A NIGHT ON A WHALE!

THE King Harold whaler was cruising off the King's Mill group for sperm-fish, with the intention of passing the winter months there, and at the setting in of spring going farther north to catch the real whale. But in vain had they sailed back and forwards for months; not a fish was captured, and, at last, when the deck was hailed, no one believed in the truth, as it had hitherto ever turned out a useless finback, or a shoal of smaller brown-fish, which they did not care to follow. At last, however, their efforts were destined to be crowned with success, and one of the crew, from whose lips I heard the story, met with the pleasant adventure which forms the subject of my paper.

He was an Irishman, and, of course, his name was Pat-an active, strong hand, who had been promoted to perform the important duty of boat's-header, or harpooner. At the first summons four boats left the side of the King Harold, exerting their utmost strength to outstrip each other. An extraordinary zeal prevails on such an expedition, not alone among the boat-steerers and harpooners, as to who shall first hold fast to a fish, but among the whole crew: it becomes a point of honour which boat shall throw the first successful harpoon, as in such a chase all, from the captain down to the cabin-boy, work on shares, and the crew of course do their utmost not to be behind one another. The three swiftest boats had, on this day, the best prospect of getting within striking distance, while the fourth, which was commanded by our friend Pat, in spite of the desperate exertions of the rowers, was not able to keep up with them, and was at least a cable's length behind the first boat when its harpooner prepared to throw. Just to their right, but at a considerable distance, a whale was perceived blowing, and, though the boats, in order to be able to help one another in case of need, do not generally separate, the young Irishman hardly noticed it ere he turned the bow of his boat towards it, and pulled away from his companions.

At this moment the other boats had too much on their hands to pay any attention to him; and the sailors who were rowing, and saw his movements, naturally thought that he was after a fresh whale, and had not the slightest objection to get rid of a rival so easily. In addition, they found themselves nearer to the whales than they had at first fancied, for the former suddenly rose again not thirty yards from them, and one of them even came within distance of the first harpooner, whose iron was immediately driven home. The other two were also "fast" soon after, but the iron of the second boat came out again, and the whale sank to a great depth, so that it was compelled to follow the third, and help in securing its fish, in which it succeeded after some trouble. The struck fish, however, set off at full speed in a northerly direction, tearing the boats after them, so that the water dashed furiously over their bows, until the third harpooner succeeded in driving home his lance behind the fin of his whale, and giving it the coup de grâce, while the first harpooner was dragged at least a mile ere he could effect the same desirable object, and then lay on his oars to await the ship, for it would have been impossible for them to row with such a tremendous mass in tow.

But they were at so great a distance from their vessel, that they could hardly distinguish its hull, and she found great difficulty in tacking up to them. The three boats had now leisure to look round for the fourth, which was quite out of sight; but they searched in vain for its glistening sail: it had disappeared, and they consoled themselves with the hope that it had surely been kept in sight from the mast-head, and that the direction it had gone in would be known on board. The King Harold was by no means a quick sailer, at least on a wind, and the afternoon was spent ere she succeeded in tacking up to the two fish, and secured them alongside. The second harpooner had returned on board before, to help in the arrangement of the vessel: and a man was now sent up to the crow's nest to discover where the fourth boat was, in order that, in case it was fast to a whale, they might send the three other boats to its assistance in bringing the fish alongside.

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Well, sir, where away does she lie?" the skipper shouted from the deck, when he knew that the whales already captured were secure, and now turned his attention to the other boat; "is it far from here ?"

"Can't see her anywhere, sir!" was the reply; and the man began once more to survey the horizon.

"Oh! nonsense! You needn't look to windward; she can't be there!" the skipper replied; "look carefully to the south—she must be in that quarter.

The man obeyed, and looked so long through the glass that the skipper at length grew impatient, and himself sprang on the bulwarks to look after the boat, whose mysterious disappearance began to make him

uneasy.

"Över away there, sir, I've fancied once or twice," said the man, removing the glass and pointing south-south-west, "as if I could see a dark spot on the water, but when I looked closer it went away again."

The skipper looked for a long while in the direction indicated, then shook his head, and began to search once again. But in vain did he remain above until the sun sank beneath the horizon, and caused every object to come out most clearly. He could not see the slightest trace of the boat, which would surely set its sail again, when it knew that they would be looking for it, and its whiteness would glisten far athwart the sea. The first harpooner, too, had come up: an accident must have happened to the boat, and the crew began to grow impatient. But he, too, could not see the slightest object resembling a boat or sail; and the now rapidly approaching twilight soon rendered any further search impossible. The captain of the King Harold had no alternative as to what he must do he could not cruise about on account of the fish alongside; and even if he had known in what direction he should steer, he would be obliged to leave his whales behind to save his men. But he still had the chance of finding them to leeward, and the ship was drifting in that direction with the trade-wind and equatorial current. If, then, nothing was seen of the lost boat in the morning, he could leave the remainder of the fish with a flag hoisted on them, and then sail in search of it. But, in that case, there would be but little hope of finding it; and he would only do it that he might not have to reproach himself with desertion of his men. It was most probable that a wounded spermaceti had destroyed the boat, and the men had not been able to keep so long above water. The sea

was certainly calm enough, but the fearful shark speedily scents the blood of a struck fish; and as, at the present moment, five or six of these greedy brutes were swimming round their vessel, and making unavailing efforts to tear off a piece of the tough and elastic hide, it would be only too certain that they would find the spot where the other boat had sunk, and woe to the unfortunate men who were exposed to their rapacious, inexorable jaws!

But there was still a possibility that the boat, though uninjured, had drifted so far to leeward, that it could not pull up again: a boat is only a little dot on the mighty ocean, and can easily escape the best glass and most practised eye. But then, they would be perfectly well aware in what direction to steer; and two lanterns were hoisted to the fore and main tops, in order that they might not pull past the ship in the gloom. After dark, at midnight, and before the dog-watch, the skipper had the gun fired; but in vain: the night passed away, and nothing was heard or seen of the missing men. The cutting up the whale went on actively in the mean while; the blubber was stripped off, and brought on deck by means of a powerful windlass, and the boiling out was immediately commenced, in order to lose no time and get the mass of meat and blubber, which so soon becomes decomposed under the line, out of the way. Large torches, fed with strips of blubber, hung overboard in a fire-basket, or net made of iron hoops, and lit up the dark ocean, giving the dancing waves a singularly transparent hue. By midnight one huge fish was stripped, and the tremendous head, which was cut off from the trunk in the water, was hove on board by means of the heavy blubber-hook.

By daybreak, when the entire crew was working hard at the second fish, two of the harpooners were sent up to the tops, armed with good glasses, to look for the missing boat. In vain had they searched the whole horizon without being able to discover anything, when the eye of the first harpooner was attracted by a dark spot, which he closely examined. The distance was too great to allow anything to be clearly distinguished; but, for all that, the skipper was immediately informed of the circumstance, and speedily joined them. It was certain something. was floating on the water there, whatever it might be, but it lay to windward. They must have drifted past it in the night, and the second harpooner was ordered off with a boat to discover what it was. Even if it were not the missing boat-and it did not at all look like it—it might possibly be a dead whale, and would not only repay the trouble of looking after it, but would surely put them on the trail of the missing men, as the fish, if struck, would at any rate have one of the ship's harpoons, or irons, in it.

For nearly an hour they pulled, following the signals on board, without distinguishing anything in their track, until the harpooner who stood in the bows suddenly fancied he noticed a dark object right in front, and only just above the water. Before long he shouted, half turning to his men, and pointing in front:

"Pull away, my lads, pull away. By heavens! it's a man on a raft or boat, or something of that sort. Pull away, for I fancy we are only just in time." Then uttering a loud "Halloa!" he tried to arouse a responsive echo; but no sound answered him, and the boat bounded on its course towards the extraordinary object.

"A man! a man!" the men in the boat now exclaimed; and the boat's-header, who was also standing up, shouted, "By Heavens! if that is not Patrick!"

"Patrick it is!" the harpooner replied; "but where are the others ?” But every other question died away in renewed exclamations of surprise, when they came nearer, and not only recognised the fourth harpooner, the young Irishman, in the shipwrecked man, but also found that he was kneeling on a dead sperm-whale, which lay with its burden a few inches above the water's edge. His left hand was twisted tightly in the line of the harpoon, which alone kept him on his slippery post, and with the right he held the shaft, which he had cut away from the harpoon, so tightly grasped, that he would not even leave go when the boat shot up to him, and every arm was stretched out to help him in.

The poor fellow looked deadly pale, and could not utter a single word -his eye was wildly fixed on his messmates as if he did not recognise them he merely rose mechanically to step into the boat, but fainted away as soon as he felt the firm planks under him. He had lived through a fearful night; and we must return to the period when he quitted the others with his boat, in order to chase a whale on his own account. Pat, as he thought, very cleverly steered away from the track of the other three boats and followed a single sperm, which was lazily breasting the waves at some distance from the rest of the shoal. They rowed lustily on at about five hundreds yards in the rear of the sperm, and gained upon it rapidly, for the fish was, as yet, ignorant of the danger that threatened it. At the same time, the sperm swerved more and more from its former course, and went westward with the wind and current. Patrick now set his sail, in order to get nearer to the fish without any unnecessary noise. The whale, however, appeared to have scented the approach of danger, for it started off at the top of its speed, so that the boat, even with the favourable breeze, could gain but little upon it. Suddenly, just as they had got, with great labour, within casting distance, the sperm dived, and the boat shot over the spot where the waves were still bubbling over the sinking monster. "Sail in!" the harpooner quickly shouted: but the boat glided on a little distance from the impetus it had received, and the boat-steerer stood with uplifted lance, anxiously awaiting the signal to cast. While the sail flapped idly in the wind, and the harpooner held the sheets firmly in his hand, that they might not lose a moment in pursuit, the rowers looked down into the clear water beneath, with the hope of, perhaps, seeing the fish, and so discovering the direction it was

about to swim in.

"There's something swimming," one of the hands suddenly said, in a half-suppressed and anxious tone; "it's coming up straight from below." "Hush!" the harpooner said "gently, gently, or you'll startle him

-where?"

"There he comes-there he comes!" three or four shouted simultaneously, and grasped instinctively at their oars.

"Back-back for your lives!" the harpooner cried at this moment, who was well aware of the peril to which they would be exposed if the colossus, in rising, merely grazed their boat. Almost at the same instant the oars fell into the water, and the boat had scarcely shot its own length

back, when the gigantic, rounded head of a powerful sperm fish, with its wide, narrow jaws half opened, rose to the surface, and then bounded forwards, as if to escape the strange object, whose presence is was now aware of. In the bow of the boat, and close above the mountain of blubber, which actually rose under his very feet, stood the boat-steerer with uplifted lance; but his arm trembled, and, still within reach of the fearful foe, who could crush them at a blow, he did not dare to hurl the harpoon into the flying monster.

"Give it him!" Patrick however shouted, perfectly careless of danger, and only thinking at the moment of the chase. "Hang the fellow, he'll let the fish slip through his hands;" and, seizing his own lance, he appeared to be auxiously awaiting the moment when he could hurl the sharp steel into the flank of his prey. The boat-steerer still hesitated, but only for a moment; for if he suffered the opportunity to slip, it was a question whether they would ever again come up with the startled whale. The sail had again caught the wind, and the harpooner held the tiller firmly with his knees to bring the boat's head round, and rush after the flying foe. At this instant the harpoon whizzed through the air deep into the monster's back, and was imbedded in the tough blubber. In a second the sail was again taken in, and the boat-steerer, springing back to the tiller, made room for the harpooner to throw his lance and give the leviathan of the deep his death-blow. Patrick stood in the bows, with his lance raised for a cast, and the crew tugged away at the harpoon rope, to brink their little barque close up to the prisoned fish. Patrick bent back, and while the flukes of the gigantic brute lashed the waves close to them, and it rose once again to escape the danger which it saw impending, the death-bearing steel sank deeply into the soft flank of the foe. In a second the harpooner withdrew it to repeat the blow, and the whale, in its fury, suddenly turned at bay, causing the sea to hiss and foam by its

rage.

"Thick blood!" the crew shouted at this moment; but the voice of the harpooner was heard, "Back for your lives!" And while the boatswain threw his whole weight on the tiller, and leaned overboard to bring her head round, and ere the crew could ship their oars, the furious brute came up with open jaws, and seizing and crushing the thin planks, tore them asunder as if made of paper. Patrick saw the danger, knew what impended over them, and with an unshaking hand he again hurled the lance at the enemy, and pierced its eye, but he could not save the boat. The maddened brute probably did not feel the new wound in its deathstruggles. For, blowing out the thick black blood, and only thirsting for revenge, it tore the boat in pieces, and the foaming, blood-stained waves soon closed over a mass of fragments and swimmers, who only tried to clutch at a plank in the instinctive feeling of self-preservation. Patrick had, quite unconsciously, seized the line to which the harpoon was fastened, winding it round his arm; the whale dragged him along through the discoloured waters, and he would inevitably have been drowned had the fish lived a few minutes longer. But the first cast had gone home, and rising again to the surface, the whale swam once or twice in a circle, lashed the trembling waves with its gigantic flukes, and then floated slowly and dead upon the blood-stained sea. Patrick, who had risen with it, and had been so unwillingly taken into tow by the