Fighting the Whales

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER SEVEN.

  TOM'S WISDOM--ANOTHER GREAT BATTLE.

  One day I was standing beside the windlass, listening to theconversation of five or six of the men, who were busy sharpeningharpoons and cutting-knives, or making all kinds of toys and things outof whales' bones. We had just finished cutting-in and trying out ourthird whale, and as it was not long since we reached the fishing-ground,we were in high hopes of making a good thing of it that season; so thatevery one was in good spirits, from the captain down to the youngest manin the ship.

  Tom Lokins was smoking his pipe, and Tom's pipe was an uncommonly blackone, for he smoked it very often. Moreover, Tom's pipe was uncommonlyshort, so short that I always wondered how he escaped burning the end ofhis nose. Indeed, some of the men said that the redness of the end ofTom's nose was owing to its being baked like a brick by the heat of hispipe. Tom took this pipe from his mouth, and while he was pushing downthe tobacco with the end of his little finger, he said--

  "D'ye know, lads, I've been thinkin'--"

  "No, have ye?" cried one of the men, interrupting him with a look ofpretended surprise. "Well now, I do think, messmates, that we should axthe mate to make a note o' that in the log, for it's not often that TomLokins takes to thinkin'."

  There was a laugh at this, but Tom, turning with a look of contempt tothe man who interrupted him, replied--

  "I'll tell you wot it is, Bill Blunt, if all the thoughts that _you_think, and especially the jokes that you utter, wos put down in the log,they'd be so heavy that I do believe they would sink the ship!"

  "Well, well," cried Bill, joining in the laugh against himself, "if theydid, _your_ jokes would be so light and triflin' that I do believethey'd float her again. But what have you been a-thinkin' of, Tom?"

  "I've been thinkin'," said Tom slowly, "that if a whale makes hisbreakfast entirely off them little things that you can hardly see whenyou get 'em into a tumbler--I forget how the captain calls 'em--wot a_tree-mendous_ heap of 'em he must eat in the course of a year!"

  "Thousands of 'em, I suppose," said one of the men.

  "Thousands!" cried Tom, "I should rather say billions of them."

  "How much is billions, mate?" inquired Bill.

  "I don't know," answered Tom. "Never could find out. You see it'sheaps upon heaps of thousands, for the thousands come first and thebillions afterwards; but when I've thought uncommon hard, for a longspell at a time, I always get confused, because millions comes inbetween, d'ye see, and that's puzzlin'."

  "I think I could give you some notion about these things," said FredBorders, who had been quietly listening all the time, but never puttingin a word, for, as I have said, Fred was a modest bashful man and seldomspoke much. But we had all come to notice that when Fred spoke, he hadalways something to say worth hearing; and when he did speak he spokeout boldly enough. We had come to have feelings of respect for ouryoung shipmate, for he was a kind-hearted lad, and we saw by hisconversation that he had been better educated than the most of us, soall our tongues stopped as the eyes of the party turned on him.

  "Come, Fred, let's hear it then," said Tom.

  "It's not much I have to tell," began Fred, "but it may help to makeyour minds clearer on this subject. On my first voyage to thewhale-fishery (you know, lads, this is my second voyage) I went to theGreenland Seas. We had a young doctor aboard with us--quite a youth;indeed he had not finished his studies at college, but he was cleverer,for all that, than many an older man that had gone through his wholecourse. I do believe that the reason of his being so clever was, thathe was for ever observing things, and studying them, and making notes,and trying to find out reasons. He was never satisfied with knowing athing; he must always find out _why_ it was. One day I heard him askthe captain what it was that made the sea so green in some parts ofthose seas. Our captain was an awfully stupid man. So long as he gotplenty of oil he didn't care two straws for the reason of anything. Theyoung doctor had been bothering him that morning with a good manyquestions, so when he asked him what made the sea green, he answeredsharply, `I suppose it makes itself green, young man,' and then heturned from him with a fling.

  "The doctor laughed, and came forward among the men, and began to tellus stories and ask questions. Ah! he was a real hearty fellow; he wouldtell you all kinds of queer things, and would pump you dry of all youknew in no time. Well, but the thing I was going to tell you was this.One of the men said to him he had heard that the greenness of theGreenland Sea, was caused by the little things like small bits of jelly,on which the whales feed. As soon as he heard this he got a bucket andhauled some sea-water aboard, and for the next ten days he was neverdone working away with the sea-water; pouring it into tumblers andglasses; looking through it by daylight and by lamplight; tasting it,and boiling it, and examining it with a microscope."

  "What's a microscope?" inquired one of the men.

  "Don't you know?" said Tom Lokins, "why it's a glass that makes littlethings seem big, when ye look through it. I've heerd say that beaststhat are so uncommon small that you can't see them at all are made tocome into sight, and look quite big, by means o' this glass. But Ican't myself say that it's true."

  "But I can," said Fred, "for I have seen it with my own eyes. Well,after a good while, I made bold to ask the young doctor what he hadfound out.

  "`I've found,' said he, `that the greenness of these seas is in truthcaused by uncountable numbers of medusae--'"

  "Ha! that's the word," shouted Tom Lokins, "Medoosy, that's wot thecaptain calls 'em. Heave ahead, Fred."

  "Well, then," continued Fred, "the young doctor went on to tell me thathe had been counting the matter to himself very carefully, and he foundthat in every square mile of sea-water there were living about elevenquadrillions, nine hundred and ninety-nine trillions of these littlecreatures!"

  "Oh! hallo! come now!" we all cried, opening our eyes very wide indeed.

  "But, I say, how much is that?" inquired Tom Lokins.

  "Ah! that's just what I said to the young doctor, and he said to me,`I'll tell you what, Fred Borders, no man alive understands how muchthat is, and what's more, no man ever will; but I'll give you _somenotion_ of what it means;' and so he told me how long it would takeforty thousand men to count that number of eleven quadrillions, ninehundred and ninety-nine trillions, each man of the forty thousandbeginning `one,' `two,' `three,' and going on till the sum of the wholeadded together would make it up. Now, how long d'ye think it would takethem?--guess."

  Fred Borders smiled as he said this, and looked round the circle of men.

  "I know," cried one, "it would take the whole forty thousand a _week_ todo it."

  "Oh! nonsense, they could do it easy in two days," said another.

  "That shows how little you know about big numbers," observed Tom Lokins,knocking the ashes out of his pipe. "I'm pretty sure it couldn't bedone in much less than six months; workin' hard all day, and makin'allowance for only one hour off for dinner."

  "You're all wrong, shipmates," said Fred Borders. "That young doctortold me that if they'd begun work at the day of creation they would onlyhave just finished the job last year!"

  "Oh! gammon, you're jokin'," cried Bill Blunt.

  "No, I'm not," said Fred, "for I was told afterwards by an old clergymanthat the young doctor was quite right, and that any one who was good at'rithmetic could work the thing out for himself in less thanhalf-an-hour."

  Just as Fred said this there came a loud cry from the mast-head thatmade us all spring to our feet like lightning.

  "There she blows! There she breaches!"

  The captain was on deck in a moment.

  "Where away?" he cried.

  "On the lee beam, sir. Sperm whale, about two miles off. There sheblows!"

  Every man was at his station in a moment; for, after being some monthsout, we became so used to the work, that we acted together like a pieceof machinery. But our excitement never abated in the least.

  "Sing out when the
ship heads for her."

  "Ay, ay, sir."

  "Keep her away!" said the captain to the man at the helm. "Bob Ledbury,hand me the spyglass."

  "Steady," from the mast-head.

  "Steady it is," answered the man at the helm.

  While we were all looking eagerly out ahead we heard a thundering snorebehind us, followed by a heavy splash. Turning quickly round, we sawthe flukes of an enormous whale sweeping through the air not more thansix hundred yards astern of us.

  "Down your helm," roared the captain; "haul up the mainsail, and squarethe yards. Call all hands."

  "All hands, ahoy!" roared Bill Blunt, in a voice of thunder, and inanother moment every man in the ship was on deck.

  "Hoist and swing the boats," cried the captain. "Lower away."

  Down went the boats into the water; the men were into their placesalmost before you could wink, and we pulled away from the ship just asthe whale rose the second time, about half a mile away to leeward.

  From the appearance of this whale we felt certain that it was one of thelargest we had yet seen, so we pulled after it with right good will. Ioccupied my usual place in the captain's boat, next the bow-oar, justbeside Tom Lokins, who was ready with his harpoons in the bow. YoungBorders pulled the oar directly in front of me. The captain himselfsteered, and, as our crew was a picked one, we soon left the other twoboats behind us.

  Presently a small whale rose close beside us, and, sending a shower ofspray over the boat, went down in a pool of foam. Before we had time tospeak, another whale rose on the opposite side of the boat, and thenanother on our starboard bow. We had got into the middle of a shoal ofwhales, which commenced leaping and spouting all round us, little awareof the dangerous enemy that was so near.

  In a few minutes more, up comes the big one again that we had firstseen. He seemed very active and wild. After blowing on the surfaceonce or twice, about a quarter of a mile off, he peaked his flukes, andpitched down head foremost.

  "Now then, lads, he's down for a long dive," said the captain; "springyour oars like men, we'll get that fish for certain, if you'll onlypull."

  The captain was mistaken; the whale had only gone down deep in order tocome up and breach, or spring out of the water, for the next minute hecame up not a hundred yards from us, and leaped his whole length intothe air.

  A shout of surprise broke from the men, and no wonder, for this was thelargest fish I ever saw or heard of, and he came up so clear of thewater, that we could see him from head to tail, as he turned over in theair, exposing his white belly to view, and came down on his great sidewith a crash like thunder, that might have been heard six miles off. Asplendid mass of pure white spray burst from the spot where he fell, andin another moment he was gone.

  "I do believe it's _New Zealand Tom_," cried Bill Blunt, referring to anold bull whale that had become famous among the men who frequented theseseas, for its immense size and fierceness, and for the great trouble ithad given them, smashing some of their boats, and carrying away many oftheir harpoons.

  "I don't know whether it's New Zealand Tom or not," said the captain,"but it's pretty clear that he's an old sperm bull. Give way, lads, wemust get that whale, whatever it should cost us."

  We did not need a second bidding; the size of the fish was so great thatwe felt more excited than we had yet been during the voyage, so we bentour oars till we almost pulled the boat out of the water. The otherboats had got separated, chasing the little whales, so we had this oneall to ourselves.

  "There she blows!" said Tom Lokins, in a low voice, as the fish came upa short distance astern of us.

  We had overshot our mark, so, turning about, we made for the whale,which kept for a considerable time near the top of the water, spoutingnow and then, and going slowly to windward. We at last got within a fewfeet of the monster, and the captain suddenly gave the word, "Stand up."

  This was to our harpooner, Tom Lokins, who jumped up on the instant, andburied two harpoons deep in the blubber.

  "Stern all!" was the next word, and we backed off with all our might.It was just in time, for, in his agony, the whale tossed his tail rightover our heads, the flukes were so big that they could have completelycovered the boat, and he brought them down flat on the sea with a clapthat made our ears tingle, while a shower of spray drenched us to theskin. For one moment I thought it was all over with us, but we weresoon out of immediate danger, and lay on our oars watching the writhingsof the wounded monster as he lashed the ocean into foam. The water allround us soon became white like milk, and the foam near the whale wasred with blood.

  Suddenly this ceased, and, before we could pull up to lance him, he wentdown, taking the line out at such a rate that the boat spun round, andsparks of fire flew from the logger-head, from the chafing of the rope.

  "Hold on!" cried the captain, and next moment we were tearing over thesea at a fearful rate, with a bank of white foam rolling before us, highabove our bows, and away on each side of us like the track of a steamer,so that we expected it every moment to rush in-board and swamp us. Ihad never seen anything like this before. From the first I had a kindof feeling that some evil would befall us.

  While we were tearing over the water in this way, we saw the otherwhales coming up every now and then, and blowing quite near to us, andpresently we passed close enough to the first mate's boat to see that hewas fast to a fish, and unable, therefore, to render us help if weshould need it.

  In a short time the line began to slack, so we hauled it in hand overhand, and Tom Lokins coiled it away in the tub in the stern of the boat,while the captain took his place in the bow to be ready with the lance.The whale soon came up, and we pulled with all our might towards him.Instead of making off again, however, he turned round and made straightat the boat. I now thought that destruction was certain, for, when Isaw his great blunt forehead coming down on us like a steamboat, I feltthat we could not escape. I was mistaken. The captain received him onthe point of his lance, and the whale has such a dislike to pain, thateven a small prick will sometimes turn him.

  For some time we kept dodging round this fellow; but he was so old andwise, that he always turned his head to us, and prevented us fromgetting a chance to lance him. At last he turned a little to one side,and the captain plunged the lance deep into his vitals.

  "Ha! that's touched his life," cried Tom, as a stream of blood flew upfrom his blow-holes, a sure sign that he was mortally wounded. But hewas not yet conquered. After receiving the cruel stab with the lance,he pitched right down, head foremost, and once more the line began tofly out over the bow. We tried to hold on, but he was going so straightdown that the boat was almost swamped, and we had to slack off toprevent our being pulled under water.

  Before many yards of the line had run out, one of the coils in the tubbecame entangled.

  "Look out, lads," cried Tom, and at once throwing the turn off thelogger-head, he made an attempt to clear it. The captain, in trying todo the same thing, slipped and fell. Seeing this, I sprang up, and,grasping the coil as it flew past, tried to clear it. Before I couldthink, a turn whipped round my left wrist. I felt a wrench as if my armhad been torn out of the socket, and in a moment I was overboard, [seefrontispiece] going down with almost lightning speed into the depths ofthe sea. Strange to say, I did not lose my presence of mind. I knewexactly what had happened. I felt myself rushing down, down, down, withterrific speed; a stream of fire seemed to be whizzing past my eyes;there was a dreadful pressure on my brain, and a roaring, as if ofthunder, in my ears. Yet, even in that dread moment, thoughts ofeternity, of my sins, and of meeting with my God, flashed into my mind,for thought is quicker than the lightning flash.

  Of a sudden the roaring ceased, and I felt myself buffeting the waterfiercely in my efforts to reach the surface. I know not how I got free,but I suppose the turn of the line must have slackened off somehow. Allthis happened within the space of a few brief moments; but oh! theyseemed fearfully long to me. I do not think I could have
held my breatha second longer.

  When I came to the surface, and tried to look about me, I saw the boatnot more than fifty yards off, and, being a good swimmer, I struck outfor it, although I felt terribly exhausted. In a few minutes mycomrades saw me, and, with a cheer put out the oars and began to rowtowards me. I saw that the line was slack, and that they were haulingit in--a sign that the whale had ceased running and would soon come tothe surface again. Before they had pulled half-a-dozen strokes I sawthe water open close beside the boat, and the monstrous head of thewhale shot up like a great rock rising out of the deep.

  He was not more than three feet from the boat, and he came up with suchforce, that more than half his gigantic length came out of the waterright over the boat. I heard the captain's loud cry--"_Stern all_!"But it was too late, the whole weight of the monster's body fell uponthe boat; there was a crash and a terrible cry, as the whale and boatwent down together.

  For a few moments he continued to lash the sea in his fury, and thefragments of the boat floated all round him. I thought that every man,of course, had been killed; but one after another their heads appearedin the midst of blood and foam, and they struck out for oars and piecesof the wreck.

  Providentially, the whale, in his tossings, had shot a little away fromthe spot, else every man must certainly have been killed.

  A feeling of horror filled my heart, as I beheld all this, and thoughtupon my position. Fortunately, I had succeeded in reaching a brokenplank; for my strength was now so much exhausted, that I could not havekept my head above water any longer without its assistance. Just then Iheard a cheer, and the next time I rose on the swell, I looked quicklyround and saw the mate's boat making for the scene of action as fast asa stout and willing crew could pull. In a few minutes more I wasclutched by the arm, and hauled into it. My comrades were next rescued,and we thanked God when we found that none were killed, although one ofthem had got a leg broken, and another an arm twisted out of joint.They all, however, seemed to think that my escape was much morewonderful than theirs; but I cannot say that I agreed with them in this.

  We now turned our attention to the whale, which had dived again. As itwas now loose, we did not know, of course, where it would come up, so welay still awhile. Very soon up he came, not far from us, and as fierceas ever.

  "Now, lads, we _must_ get that whale," cried the mate; "give way with awill."

  The order was obeyed. The boat almost leaped over the swell, and,before long, another harpoon was in the whale's back.

  "Fast again, hurrah!" shouted the mate, "now for the lance."

  He gave the monster two deep stabs while he spoke, and spouting the redstream of life, it rolled on the sea in agony, obliging us to keep wellout of its way.

  I could not look upon the dying struggles of this enormous fish withoutfeelings of regret and self-reproach, for helping to destroy it. I feltalmost as if I were a murderer, and that the Creator would call me toaccount for taking part in the destruction of one of His grandest livingcreatures. But the thought passed quickly from my mind as the whalebecame more violent and went into its flurry. It began to lash the seawith such astonishing violence, that all the previous struggles seemedas nothing. The water all round became white like milk, with greatstreaks of red blood running through it, and the sound of the quickblows of its tail and fins resembled that of dull hollow thunder. Wegazed at this scene in deep silence and with beating hearts.

  All at once the struggles ceased. The great carcass rolled over bellyup, and lay extended on the sea in death. To me it seemed as if a deadcalm had suddenly fallen around us, after a long and furious storm, sogreat was the change when that whale at length parted with its hugelife. The silence was suddenly broken by three hearty cheers, and then,fastening a rope to our prize, we commenced towing it to the ship, whichoperation occupied us the greater part of the night, for we had no fewerthan eight miles to pull.