Fighting the Whales | Page 8

"I don't believe you," said I, laughing.
"Don't you?" cried Tom; "it's a fact notwithstandin', for the captain
himself said so, and that's how I came to know it."
Just as Tom finished speaking, the man in the crow's nest roared at the
top of his voice, "There she blows!"
That was the signal that a whale was in sight, and as it was the first
time we had heard it that season, every man in the ship was thrown into
a state of tremendous excitement.

"There she blows!" roared the man again.
"Where away?" shouted the captain.
"About two miles right ahead."
In another moment the utmost excitement prevailed on board. Suddenly,
while I was looking over the side, straining my eyes to catch a sight of
the whale, which could not yet be seen by the men on deck, I saw a
brown object appear in the sea, not twenty yards from the side of the
ship; before I had time to ask what it was, a whale's head rose to the
surface, and shot up out of the water. The part of the fish that was
visible above water could not have been less than thirty feet in length.
It just looked as if our longboat had jumped out of the sea, and he was
so near that I could see his great mouth quite plainly. I could have
tossed a biscuit on his back easily. Sending two thick spouts of frothy
water out of his blow-holes forty feet into the air with tremendous noise,
he fell flat upon the sea with a clap like thunder, tossed his flukes, or
tail, high into the air, and disappeared.
I was so amazed at this sight that I could not speak. I could only stare at
the place where the huge monster had gone down.
"Stand by to lower," shouted the captain.
"Ay, ay, sir," replied the men, leaping to their appointed stations; for
every man in a whale-ship has his post of duty appointed to him, and
knows what to do when an order is given.
"Lower away," cried the captain, whose face was now blazing with
excitement.
In a moment more three boats were in the water; the tubs, harpoons,
etcetera, were thrown in, the men seized the oars, and away they went
with a cheer. I was in such a state of flutter that I scarce knew what I
did; but I managed somehow or other to get into a boat, and as I was a
strong fellow, and a good rower, I was allowed to pull.

"There she blows!" cried the man in the crow's nest, just as we shot
from the side of the ship. There was no need to ask, "where away" this
time. Another whale rose and spouted not more than three hundred
yards off, and before we could speak a third fish rose in another
direction, and we found ourselves in the middle, of what is called a
"school of whales."
"Now, lads," said the captain, who steered the boat in which I rowed,
"bend your backs, my hearties; that fish right ahead of us is a
hundred-barrel whale for certain. Give way, boys; we must have that
fish."
There was no need to urge the men, for their backs were strained to the
utmost, their faces were flushed, and the big veins in their necks
swelled almost to bursting, with the tremendous exertion.
"Hold hard," said the captain, in a low voice, for now that we were
getting near our prey, we made as little noise as possible.
The men at once threw their oars "apeak," as they say; that is, raised
them straight up in the air, and waited for further orders. We expected
the whale would rise near to where we were, and thought it best to rest
and look out.
While we were waiting, Tom Lokins, who was harpooner of the boat,
sat just behind me with all his irons ready. He took this opportunity to
explain to me that by a "hundred-barrel fish" is meant a fish that will
yield a hundred-barrels of oil. He further informed me that such a fish
was a big one, though he had seen a few in the North-west Seas that
had produced upwards of two hundred-barrels.
I now observed that the other boats had separated, and each had gone
after a different whale. In a few minutes the fish we were in chase of
rose a short distance off, and sent up two splendid water-spouts high
into the air, thus showing that he was what the whalers call a "right"
whale. It is different from the sperm whale, which has only one
blow-hole, and that a little one.

We rowed towards it with all our might, and as we drew near, the