt scholar, and learned to "favor myself" in many particulars; and while I obeyed orders, and gave satisfaction to my superiors, to leave responsibility, like a true Jack, to those who were better paid for it, and to cultivate close acquaintances with the softest planks about the decks on all convenient occasions.

Those who predicted a good voyage for the Arethusa did not, in this instance, as in many others, do so without reason; and they did no more than justice to Captain Upton and his officers when they pronounced her well appointed. The captain himself was a man of great energy and undaunted courage, still in theprime of life, who always headed his own boat, and took the initiative himself in whaling. He was rather taciturn, saying little more than was really necessary on any occasion, but possessed great firmness and an iron will. There was nothing of the Tartar about him, and very little to justify Old Jeff's bugbear statement as to his being "a hard one." He had his peculiarities, however, not to say failings. No man could study more closely the interest of his owners; and as he was now identified with them, being a part owner himself in the new ship, we felt the effects of it in the commissariat department. Moreover, he was very proud of his vessel; so much so as to be old-maidish in regard to the neatness of her appearance, and devoted more time and labor to this end than was at all agreeable either to his crew or officers. On the whole, however, he was justly regarded as a most efficient man for his station, and ranked A. 1. on the list of crack whaling captains.

His chief-executive and prime minister, Mr. Grafton, was a tall, massive-looking man, of fine personal appearance, something older than his superior. He had made three voyages in the same capacity, being one of those choice mates, who, by some chance, never get command of a ship, perhaps in virtue of a saying much in vogue among shipowners, and in many instances acted upon, "that it is a pity to spoil a good mate by making him master." A man of rather thoughtful cast of mind, of much intelligence, and possessed of an extensive stock of information upon many subjects, with a habit of generalizing and a clearness,of expression which rendered him an agreeable companion to all with whom he came in contact. Though a good whaleman, Grafton was not what is known to theconnoisseuras a "fishy man;" he had no lungs to blow his own trumpet, and sometimes distrusted his own powers, though generally found equal to any emergency after it arose. This want of confidence sometimes led him to hesitate, where a more impulsive or less thoughtful man would act at once. In the course of his career he had seen many "fishy" young men lifted over his head; but as he was very highly esteemed in his station, and received nearly a captain's pay, he was well contented as he was. He was devotedly attached to his family at home, personated the gentleman in all he said and did, and well sustained the character.

Dunham, the second officer, was a smart young fellow of two-and-twenty, active, strong, and "fishy to the backbone." His chief fault, as an officer, lay in his being an inveterate sleeper; he could never, upon any consideration, keep awake a whole four-hour watch.

The mulatto Johnson had steered a boat with Captain Upton before in the Colossus, and was well known in Nantucket as "a long-dart man." He was somewhat of the Shanghai build—tall and long-shanked, with great strength of limb, and could plug a whale better if four fathoms distant than he could "wood and blackskin." He had an eye like a hawk, and could see a spout as far with his natural optics as most men could through a telescope. Hewas ignorant of everything out of his own immediate line, and sometimes rather overbearing. He was not disliked, in the main, by the crew, if we except Jeff and the cook, who being old shipmates of his, and themselves of thepure blood, were averse to tolerating anything of a mongrel description, or "milk-and-molasses color," as they termed it. "No compromise" was their platform, on this particular issue.

The cooper of the Arethusa was an important personage, as, indeed, the cooper always is in a whaler. The duties of this functionary are of a peculiar character, and about as independent of all the rest as those of a surgeon in a man-of-war. He is neither officer nor man, strictly speaking, his lay or pay being nearly equal to that of a second mate. He lives aft with the officers, but makes himself at home in all parts of the ship, occupying a sort of neutral ground—a kind of connecting link between republicanism and oligarchy, neither too high nor too low to consort or joke with anybody and everybody. As a general rule, he stands no watch, but does his day's work and sleeps all night, and in many ways evinces consciousness of his own value, and of the indispensable character of his services. For a whaler may, and, in fact, often does, go to sea without a blacksmith or without a carpenter; but the cooper is an essential part of her equipage. An officer or a boatsteerer may, in case of emergency, be created at sea, by promotion; but the cooper is not so easily replaced.

The cooper in question was a stout, grave-looking man of forty or thereabouts, with a shaggy mass ofgrey hair, and a patriarchally long beard. His mechanical work was of excellent quality, what little he accomplished; for he always worked on the principle of the tortoise in the race—"slow and sure." He scraped indifferently well on the violin, but delighted especially in drawing a longer bow. In virtue of this latter accomplishment, he might have claimed near relationship with a certain gentleman known in classic lore as Thomas Pepper, without having his title questioned for a moment. He always told his yarns as gospel truth, and would back them with any oath, if required.

The two young boatsteerers, Bunker and Fisher, with the Portuguese steward, completed the "afterguard." In the forecastle there was, in addition to the personages already mentioned, the usual variety of character and disposition to be found among a dozen young men, recruited at random in this manner. Now that we were getting initiated to a sea life, we were beginning to have opinions, and to express them, no longer leaving the whole field to Jeff and the sea-lawyer. As for the Nantucket boys, Kelly and Hoeg (or Obed B., as I still persisted in calling him), they made rapid progress in knowledge and confidence. As I have before intimated, these young "natives to the manor born" seemed to look upon this life with the eye of fatalists. It was foreordained that they should be sailors, and nothing in their new way of life seemed to surprise or disturb them for a moment. Everything took place as a matter of course with them. They never seemed to think they could, byany possibility, have followed any other business for a livelihood; and each new event or circumstance of the voyage was merely another link in the chain of their inevitable destiny. They were born to go whaling and a station on the quarterdeck was the goal of their ambition.

They had not been more than a week at sea before they had taken some of the starch out of the sea-lawyer, who had attempted to assert his "rights" by hazing them about, and calling upon them to perform various menial services for him, which he said it was a "boy's place to do."

One morning he ordered Kelly, in a very arbitrary way, to go on deck and bring him down some water, which Kelly flatly refused to do. The sea-lawyer declared he would "make him do it;" and upon Kelly's expressing a doubt as to his ability to perform that feat, he proceeded to enforce his command,vi et armis. But he was met by the boy with a spirit that he had not looked for, and before he could get a good hold upon the youngster, so as to chastise him, as he expected easily to do, he was attacked in the rear by Obed B., who arrived on the field just in time to reinforce his chum and schoolmate. This gave Kelly a chance to rally and assume the offensive; and Burley, who was a most arrant coward, finding himself roughly handled between the two, was fain to call for an armistice. A parley ensued, and the boys gave him to understand that they did not come to sea to be boys, but to make themselves men, and that they would not submit to be bullied by him. And the upshot of thematter was, that the champion of "rights" made rather an ignominious retreat from the field, as compared with the vigor of his first attack. All this was nuts, of course, to the rest of us youngsters, who desired nothing more earnestly than to see the bully humbled a little; while the emotion of Manoel was too powerful to find utterance—in intelligible English. He patted the two boys on the shoulder, in the exuberance of his spirits, while his tongue rattled until I thought all his teeth were loose in the jaws; but to save my life, I could not have told what he was trying to say.

There was plenty of work for all hands on the passage out, as every one will understand who has ever performed a voyage in a new ship. We found our duties very fatiguing, as we were kept at work all day, and had a watch to stand at night. There was all the new rigging to be stretched and set up over and again, in addition to the thousand and one other matters to be attended to, to put everything in trim for whaling against the opening of the campaign. The old salts growled night and day in the forecastle about having no "watch below;" but as we verdant ones had but a vague idea of what they meant by it, we had but little to say about this grievance.

CHAPTER V.THE WESTERN ISLANDS.—"YARNS" AND ANECDOTES.On the eighteenth day out from Nantucket, the high peak of Pico was visible from the masthead, and having a fair breeze, we were lying off and on at the port of Fayal the same afternoon. The captain, with the starboard boat's crew, went ashore, and the ship made short boards to await his return, the Pandora and two whaleships from New Bedford in company. Two more ships were at anchor having taken some oil on the outward passage and put in to land it to be shipped home. Several Portuguese boats came alongside, of the most clumsy and primitive construction imaginable, characteristic of a people who are a couple of centuries behind the times. The boatmen appeared to be, "like Captain Copperthorne's crew, all officers," and jabbered and shouted all at once, in most admirable discord, and at such a furious rate that I found myself wondering whether they really could understand each other or not, and certainly never contemplated the possibility of any American having the remotest idea what they were talking about. But I found that Mr. Grafton could converse with them quite fluently whenever he could make himself heard in the din and confusion. These boats broughta few inferior oranges, sour enough to make a pig squeal (if he would touch them at all, which of course he wouldn't, if a sensible pig), with some miniature cheeses, which, with a little more drying, might have been made available as sheaves for small blocks without much alteration in size, form or consistency of material. These they either sold for money or bartered for various articles of ship's provisions, and were perfect Jews at a bargain.Just before sundown a large launch, deeply loaded, was seen coming out, with a rag hoisted on a pole as a signal. This launch was of even more primitive appearance than the smaller ones. She might have been the longboat of one of Vasco de Gama's fleet, of four centuries ago; at any rate, if his ship had any longboats, they were exactly of this model. We stood well in to meet her, and wearing off shore with the maintopsail aback, took her alongside. Her cargo of potatoes, onions and live stock was to be taken on board and stowed away, and, as the captain arrived soon afterwards, with his boat laden to the gunwale streak with vegetables, it was quite dark before she was again in her place on the cranes, and sail made on the ship.Among the live stock brought on board was a handsome little boy, who was to help the steward in the cabin, much to the enhancement of that functionary's importance, as he could now attend to many calls by deputy which before he was compelled to answer in person; and would also have some one to lay all little mishaps to, such as dishes broken and lamps untrimmed.The Pandora braced full about the same time as the Arethusa, but it was soon apparent that she could not compete in sailing qualities with the new ship, and she gradually dropped astern. The breeze was light from the north-west, with fine weather, and we now had leisure to get supper, and to listen, to the yarns of those who had been ashore.Manoel and Antone had seen their relatives and friends—meeting them after years of absence, to part again in an hour or two—and had found time to visit the priest and get full absolution, balancing the account up to date, and opening a new page, ready to run up another score. Farrell, a young Irishman who pulled the captain's bow oar, had become considerably elevated by imbibing too much sour wine and aguardiente, and was full of stories of his own prowess in knocking over a "Portinghee" who had dared to remonstrate against his kissing a pretty, black-eyed girl, his sister, he supposed; for, like a true Milesian, he had been the hero of a drinking bout, a love intrigue and a knockdown row, all within half an hour after he landed."I jist took him a nate clip betwane the eyes," said Farrell, "and laid him out foreninst the door of his shanty. Thin you see, five or six murtherin' Portinguese pitched intil me, and was afther carryin' me off, body and sowl, to the lock-up; but the ould man interfared, and settled it somehow. Afther he'd paid me fine, he tould me I'd betther go down to the boat, and not lave her again. So I went and got int'l her and shoved her off the length of hertather, and there was a crowdof the nagurs jabberin' and squintin' at me wid their corkindile eyes; but I knowed I was in sanctyeary thin. I'd half a bottle of that blackguard potteen what they calldent, so I jist sot and looked at 'em back again, and dhrank their healths. I suppose the ould man'll be chargin' me the fine on the ship's books.""Yes, you can bet high on that," said Jeff, "and the interest, too.""Yes," said the sea-lawyer, "but you needn't be fool enough to pay it. If every man stood up for his rights, they wouldn't gouge him in that style. A man can't go ashore and drink a drop, and have a bit of a time—and that's what he goes ashore for, of course—but he must have a long bill of calaboose fees tacked to his account; and that d—d twenty-five per cent added on. If they charge it tome, they'll never get it, that's all. I know what they've got a right to do.""I don't know nothin' about the rights," said Jeff, "but I know the old man will charge it to you, and make you pay it, too.""Well, you'll see," said Burley. "I'll have my rights.""What are you blowing about your rights?" put in the cooper, who had just come forward with his pipe freshly loaded, an indication that some ridiculous lie was also charged and ready to be fired with the tobacco. "You've got no rights. The rights are all in one end of the ship, and the wrongs in the other. Why, when I was out in the old Deucalion," pausing to clear his pipe, and thereby fixing the attention of all his auditors,"we had a black fellow called Sam. He had a head harder than Rock Redonda. We used to put pieces of tobacco on top of the windlass-bitts, and then let him butt the bitts till he brought the tobacco down and put it in his pocket. He would let a man split a serving mallet on his head any time, for a drink of grog. But most of the serving mallets were soft wood or ash, made out of old oar looms, so they'd split quite easily. Well, I come it over him once. I was to give him a whole bottle of liquor to stand up under anywoodenmallet that I chose to use. I had awhite oakone down in my chest, and I brought it up and struck him about ten blows as tight as I could spring before I shivered it. The darkey stood his ground like a rock, and won the bottle of liquor, and drank it, too. His skull wasn't hurt a bit, but his eyes were knocked all asquint, and he never got 'em straight afterwards!""Here, Cooper, take my hat. It's the only one I've got, but you've earned it," said Jeff."No, no," said the indignant disciple of Pepper. "I don't want your old jug. Maybe you think I'm romancing, but I'm just telling you the plain truth. But you've put me out, and I haven't finished my story. The point I was going to illustrate was, that the rights were all in one end of the ship, and the wrongs in the other. Well, on the passage home, one day we were reefing the maintopsail, and this black Sam fell on the yard, and went smack through the bottom of the waist boat, head first, overboard. We lowered a boat and managed to save him.Hewasn'tmuch hurt, but theboatwas ruined. She was a boat that we had bought out of an English colonial whaler, and was built of that sweet-scented yellow wood that grows in Van Diemen's land. You've seen it, Jeff, and you know just how brittle it is. Well, when Sam's head struck in the bottom of the boat, the splits flew in all directions, just like throwing a stone in the middle of a pane of glass. So the boat was past all repairing. Well, when we got home, would you believe it? Old Captain Harper had charged Sam sixty dollars, the whole value of a new boat, and Sam had to pay it out of his voyage! He made inquiries, and found it would be cheaper to pay the bill than to stand a lawsuit about it.""O, I've heard that story, or something like it, in Nantucket," said the boy Kelly."Yes, so have I," said Obed B."But you boys never believed it was true, did you?" asked the cooper."No, of course not," protested both the boys at once."You may do so hereafter," said the cooper, gravely. "You may say that you had it from an eye-witness." And having finished his yarns for the night, he went puffing away aft, leaving all hands staring at each other in blank astonishment."That be hanged for a yarn," growled Burley, after he was gone. "Even if it had been true, the man needn't have paid a cent, if he had stood up for his rights.""Well, dere, it aint no use to talk any after datstory," said the cook, with a meditative shake of the head, "We's heard enough. I guess Cooper can take de belt."It was my trick at the wheel from nine to eleven, and when I went aft, I found the captain still on deck, leaning over the companionway on our side, with "Father Grafton," as we had fallen into the habit of calling him, on the other; and I am afraid I did not steer the ship so accurately as I might have done under other circumstances. Their conversation, however, served to distract their attention from my shortcomings, as well as to distract mine from the proper management of the helm."I was thinking," said the mate, reflectively, as he looked at the high peak looming astern, "one can hardly believe that the Portuguese were once a great maritime nation, taking the lead in navigation and discovery. I was thinking, too, that it must have required some pluck and nerve to make the voyages that they used to make, with no more tools than they had to work with. Just imagine, now, we are steering south-west from these islands, with no chart of the sea ahead of us, and no nautical instrument better than a rude cross-staff to get a latitude with, in a vessel not as big as one of our sloop-rigged coasters, and not decked over at that. And the island astern of us is, so far as we know, the veryUltima Thuleof western discovery.""It is just like you, Mr. Grafton, to be thinking of those things," returned the captain. "Yes, it's true, as you say, there must have been anxious hearts andvigilant eyes on board of those little caravels. And yet there was a romantic excitement about those voyages, too, that I think would have been fascinating to me, if I had lived in that age. I have often thought I should have enjoyed a voyage like that of Columbus, or perhaps better, with the ships and facilities of a later period, say those of Anson or Cook. But we were born too late for that, Mr. Grafton; the work is nearly all done for us.""Yes, sir," replied the mate, "and we are obliged to complain, like Alexander of Macedon, that there are no more worlds to discover. I cannot help wishing, every voyage that I visit these Azores, that they belonged to some more liberal and progressive people than the Portuguese. With their position and climate, they might be a station of some importance, if in different hands.""Yes, I have often thought the same thing; for, however enterprising the Portuguese might have been in the days of De Gama and Columbus, it must be admitted they have made no progress since, but rather gone astern. Well, we have had a fine day for our work, Mr. Grafton, and we have got recruits enough to carry us round Cape Horn, I think, without fear of the scurvy. I am rather disappointed in one respect," continued Captain Upton. "I had hoped to have taken some oil on the passage, to send home from here. I have been lucky enough, every voyage before this, to get a whale or two near these islands.""The Pandora has got nothing yet," said Father Grafton, "by the looks of the paint in her waist.""No," replied the captain, "but she has seen whales twice on the passage, and has been fast, and had a boat stove. I saw Captain Worth ashore.""I have a presentiment," said the mate, "that we shall get a whale yet before we get far from the islands. We shall hardly run Pico out of sight between now and morning, with this little breeze, and we have a promise of a fine whaling day to-morrow.""The voyage that I was mate of the Colossus," said the captain, "we took two large whales at one fare—more to the westward. We had Flores and Corvo both in sight when we were cutting them. It came on very rugged weather, and we had a hard time saving them. We muckled them after a fashion, but I suppose we lost thirty or forty barrels of oil on the two, and the deficiency, of course, was mostly on the head matter. I know that the oil we shipped home did not bring full price, because there was not the full proportion of head. Ever since that, I always meant tomakethe full proportion, anyhow," said the captain, with a sly laugh."Yes, sir," said Father Grafton. "I don't blame you for that, but it wont do to smuggle too much. Now, when I was on my first voyage, with Hosea Coffin, he used to pile it on rather too steep. He wasn't satisfied with one third head: he was famous for working in the core of the hump, and other fat parts with it; and if we came out with an ullage cask of head on the stowdown, he'd be sure to fill it up with body oil, and scratch a big H. on it. So that we had a large quantity of head oil, but the qualitywasn't well up to the standard. Well, when he was going out in the same ship next voyage, 'Cousin Ephraim,' the old Quaker owner, said to him:"'Hosea, there's one thing I'd advise thee not to do, this voyage.'"'What's that?' asked Captain Coffin."'I think,' said Cousin Ephraim, in his sly, chuckling way, 'thee'd better not cut off thy whale's heads abaft the hump!'"They both laughed so heartily at this story that I had a quiet laugh, too, in sympathy with them, though I did not then appreciate the point of it as well as I afterwards did."There's a deal of sly fun in some of those old Quakers," said Captain Upton. "I recollect when I went down to ship in the Poor Richard, as boatsteerer, 'Uncle Peleg' offered me the eightieth lay, but I struck for the seventieth. I knew I could get it in another ship, though I rather preferred to go in this one for the same lay. So I was as independent as a woodsawyer's clerk, and wouldn't budge tack nor sheet. After chaffering for some time, Uncle Peleg began to scratch the sand with his ivory-headed cane, in a meditative way. Said he:"'James I want thee to go in the ship, and I will give thee—'Here he marked a 7 in the sand, and then slowly carried his cane round in a circle, and resting the point of it, looked in my face."'Yes,' said I, 'I'll go for that.'"But as I spoke, with a slight movement of thewrist he finished the last figure, by swinging a tangent to the circle. As I looked down again, it read 79."'No,' said I, indignantly, 'I'll see you hanged first!'"'James, James,' said Uncle Peleg, 'don't lose thy temper. Thee shall go in the Poor Richard, and,'—nudging me in the ribs,'we'll have notailto the matter at all.'"'All right,' I answered. He rubbed it out again with his foot."'Now,' said he, 'come right up to the store and put thy name down. Thee must go in the ship; but really, James, I didn't think thee would ask me such a lay as that. Thee needn't tell the other boatsteerers what thee gets.'"Father Grafton shook his sides with merriment at this anecdote, and the captain now rose to go below."Well, Blacksmith," said he, "you are making rather a crooked wake. If you don't keep her straighter, the Pandora will overhaul us. Well, what do you think of these Portuguese?""I didn't go ashore, sir," answered I. "I only saw the boatmen that came off, and I thought they had all broken out of a lunatic asylum.""I don't wonder at that," he said. "They were all talkers and no listeners. But did you notice any of them with a finger cut off?""Yes, sir, I saw two, and I thought it a little remarkable; and now I remember, our Antone has lost his, too.""Yes," said he, "about every third man has his forefinger amputated. That's to escape military service, by disabling themselves from pulling a trigger. You see there's a certain proportion of them conscripted every year, and sent off to Portugal to serve in the army.""Do you mean, sir," I asked, "that they cut the forefinger off, or have it cut off, designedly?""Certainly," said the captain. "I suppose the treatment is not very good in their army, and there is not much to excite patriotic feeling, as they seldom do any fighting except among themselves; so these young 'Guese will make a sacrifice of a finger to escape service. But I wonder that they are allowed to escape in that way. In the English or French service, they would be held; and if they couldn't fire a musket, they would have to serve as pioneers or something else. That is, if it was known that they maimed themselves intentionally. But it is time to go below," said he abruptly. "I have strong hopes of seeing whales to-morrow, and I will give five dollars to the man that 'raises' a large whale; that is, if we get him.""But how large a one?" I asked."Say over fifty barrels. I will give five dollars bounty for fifty barrels of oil. Pass the word among all hands, when the watch is called. Good-night, Mr. Grafton. Let her go south-by-west through the night.""South-by-west, sir," answered Father Grafton. "Good-night."

THE WESTERN ISLANDS.—"YARNS" AND ANECDOTES.

On the eighteenth day out from Nantucket, the high peak of Pico was visible from the masthead, and having a fair breeze, we were lying off and on at the port of Fayal the same afternoon. The captain, with the starboard boat's crew, went ashore, and the ship made short boards to await his return, the Pandora and two whaleships from New Bedford in company. Two more ships were at anchor having taken some oil on the outward passage and put in to land it to be shipped home. Several Portuguese boats came alongside, of the most clumsy and primitive construction imaginable, characteristic of a people who are a couple of centuries behind the times. The boatmen appeared to be, "like Captain Copperthorne's crew, all officers," and jabbered and shouted all at once, in most admirable discord, and at such a furious rate that I found myself wondering whether they really could understand each other or not, and certainly never contemplated the possibility of any American having the remotest idea what they were talking about. But I found that Mr. Grafton could converse with them quite fluently whenever he could make himself heard in the din and confusion. These boats broughta few inferior oranges, sour enough to make a pig squeal (if he would touch them at all, which of course he wouldn't, if a sensible pig), with some miniature cheeses, which, with a little more drying, might have been made available as sheaves for small blocks without much alteration in size, form or consistency of material. These they either sold for money or bartered for various articles of ship's provisions, and were perfect Jews at a bargain.

Just before sundown a large launch, deeply loaded, was seen coming out, with a rag hoisted on a pole as a signal. This launch was of even more primitive appearance than the smaller ones. She might have been the longboat of one of Vasco de Gama's fleet, of four centuries ago; at any rate, if his ship had any longboats, they were exactly of this model. We stood well in to meet her, and wearing off shore with the maintopsail aback, took her alongside. Her cargo of potatoes, onions and live stock was to be taken on board and stowed away, and, as the captain arrived soon afterwards, with his boat laden to the gunwale streak with vegetables, it was quite dark before she was again in her place on the cranes, and sail made on the ship.

Among the live stock brought on board was a handsome little boy, who was to help the steward in the cabin, much to the enhancement of that functionary's importance, as he could now attend to many calls by deputy which before he was compelled to answer in person; and would also have some one to lay all little mishaps to, such as dishes broken and lamps untrimmed.

The Pandora braced full about the same time as the Arethusa, but it was soon apparent that she could not compete in sailing qualities with the new ship, and she gradually dropped astern. The breeze was light from the north-west, with fine weather, and we now had leisure to get supper, and to listen, to the yarns of those who had been ashore.

Manoel and Antone had seen their relatives and friends—meeting them after years of absence, to part again in an hour or two—and had found time to visit the priest and get full absolution, balancing the account up to date, and opening a new page, ready to run up another score. Farrell, a young Irishman who pulled the captain's bow oar, had become considerably elevated by imbibing too much sour wine and aguardiente, and was full of stories of his own prowess in knocking over a "Portinghee" who had dared to remonstrate against his kissing a pretty, black-eyed girl, his sister, he supposed; for, like a true Milesian, he had been the hero of a drinking bout, a love intrigue and a knockdown row, all within half an hour after he landed.

"I jist took him a nate clip betwane the eyes," said Farrell, "and laid him out foreninst the door of his shanty. Thin you see, five or six murtherin' Portinguese pitched intil me, and was afther carryin' me off, body and sowl, to the lock-up; but the ould man interfared, and settled it somehow. Afther he'd paid me fine, he tould me I'd betther go down to the boat, and not lave her again. So I went and got int'l her and shoved her off the length of hertather, and there was a crowdof the nagurs jabberin' and squintin' at me wid their corkindile eyes; but I knowed I was in sanctyeary thin. I'd half a bottle of that blackguard potteen what they calldent, so I jist sot and looked at 'em back again, and dhrank their healths. I suppose the ould man'll be chargin' me the fine on the ship's books."

"Yes, you can bet high on that," said Jeff, "and the interest, too."

"Yes," said the sea-lawyer, "but you needn't be fool enough to pay it. If every man stood up for his rights, they wouldn't gouge him in that style. A man can't go ashore and drink a drop, and have a bit of a time—and that's what he goes ashore for, of course—but he must have a long bill of calaboose fees tacked to his account; and that d—d twenty-five per cent added on. If they charge it tome, they'll never get it, that's all. I know what they've got a right to do."

"I don't know nothin' about the rights," said Jeff, "but I know the old man will charge it to you, and make you pay it, too."

"Well, you'll see," said Burley. "I'll have my rights."

"What are you blowing about your rights?" put in the cooper, who had just come forward with his pipe freshly loaded, an indication that some ridiculous lie was also charged and ready to be fired with the tobacco. "You've got no rights. The rights are all in one end of the ship, and the wrongs in the other. Why, when I was out in the old Deucalion," pausing to clear his pipe, and thereby fixing the attention of all his auditors,"we had a black fellow called Sam. He had a head harder than Rock Redonda. We used to put pieces of tobacco on top of the windlass-bitts, and then let him butt the bitts till he brought the tobacco down and put it in his pocket. He would let a man split a serving mallet on his head any time, for a drink of grog. But most of the serving mallets were soft wood or ash, made out of old oar looms, so they'd split quite easily. Well, I come it over him once. I was to give him a whole bottle of liquor to stand up under anywoodenmallet that I chose to use. I had awhite oakone down in my chest, and I brought it up and struck him about ten blows as tight as I could spring before I shivered it. The darkey stood his ground like a rock, and won the bottle of liquor, and drank it, too. His skull wasn't hurt a bit, but his eyes were knocked all asquint, and he never got 'em straight afterwards!"

"Here, Cooper, take my hat. It's the only one I've got, but you've earned it," said Jeff.

"No, no," said the indignant disciple of Pepper. "I don't want your old jug. Maybe you think I'm romancing, but I'm just telling you the plain truth. But you've put me out, and I haven't finished my story. The point I was going to illustrate was, that the rights were all in one end of the ship, and the wrongs in the other. Well, on the passage home, one day we were reefing the maintopsail, and this black Sam fell on the yard, and went smack through the bottom of the waist boat, head first, overboard. We lowered a boat and managed to save him.Hewasn'tmuch hurt, but theboatwas ruined. She was a boat that we had bought out of an English colonial whaler, and was built of that sweet-scented yellow wood that grows in Van Diemen's land. You've seen it, Jeff, and you know just how brittle it is. Well, when Sam's head struck in the bottom of the boat, the splits flew in all directions, just like throwing a stone in the middle of a pane of glass. So the boat was past all repairing. Well, when we got home, would you believe it? Old Captain Harper had charged Sam sixty dollars, the whole value of a new boat, and Sam had to pay it out of his voyage! He made inquiries, and found it would be cheaper to pay the bill than to stand a lawsuit about it."

"O, I've heard that story, or something like it, in Nantucket," said the boy Kelly.

"Yes, so have I," said Obed B.

"But you boys never believed it was true, did you?" asked the cooper.

"No, of course not," protested both the boys at once.

"You may do so hereafter," said the cooper, gravely. "You may say that you had it from an eye-witness." And having finished his yarns for the night, he went puffing away aft, leaving all hands staring at each other in blank astonishment.

"That be hanged for a yarn," growled Burley, after he was gone. "Even if it had been true, the man needn't have paid a cent, if he had stood up for his rights."

"Well, dere, it aint no use to talk any after datstory," said the cook, with a meditative shake of the head, "We's heard enough. I guess Cooper can take de belt."

It was my trick at the wheel from nine to eleven, and when I went aft, I found the captain still on deck, leaning over the companionway on our side, with "Father Grafton," as we had fallen into the habit of calling him, on the other; and I am afraid I did not steer the ship so accurately as I might have done under other circumstances. Their conversation, however, served to distract their attention from my shortcomings, as well as to distract mine from the proper management of the helm.

"I was thinking," said the mate, reflectively, as he looked at the high peak looming astern, "one can hardly believe that the Portuguese were once a great maritime nation, taking the lead in navigation and discovery. I was thinking, too, that it must have required some pluck and nerve to make the voyages that they used to make, with no more tools than they had to work with. Just imagine, now, we are steering south-west from these islands, with no chart of the sea ahead of us, and no nautical instrument better than a rude cross-staff to get a latitude with, in a vessel not as big as one of our sloop-rigged coasters, and not decked over at that. And the island astern of us is, so far as we know, the veryUltima Thuleof western discovery."

"It is just like you, Mr. Grafton, to be thinking of those things," returned the captain. "Yes, it's true, as you say, there must have been anxious hearts andvigilant eyes on board of those little caravels. And yet there was a romantic excitement about those voyages, too, that I think would have been fascinating to me, if I had lived in that age. I have often thought I should have enjoyed a voyage like that of Columbus, or perhaps better, with the ships and facilities of a later period, say those of Anson or Cook. But we were born too late for that, Mr. Grafton; the work is nearly all done for us."

"Yes, sir," replied the mate, "and we are obliged to complain, like Alexander of Macedon, that there are no more worlds to discover. I cannot help wishing, every voyage that I visit these Azores, that they belonged to some more liberal and progressive people than the Portuguese. With their position and climate, they might be a station of some importance, if in different hands."

"Yes, I have often thought the same thing; for, however enterprising the Portuguese might have been in the days of De Gama and Columbus, it must be admitted they have made no progress since, but rather gone astern. Well, we have had a fine day for our work, Mr. Grafton, and we have got recruits enough to carry us round Cape Horn, I think, without fear of the scurvy. I am rather disappointed in one respect," continued Captain Upton. "I had hoped to have taken some oil on the passage, to send home from here. I have been lucky enough, every voyage before this, to get a whale or two near these islands."

"The Pandora has got nothing yet," said Father Grafton, "by the looks of the paint in her waist."

"No," replied the captain, "but she has seen whales twice on the passage, and has been fast, and had a boat stove. I saw Captain Worth ashore."

"I have a presentiment," said the mate, "that we shall get a whale yet before we get far from the islands. We shall hardly run Pico out of sight between now and morning, with this little breeze, and we have a promise of a fine whaling day to-morrow."

"The voyage that I was mate of the Colossus," said the captain, "we took two large whales at one fare—more to the westward. We had Flores and Corvo both in sight when we were cutting them. It came on very rugged weather, and we had a hard time saving them. We muckled them after a fashion, but I suppose we lost thirty or forty barrels of oil on the two, and the deficiency, of course, was mostly on the head matter. I know that the oil we shipped home did not bring full price, because there was not the full proportion of head. Ever since that, I always meant tomakethe full proportion, anyhow," said the captain, with a sly laugh.

"Yes, sir," said Father Grafton. "I don't blame you for that, but it wont do to smuggle too much. Now, when I was on my first voyage, with Hosea Coffin, he used to pile it on rather too steep. He wasn't satisfied with one third head: he was famous for working in the core of the hump, and other fat parts with it; and if we came out with an ullage cask of head on the stowdown, he'd be sure to fill it up with body oil, and scratch a big H. on it. So that we had a large quantity of head oil, but the qualitywasn't well up to the standard. Well, when he was going out in the same ship next voyage, 'Cousin Ephraim,' the old Quaker owner, said to him:

"'Hosea, there's one thing I'd advise thee not to do, this voyage.'

"'What's that?' asked Captain Coffin.

"'I think,' said Cousin Ephraim, in his sly, chuckling way, 'thee'd better not cut off thy whale's heads abaft the hump!'"

They both laughed so heartily at this story that I had a quiet laugh, too, in sympathy with them, though I did not then appreciate the point of it as well as I afterwards did.

"There's a deal of sly fun in some of those old Quakers," said Captain Upton. "I recollect when I went down to ship in the Poor Richard, as boatsteerer, 'Uncle Peleg' offered me the eightieth lay, but I struck for the seventieth. I knew I could get it in another ship, though I rather preferred to go in this one for the same lay. So I was as independent as a woodsawyer's clerk, and wouldn't budge tack nor sheet. After chaffering for some time, Uncle Peleg began to scratch the sand with his ivory-headed cane, in a meditative way. Said he:

"'James I want thee to go in the ship, and I will give thee—'

Here he marked a 7 in the sand, and then slowly carried his cane round in a circle, and resting the point of it, looked in my face.

"'Yes,' said I, 'I'll go for that.'

"But as I spoke, with a slight movement of thewrist he finished the last figure, by swinging a tangent to the circle. As I looked down again, it read 79.

"'No,' said I, indignantly, 'I'll see you hanged first!'

"'James, James,' said Uncle Peleg, 'don't lose thy temper. Thee shall go in the Poor Richard, and,'—nudging me in the ribs,'we'll have notailto the matter at all.'

"'All right,' I answered. He rubbed it out again with his foot.

"'Now,' said he, 'come right up to the store and put thy name down. Thee must go in the ship; but really, James, I didn't think thee would ask me such a lay as that. Thee needn't tell the other boatsteerers what thee gets.'"

Father Grafton shook his sides with merriment at this anecdote, and the captain now rose to go below.

"Well, Blacksmith," said he, "you are making rather a crooked wake. If you don't keep her straighter, the Pandora will overhaul us. Well, what do you think of these Portuguese?"

"I didn't go ashore, sir," answered I. "I only saw the boatmen that came off, and I thought they had all broken out of a lunatic asylum."

"I don't wonder at that," he said. "They were all talkers and no listeners. But did you notice any of them with a finger cut off?"

"Yes, sir, I saw two, and I thought it a little remarkable; and now I remember, our Antone has lost his, too."

"Yes," said he, "about every third man has his forefinger amputated. That's to escape military service, by disabling themselves from pulling a trigger. You see there's a certain proportion of them conscripted every year, and sent off to Portugal to serve in the army."

"Do you mean, sir," I asked, "that they cut the forefinger off, or have it cut off, designedly?"

"Certainly," said the captain. "I suppose the treatment is not very good in their army, and there is not much to excite patriotic feeling, as they seldom do any fighting except among themselves; so these young 'Guese will make a sacrifice of a finger to escape service. But I wonder that they are allowed to escape in that way. In the English or French service, they would be held; and if they couldn't fire a musket, they would have to serve as pioneers or something else. That is, if it was known that they maimed themselves intentionally. But it is time to go below," said he abruptly. "I have strong hopes of seeing whales to-morrow, and I will give five dollars to the man that 'raises' a large whale; that is, if we get him."

"But how large a one?" I asked.

"Say over fifty barrels. I will give five dollars bounty for fifty barrels of oil. Pass the word among all hands, when the watch is called. Good-night, Mr. Grafton. Let her go south-by-west through the night."

"South-by-west, sir," answered Father Grafton. "Good-night."

CHAPTER VI.THE FIRST WHALE.The next morning, having the first masthead, I was in the fore-topgallant crosstrees at sunrise, thinking, of course, of the five dollars' bounty all the way up the rigging. The dim outline of the peak was still visible, and the topsails of the Pandora just in sight astern, the wind still continuing moderate at W. N. W. both ships steering S. by W. As I looked astern, when I first got my footing aloft, I caught sight of something like a small puff of steam or white smoke, rising a little and blowing off on the water. Looking intently, at the same spot, after a short interval, another puff rose like the former, satisfying me, from the descriptions I had heard, that some sort of whale was there, and I instinctively shouted:"There she blows!""Where away?" hailed Mr. Johnson, who was just climbing the maintopmast rigging. "O yes! I see him! sperm whale, I believe—hold on a bit till he blows again—yes—thar' sh' blo-o-ows! large sperm whale! two points off the larboard! Blo-o-ows! headed to windward!""How far off?" shouted Mr. Grafton, from the deck."Three miles! 'Ere sh' blo-o-ows!"By this time the old man was on deck, and ready for action. "Call all hands out, Mr. Grafton! Hard a starboard, there! Stand by to brace round the yards. Cook! get your breakfast down as fast as you can. Keep the run of him, there, aloft! Maintop bowline, boat steerers! Sure it's a sperm whale, eh, Mr. Johnson? Steward! give me up the glass—I must make a cleet in the gangway for that glass soon. Muster 'em all up, Mr. Grafton, and get the lines in as fast as you can (mounting the shearpole). Sing out when we head right, Mr. Johnson! Mr. Grafton, you'll have to brace sharp up, I guess (just going over the maintop). See the Pandora, there? O yes! I see her (half way up the topmast rigging). Confound him! he's heading just right to see the whale, too! ('There goes flukes!' shouted the mulatto.) Yes! yes! I see him—just in time to see him (swinging his leg over the topmast crosstrees), a noble fan, too! a buster! Haul aboard that maintack! We must have that fellow, Mr. Johnson. Steady-y! Keep her along just full and by.We mustn't let the Pandora get him, either!"The Arethusa bent gracefully to the breeze, as, braced sharp on the port tack, she darted through the water, as though instinctively snuffing her prey. The whale was one of those patriarchal old bulls, who are often found alone, and would probably stay down more than an hour before he would be seen again. Meantime, the two ships were rapidly nearing each other; and the Pandora's lookouts were not long in discovering that "something was up," as was evinced by her setting the main royal and foretopmast studdingsail,though they could not possibly have seen the whale yet. But the whale was apparently working slowly to windward, and the Pandora coming with a flowing sheet, all of which was much in her favor. The old man remained aloft, anxiously waiting the next rising, from time to time hailing the deck to know "what time it was?" and satisfying himself that the boats were in readiness, and breakfast served out to those who wanted it. As three quarters of an hour passed, he grew more anxious and fidgety, shifting his legs about in the cross trees, and clutching the spyglass in his nervous grasp."Are you all ready, Mr. Grafton?""Ay, ay, sir," answered the mate from the maintop, where he had mounted to get a look at the whale when he should rise again."Let them hoist and swing the boats.""Ay, ay, sir.""I think I saw a ripple then," said the second mate, from the topsail yard directly beneath him."Where?" demanded the captain."Four points off the lee bow.""O! no, you didn't, he won't come there. He'll rise right ahead or a little on the weather-bow. I don't think he'll go much to windward—good gracious! see that Pandora come down! She'll be right in the suds here, directly! I think we've run far enough, eh, Mr. Grafton? Haul the mainsail up, then! and square the main yard!"Silence for a few minutes after this evolution was performed."He can't be far off when he comes up again. Look at the men old Worth has got aloft there, his crosstrees swarming, and every rattlin manned.—Look sharp! all of ye! We must see that whale when he first breaks water. That helm eased down? Haul the foresail up? and let the jib-sheets flow a little more. It can't be possible that whale has been up—no, we couldn't help seeing him, some of us—Iknow'twas a sperm whale. I saw his fan; besides, there's Mr. Johnson—best eyes in the ship. What time is it, there? An hour and ten minutes that whale has been down—a long-winded old dog! We shall have to wear round, I'm afraid we shall forge.Blo-o-ows!right ahead, not one mile off! Down there and lower away! Now, Mr. Grafton, work carefully—Mr. Dunham, too; if you don't strike this rising, spread your chances well, and don't crowd each other—but don't you let the Pandora get him!" The captain was by this time in the stern of his own boat. "All ready, Mr. Johnson? Where's Old Jeff at my midship oar? O, here you are, eh? You aint turned white yet—lower away! Cooper! Where's Cooper? As soon as we are all clear, wear round—Let run that davit fall?—Wear round and make a short board—haul up your tackle, boy. Keep to windward all you can, Cooper! Pull a little off the weather-bow, Mr. Grafton, and then set your sail! Haul in these gripes towing over the quarter—By thunder, there's Worth's boats all down! coming with fair wind, too! Out oars, lads."The Pandora had luffed to and dropped her boats amile to windward, and they were coming down before the breeze, wing-and-wing, with their paddles flashing in the sunlight, and their immense jibs guyed out on the bow-oar as studdingsails, promising to stand about an equal chance for the whale with ourselves. The larboard boat to which I belonged proved the fastest of the three, and had a little the lead. After pulling a few quiet strokes to windward, Father Grafton set his sails, and, as he gave the order to "peak the oars and take the paddles," seemed as cool and calm as when engaged in the most ordinary duty on board. There was no confusion or bustle in his boat, but with his practised eye fixed upon the huge spermaceti, he kept encouraging us in a low, dry tone, as he conned the steering oar with such skill, that he seemed to do it without effort."Now, lads, you face round to paddle, you can all see him. I declare, he's a noble fellow—ninety barrels under his hide, if there's a drop. Bunker, do you see that fellow? he's got a back like a ten-acre lot—paddle hard, lads—if you miss him, go right overboard yourself, and don't come up again—long and strong stroke, boys, on your paddles. See that boat coming? that's Ray, the second mate of the Pandora—three or four more spouts, and we'll have him—he's ours sure! they can't get here in time—scratch hard, boys! don't hit your paddles on the gunwale. Stand up, Bunker, and get your jibtack clear! Don't let them 'gally' you, if they shout in that boat.""All right!" said his boatsteerer, with his eager hand resting on the iron pole. "Never fear, sir.""Paddle hard, lads, a stroke or two. That's right, Bunker. Keep cool, my boy. Keep cool, and make sure of him."A wild and prolonged shout rang on the air from six sturdy pairs of lungs in the Pandora's waist-boat, as Mr. Ray, seeing that he was baffled, let fly his sheets and rounded to, a ship's length to windward. It was too late, however."All right," said Father Grafton, in the same dry, quiet tone, as before. "Hold your hand, Bunker. Hold your hand, boy, till you're past his hump—another shoot, lads—way enough, in paddles. Now, Bunker! give it to him! Down to your oars the rest.Give him t'other one, boy!Well done! both irons to the hitches. Hold water, all! Bear a hand, now, and roll up that sail. Wet line, Tom! wet line! Where's your bucket? All ready with your sail, Bunker? Let her come then—all right. Come aft here, now, and let me get a dig at him."The line was spinning round the loggerhead with a whizzing noise, and a smoking heat, as the huge leviathan, stung to the quick, darted down into the depths of the ocean. Bunker threw on the second round turn to check him, and jamming the bight of the line over the stern sheets, watched it carefully as it flew through his grasp; while the mate cleared his lance, and got ready to renew the attack. Every moment his anxiety increased as he kept turning his head, and looking at the tub of line, rapidly settling, as the whale ran it out. "I declare, I believe he'll take all my line. Blacksmith! pass along the drug! Check him hard, Bunker!"then, seeing the other boats near at hand, he opened his throat, and, for the first time, we learned the power of Father Grafton's lungs."Spring hard, Mr. Dunham! I want your line! Cast off your craft, and stand by to throw your line to me! Spring hard!Do!"The ash sticks in the waist-boat were doing their best, as the loud "Ay, ay!" was borne back o'er the water from Dunham, while the old man could be seen in the rear of the picture, wildly straining every nerve to be "in at the death," and heaving desperately at the after oar, with his hat off, his hair flying loosely in the breeze, and his whole frame writhing with eager excitement. Our line was going, going; already there was but one flake in the tub, when the waist-boat ranged up on our quarter, and Fisher, with the coil gathered in his hand, whirled it over his head, making ready for a cast. At this instant, the strain was suddenly relieved, and the line slacked up."Never mind!" roared Mr. Grafton. "Hold on Fisher! All right, he's coming! Never mind your line, Mr. Dunham, he's coming up! pull ahead and get fast! Get a lance at him if you can! Haul line,us! Face round here, all of ye, and haul line! Careful, Bunker, about coiling down! He'll be up now, in a minute, haul lively!"The waist-boat had shot ahead under a fresh impulse of her oars, and the captain came drawing up abreast of the fast boat."Are you well fast, Mr. Grafton?""Ay, ay, sir; both irons chock to the socket.""That's the talk! Got 'most all your line, hasn't he.""Yes, sir.""Well, gather in as fast as you can. Spring hard,us! Spring! I want to grease a lance in that fish! There he is up!" he shouted as the tortured monster broke water, shoving his whole head out in his agony, and started to windward.Fisher had bent on his craft again, and was about two ships' lengths from the whale when he rose."Haul quick, my lads!" said the mate, "and get this stray line in! There's Mr. Dunham going on, and the old man will be with him in a minute. There he brings to!" as the whale suddenly stopped short in his mad career, and lay swashing up and down, as if rallying his strength for a fresh effort."There's 'stand up' in the waist-boat! There he darts! Hurrah! two boats fast! Haul lively,us, and get this line in!"The whale seemed staggered by this accumulation of cold iron in his system, and lay wallowing in the trough of the waves. It was a critical moment for him; for Mr. Dunham was getting his lance on the half-cock, ready for darting, and, as the whale suddenly "milled short round" to pass across the head of his boat, the young man saw his advantage, and cried:"Pull ahead! Pull ahead, and we'll get a 'set' on him! Lay forward, Fisher! Lay forward hard, my lad! right on for his fin! Pull ahead! So, way enough—hold water, all;" and, driven by a strong arm,the sharp lance entered his "life," its bright shank disappearing till the pole brought it up."Hold her so!" said the second mate. "Way enough! just hold her so till he rises again!" as the whale hollowed his back under the sea, now crimsoned with his life-tide, and again rising, received the lance anew in his vitals; but the first "set" was enough, and the gush of clotted blood from his spiracle told how effectually it had done its work."There," said Father Grafton, who had just got his line gathered in, and was ready to renew the assault, "there's the red flag flying at his nose! Blacksmith, we may as well put up our lance, we sha'n't want it to-day. Well done, Mr. Dunham! Thick as tar the first lance! Hold on line, Bunker! heave on a turn!" as the whale, making a dying effort, started up to windward, passing among the Pandora's boats within easy hail."Give us your warp, Pitman, if you want a tow," said Bunker in passing to Mr. Ray's boatsteerer."Every dog has his day," growled Pitman, in reply."Yes. Come aboard to-morrow and I'll give you a 'scrap' for luck."The whale went in his "flurry," and turned up under the stern of the Pandora, as she luffed to for her boats; but Captain Worth could not afford to lose the breeze long, and, by the time the last boat was on the cranes, his helm was up and his mizzen-topsail shivering. The old ship fell off to her former course, and setting her royal and studding sails, left her more fortunate consort "alone in her glory."Captain Upton had no occasion to "grease his lance," but seeing that the work was done, and the victory won, made the best of his way on board. He made a short stretch, fetching to windward of us, and then stood along under easy sail, till Mr. Grafton, having "cut a hole" and got his line all clear for running, set a waif for the ship. She then ran down for us, and luffing to handsomely with the head yards aback, and the foretopsail on the cap, the line was "streamed," and led into the "chock." The jib being run down, and the helm lashed a-lee, so as completely to deaden the ship's way, the whale was hauled down to the ship, with the inspiring and time-honored chorus of "Cheerly, men!" the burden being led off by Old Jeff; and at ten o'clock, the monster, who when the sun rose appeared like a monarch of the deep sporting in all the consciousness of sovereign power, lay securely chained up alongside the good ship Arethusa."Well, Bunker," said the old man to the blushing young boatsteerer, "you plugged this fellow solid, at any rate, if you never do another. The Pandora's crew tried to gally you, didn't they?""Yes, sir," said Bunker, "either me or the whale, I don't know which. But they were too late with their yells.""Well, I don't know as I can blame Mr. Ray," said the captain. "I suppose he thought, if he could gally you of the whale, he would stand as good a chance as any of us next rising, as there is no telling,with any certainty, where a gallied[1]whale will come up.""I don't think Worth feels in very good-humor to-day," continued the old man, turning to Mr. Grafton. "I'm sure I shouldn't, if he had got this whale right under my nose. But it's our turn to crow to-day, and perhaps at another time it may be his. I was mighty afraid at one time he would take all your line before we could get to you. And when I saw the strain slack up suddenly, I was more anxious than ever, for I feared you were loose from him. But it's all right as it is. Couldn't be better—and the weather is promising for taking care of him. The new ship will get her christening now, and she will work all the better for being greased. It is too late to ship the oil home, for I shall not put back to the Western Islands now."

THE FIRST WHALE.

The next morning, having the first masthead, I was in the fore-topgallant crosstrees at sunrise, thinking, of course, of the five dollars' bounty all the way up the rigging. The dim outline of the peak was still visible, and the topsails of the Pandora just in sight astern, the wind still continuing moderate at W. N. W. both ships steering S. by W. As I looked astern, when I first got my footing aloft, I caught sight of something like a small puff of steam or white smoke, rising a little and blowing off on the water. Looking intently, at the same spot, after a short interval, another puff rose like the former, satisfying me, from the descriptions I had heard, that some sort of whale was there, and I instinctively shouted:

"There she blows!"

"Where away?" hailed Mr. Johnson, who was just climbing the maintopmast rigging. "O yes! I see him! sperm whale, I believe—hold on a bit till he blows again—yes—thar' sh' blo-o-ows! large sperm whale! two points off the larboard! Blo-o-ows! headed to windward!"

"How far off?" shouted Mr. Grafton, from the deck.

"Three miles! 'Ere sh' blo-o-ows!"

By this time the old man was on deck, and ready for action. "Call all hands out, Mr. Grafton! Hard a starboard, there! Stand by to brace round the yards. Cook! get your breakfast down as fast as you can. Keep the run of him, there, aloft! Maintop bowline, boat steerers! Sure it's a sperm whale, eh, Mr. Johnson? Steward! give me up the glass—I must make a cleet in the gangway for that glass soon. Muster 'em all up, Mr. Grafton, and get the lines in as fast as you can (mounting the shearpole). Sing out when we head right, Mr. Johnson! Mr. Grafton, you'll have to brace sharp up, I guess (just going over the maintop). See the Pandora, there? O yes! I see her (half way up the topmast rigging). Confound him! he's heading just right to see the whale, too! ('There goes flukes!' shouted the mulatto.) Yes! yes! I see him—just in time to see him (swinging his leg over the topmast crosstrees), a noble fan, too! a buster! Haul aboard that maintack! We must have that fellow, Mr. Johnson. Steady-y! Keep her along just full and by.We mustn't let the Pandora get him, either!"

The Arethusa bent gracefully to the breeze, as, braced sharp on the port tack, she darted through the water, as though instinctively snuffing her prey. The whale was one of those patriarchal old bulls, who are often found alone, and would probably stay down more than an hour before he would be seen again. Meantime, the two ships were rapidly nearing each other; and the Pandora's lookouts were not long in discovering that "something was up," as was evinced by her setting the main royal and foretopmast studdingsail,though they could not possibly have seen the whale yet. But the whale was apparently working slowly to windward, and the Pandora coming with a flowing sheet, all of which was much in her favor. The old man remained aloft, anxiously waiting the next rising, from time to time hailing the deck to know "what time it was?" and satisfying himself that the boats were in readiness, and breakfast served out to those who wanted it. As three quarters of an hour passed, he grew more anxious and fidgety, shifting his legs about in the cross trees, and clutching the spyglass in his nervous grasp.

"Are you all ready, Mr. Grafton?"

"Ay, ay, sir," answered the mate from the maintop, where he had mounted to get a look at the whale when he should rise again.

"Let them hoist and swing the boats."

"Ay, ay, sir."

"I think I saw a ripple then," said the second mate, from the topsail yard directly beneath him.

"Where?" demanded the captain.

"Four points off the lee bow."

"O! no, you didn't, he won't come there. He'll rise right ahead or a little on the weather-bow. I don't think he'll go much to windward—good gracious! see that Pandora come down! She'll be right in the suds here, directly! I think we've run far enough, eh, Mr. Grafton? Haul the mainsail up, then! and square the main yard!"

Silence for a few minutes after this evolution was performed.

"He can't be far off when he comes up again. Look at the men old Worth has got aloft there, his crosstrees swarming, and every rattlin manned.—Look sharp! all of ye! We must see that whale when he first breaks water. That helm eased down? Haul the foresail up? and let the jib-sheets flow a little more. It can't be possible that whale has been up—no, we couldn't help seeing him, some of us—Iknow'twas a sperm whale. I saw his fan; besides, there's Mr. Johnson—best eyes in the ship. What time is it, there? An hour and ten minutes that whale has been down—a long-winded old dog! We shall have to wear round, I'm afraid we shall forge.Blo-o-ows!right ahead, not one mile off! Down there and lower away! Now, Mr. Grafton, work carefully—Mr. Dunham, too; if you don't strike this rising, spread your chances well, and don't crowd each other—but don't you let the Pandora get him!" The captain was by this time in the stern of his own boat. "All ready, Mr. Johnson? Where's Old Jeff at my midship oar? O, here you are, eh? You aint turned white yet—lower away! Cooper! Where's Cooper? As soon as we are all clear, wear round—Let run that davit fall?—Wear round and make a short board—haul up your tackle, boy. Keep to windward all you can, Cooper! Pull a little off the weather-bow, Mr. Grafton, and then set your sail! Haul in these gripes towing over the quarter—By thunder, there's Worth's boats all down! coming with fair wind, too! Out oars, lads."

The Pandora had luffed to and dropped her boats amile to windward, and they were coming down before the breeze, wing-and-wing, with their paddles flashing in the sunlight, and their immense jibs guyed out on the bow-oar as studdingsails, promising to stand about an equal chance for the whale with ourselves. The larboard boat to which I belonged proved the fastest of the three, and had a little the lead. After pulling a few quiet strokes to windward, Father Grafton set his sails, and, as he gave the order to "peak the oars and take the paddles," seemed as cool and calm as when engaged in the most ordinary duty on board. There was no confusion or bustle in his boat, but with his practised eye fixed upon the huge spermaceti, he kept encouraging us in a low, dry tone, as he conned the steering oar with such skill, that he seemed to do it without effort.

"Now, lads, you face round to paddle, you can all see him. I declare, he's a noble fellow—ninety barrels under his hide, if there's a drop. Bunker, do you see that fellow? he's got a back like a ten-acre lot—paddle hard, lads—if you miss him, go right overboard yourself, and don't come up again—long and strong stroke, boys, on your paddles. See that boat coming? that's Ray, the second mate of the Pandora—three or four more spouts, and we'll have him—he's ours sure! they can't get here in time—scratch hard, boys! don't hit your paddles on the gunwale. Stand up, Bunker, and get your jibtack clear! Don't let them 'gally' you, if they shout in that boat."

"All right!" said his boatsteerer, with his eager hand resting on the iron pole. "Never fear, sir."

"Paddle hard, lads, a stroke or two. That's right, Bunker. Keep cool, my boy. Keep cool, and make sure of him."

A wild and prolonged shout rang on the air from six sturdy pairs of lungs in the Pandora's waist-boat, as Mr. Ray, seeing that he was baffled, let fly his sheets and rounded to, a ship's length to windward. It was too late, however.

"All right," said Father Grafton, in the same dry, quiet tone, as before. "Hold your hand, Bunker. Hold your hand, boy, till you're past his hump—another shoot, lads—way enough, in paddles. Now, Bunker! give it to him! Down to your oars the rest.Give him t'other one, boy!Well done! both irons to the hitches. Hold water, all! Bear a hand, now, and roll up that sail. Wet line, Tom! wet line! Where's your bucket? All ready with your sail, Bunker? Let her come then—all right. Come aft here, now, and let me get a dig at him."

The line was spinning round the loggerhead with a whizzing noise, and a smoking heat, as the huge leviathan, stung to the quick, darted down into the depths of the ocean. Bunker threw on the second round turn to check him, and jamming the bight of the line over the stern sheets, watched it carefully as it flew through his grasp; while the mate cleared his lance, and got ready to renew the attack. Every moment his anxiety increased as he kept turning his head, and looking at the tub of line, rapidly settling, as the whale ran it out. "I declare, I believe he'll take all my line. Blacksmith! pass along the drug! Check him hard, Bunker!"then, seeing the other boats near at hand, he opened his throat, and, for the first time, we learned the power of Father Grafton's lungs.

"Spring hard, Mr. Dunham! I want your line! Cast off your craft, and stand by to throw your line to me! Spring hard!Do!"

The ash sticks in the waist-boat were doing their best, as the loud "Ay, ay!" was borne back o'er the water from Dunham, while the old man could be seen in the rear of the picture, wildly straining every nerve to be "in at the death," and heaving desperately at the after oar, with his hat off, his hair flying loosely in the breeze, and his whole frame writhing with eager excitement. Our line was going, going; already there was but one flake in the tub, when the waist-boat ranged up on our quarter, and Fisher, with the coil gathered in his hand, whirled it over his head, making ready for a cast. At this instant, the strain was suddenly relieved, and the line slacked up.

"Never mind!" roared Mr. Grafton. "Hold on Fisher! All right, he's coming! Never mind your line, Mr. Dunham, he's coming up! pull ahead and get fast! Get a lance at him if you can! Haul line,us! Face round here, all of ye, and haul line! Careful, Bunker, about coiling down! He'll be up now, in a minute, haul lively!"

The waist-boat had shot ahead under a fresh impulse of her oars, and the captain came drawing up abreast of the fast boat.

"Are you well fast, Mr. Grafton?"

"Ay, ay, sir; both irons chock to the socket."

"That's the talk! Got 'most all your line, hasn't he."

"Yes, sir."

"Well, gather in as fast as you can. Spring hard,us! Spring! I want to grease a lance in that fish! There he is up!" he shouted as the tortured monster broke water, shoving his whole head out in his agony, and started to windward.

Fisher had bent on his craft again, and was about two ships' lengths from the whale when he rose.

"Haul quick, my lads!" said the mate, "and get this stray line in! There's Mr. Dunham going on, and the old man will be with him in a minute. There he brings to!" as the whale suddenly stopped short in his mad career, and lay swashing up and down, as if rallying his strength for a fresh effort.

"There's 'stand up' in the waist-boat! There he darts! Hurrah! two boats fast! Haul lively,us, and get this line in!"

The whale seemed staggered by this accumulation of cold iron in his system, and lay wallowing in the trough of the waves. It was a critical moment for him; for Mr. Dunham was getting his lance on the half-cock, ready for darting, and, as the whale suddenly "milled short round" to pass across the head of his boat, the young man saw his advantage, and cried:

"Pull ahead! Pull ahead, and we'll get a 'set' on him! Lay forward, Fisher! Lay forward hard, my lad! right on for his fin! Pull ahead! So, way enough—hold water, all;" and, driven by a strong arm,the sharp lance entered his "life," its bright shank disappearing till the pole brought it up.

"Hold her so!" said the second mate. "Way enough! just hold her so till he rises again!" as the whale hollowed his back under the sea, now crimsoned with his life-tide, and again rising, received the lance anew in his vitals; but the first "set" was enough, and the gush of clotted blood from his spiracle told how effectually it had done its work.

"There," said Father Grafton, who had just got his line gathered in, and was ready to renew the assault, "there's the red flag flying at his nose! Blacksmith, we may as well put up our lance, we sha'n't want it to-day. Well done, Mr. Dunham! Thick as tar the first lance! Hold on line, Bunker! heave on a turn!" as the whale, making a dying effort, started up to windward, passing among the Pandora's boats within easy hail.

"Give us your warp, Pitman, if you want a tow," said Bunker in passing to Mr. Ray's boatsteerer.

"Every dog has his day," growled Pitman, in reply.

"Yes. Come aboard to-morrow and I'll give you a 'scrap' for luck."

The whale went in his "flurry," and turned up under the stern of the Pandora, as she luffed to for her boats; but Captain Worth could not afford to lose the breeze long, and, by the time the last boat was on the cranes, his helm was up and his mizzen-topsail shivering. The old ship fell off to her former course, and setting her royal and studding sails, left her more fortunate consort "alone in her glory."

Captain Upton had no occasion to "grease his lance," but seeing that the work was done, and the victory won, made the best of his way on board. He made a short stretch, fetching to windward of us, and then stood along under easy sail, till Mr. Grafton, having "cut a hole" and got his line all clear for running, set a waif for the ship. She then ran down for us, and luffing to handsomely with the head yards aback, and the foretopsail on the cap, the line was "streamed," and led into the "chock." The jib being run down, and the helm lashed a-lee, so as completely to deaden the ship's way, the whale was hauled down to the ship, with the inspiring and time-honored chorus of "Cheerly, men!" the burden being led off by Old Jeff; and at ten o'clock, the monster, who when the sun rose appeared like a monarch of the deep sporting in all the consciousness of sovereign power, lay securely chained up alongside the good ship Arethusa.

"Well, Bunker," said the old man to the blushing young boatsteerer, "you plugged this fellow solid, at any rate, if you never do another. The Pandora's crew tried to gally you, didn't they?"

"Yes, sir," said Bunker, "either me or the whale, I don't know which. But they were too late with their yells."

"Well, I don't know as I can blame Mr. Ray," said the captain. "I suppose he thought, if he could gally you of the whale, he would stand as good a chance as any of us next rising, as there is no telling,with any certainty, where a gallied[1]whale will come up."

"I don't think Worth feels in very good-humor to-day," continued the old man, turning to Mr. Grafton. "I'm sure I shouldn't, if he had got this whale right under my nose. But it's our turn to crow to-day, and perhaps at another time it may be his. I was mighty afraid at one time he would take all your line before we could get to you. And when I saw the strain slack up suddenly, I was more anxious than ever, for I feared you were loose from him. But it's all right as it is. Couldn't be better—and the weather is promising for taking care of him. The new ship will get her christening now, and she will work all the better for being greased. It is too late to ship the oil home, for I shall not put back to the Western Islands now."

Back to IndexNext