The South Sea Whaler

by William Henry Giles Kingston

  CHAPTER SEVEN.

  ON THE WHALE'S BACK--SIGNS OF A WRECK--LIGHT A FIRE AND COOK BLUBBER--ANOVEL LAMP CONTRIVED--A SAIL IN SIGHT--DISAPPOINTMENT--NUB'S NARROWESCAPE--THE WHALE ROLLS OVER--A FEARFUL PREDICAMENT--THE RAFT WITHWALTER SAILS AWAY.

  As the voyagers were anxious to reach the creature which lay beforethem, they got out the oars, the mate and Nub pulling, while Waltersteered.

  "I see some harpoons and spears sticking in the creature's back,"exclaimed Walter.

  "They will be of use, if we cannot get anything else from it, as weshall be able to kill any dolphins or bonitoes which swim near us," saidthe mate.

  "I tink me get some slices of meat out of de back of de creature," saidNub. "We no want food now."

  "We shall find it rather high-flavoured and somewhat tough," observedthe mate; "but it will keep body and soul together; and we must not beparticular."

  Walter, though very hungry, felt no inclination to eat whale's blubber,especially if the creature had been dead for some time,--though he hadheard that the Eskimos consider it dainty food, and eat it in vastquantities. Poor Alice, who had been unable to swallow the mixture offlying-fish and oil, shuddered at the thought.

  "I see a quantity of gear hanging about the creature's head," saidWalter; "and that makes me suppose that it must have been fast to aship. If so, it cannot be a fish my father has struck; and some otherwhaler besides ours must be in the neighbourhood."

  "I am of your mind," said the mate. "We shall know for certain, when weget alongside, by the harpoons. However, the idea gives me hope that weshall obtain assistance before long."

  The voyagers were gradually approaching the monster, which was certainlynot a sperm whale, though it was of enormous size, floating far higherout of the water than does that creature. They therefore came to theconclusion that it was of a rare and hitherto unknown species. (Note1.) A quantity of gear with some large floats hung about its head,while the harpoons sticking in it had their lines attached. The onlyway to account for this was, that the people who had attacked it hadfancied that it was dead, and that it had suddenly revived and brokenloose from them.

  The whale was soon reached, when the raft was made fast to a couple ofthe harpoon-lines which hung from its body. It was no easy matter toclimb to the top of its back; but the mate, bidding Alice remain on theraft, hauled himself up by the lines which hung from it, Walter and Nubfollowing his example. On reaching the top of the whale's back, themate examined the flag.

  "This is an American piece of bunting," he exclaimed. "It shows withoutdoubt that it was killed by the boats of one of their whalers. Thereare a good many of them in these seas at present, and they are not thefellows to abandon a fish they have once caught."

  "Dat is what I was tinking," observed Nub. "I don't tink any Englishmaneber kill such a 'straordinary-looking fish as dis."

  "I have seen a good many, but never one like it," said the mate.

  "I only hope it good to eat; and de sooner me cut some blubber and cookit, de better. Mr Shobbrok, you got tinder-box and flint and steel?"

  "Yes," answered the mate, "I always carry them; though, as we cannotlight a fire on the raft, I have hitherto made no use of them. But howdo you propose lighting one on the top of the whale, Nub?"

  "We get up some pieces of wood from de raft, and den, with de blubber,we soon have one blazing fire," answered the black. Descending to theraft, he took one of the pieces of plank and began to chop it up. "Wesoon have some dinner for you, Missie Alice," he said while so employed."You stay quiet on de raft, and not fancy you going to starve anymore." Having performed his task, he secured the wood in a bundle, andhoisting it on his back, he climbed up again.

  During Nub's absence the mate and Walter looked anxiously around them,in the possibility of any boats being in sight. None were to be seen;but they observed several objects floating about, apparently pieces ofwreck, spars and casks,--and among them a sea-chest, which seemed oflarge size, as it rose considerably above the surface.

  "We must try and get hold of that," said the mate. "It may containarticles of value to us, though I am afraid we are not likely to findany food within it."

  "I would rather have a cask of biscuits or flour, or beef or pork,"observed Walter.

  "I doubt whether we shall find such," said the mate, "for I observe thatthe casks float high out of the water. But has it struck you, Walter,what must have happened?"

  "I was thinking that these things must have come out of our ship andfloated away here," answered Walter.

  "They cannot have come so far by this time," said the mate. "I thinkthat I can unravel the mystery. This whale was attacked by the boats ofa ship, some of which were probably destroyed by the monster. It wasthen towed alongside, when she was either capsized in a storm, or,receiving damage from some other cause, she went down, and the articleswe now see floated up out of her. Possibly she was struck by some largewhale, and her bottom or sides stove in; such a thing has occurredbefore now. I remember some years ago a big whale off the coast of NewZealand which went by the name of New Zealand Tom. He was a monster,and capable of sending any ship to the bottom. I was in one of theboats of the _Adonis_ whaler when, in company with a dozen others, wewent one morning to chase that very whale. Most of us got near enoughto drive our harpoons into its body; but it made us pay dearly for oursport, for before breakfast it had knocked nine of our boats to pieces,and we were obliged to return to our respective ships. Some weekspassed before we again got sight of the creature; when, in company withseveral other boats, we again attacked it, and this time came offvictorious. You will scarcely believe it, but we found eight harpoonsin its body belonging to as many different ships, which had chased it atvarious times. Big as it was, there are others as big, and evenfiercer. I remember meeting a man who had belonged to the Americanwhaler _Essex_. All the boats but one were on one occasion away withthe larger portion of the crew, leaving only the doctor and a few otherson board, when they caught sight of an enormous sperm whale comingtowards them, as if not seeing the ship; suddenly lifting its flukes upin the air, it sounded, throwing the water over the deck, when they felta tremendous blow, as if the ship under full sail had struck a rock.The blow broke off some of the keel, which was seen floating up to thesurface. The whale quickly rose again, and was observed at a shortdistance from the ship; when, what was the horror of those on board tosee it come swimming directly at them with the greatest fury! It struckthe bows a tremendous blow, staving them in. A cry arose that the shipwas sinking; and so she was. The water was rushing into her like amill-sluice; and the people had scarcely time to get into the remainingboat when she capsized, the casks in her hold for a time keeping her up.The people in the other boats, seeing their ship going down, pulledback and managed to get a small quantity of provisions; but before theyhad obtained as much as they required down she went, leaving the boatsto find their way to land as best they could. They steered for thecoast of Peru--the event happened on the other side of the Pacific--butonly one boat, with three men in her at their last gasp, was picked up;they happily recovered, and were able to narrate what had happened. Therest of the poor fellows must have perished, as none of the other boatswere ever afterwards heard of. Now, it's my opinion that something ofthe sort I have described has happened to the ship which had got hold ofthis whale; though what has become of her crew is more than I can tell."

  "I trust that our fate may not be that of the unfortunate crew of the_Essex_," said Walter.

  "I trust not, lad," answered the mate; "I shall be sorry I told you thestory, if it affects your spirits. We shall do very well if we can getprovisions,--and four people are more easily fed than forty,--so don'tthink about it. Here comes Nub with a bundle of wood, and we will seeif we can light a fire and cook some blubber; but I wish we had somemore delicate food for your dear young sister."

  Nub, who had brought the axe, having chopped off several pieces of skinfrom the fattest part of the whale's back, made a pile o
f the wood andplaced the dry skin on the top of it. The mate then produced his flintand steel, and striking a light, set fire with a match to the bottom ofthe pile.

  "While de fire blazes up, I cut some nice pieces of blubber," said Nub;and setting to work, he soon produced several lumps, which he stuck atthe end of some other sticks brought for the purpose. The oil whichoozed up out of the whale's back made the flames rapidly blaze up. Eachof the party then held the blubber--which sputtered and hissed morevehemently than the fattest of bacon in a cook's frying-pan--to thefire. The odour was certainly not pleasant, but Nub sniffed it up,exclaiming, as he bit off a piece, "Oh, dis bery fine; it soon make usquite strong and fat, and we go a week without eating anyting else."

  Walter did not feel quite satisfied on that point; however, he managedto get down a few mouthfuls. Having roasted a piece as nicely as hecould, he hurried down with it to Alice.

  "If you think I ought to eat it, I will," she said; "but it does notsmell nice."

  "I am afraid we are not likely to get anything else at present, and it'sour duty to try and keep up our strength. It will, I hope, have thateffect, though it may taste disagreeable at first."

  Alice, who was really ravenously hungry, overcame her repugnance to theunattractive food, and ate it up; taking at the same time, to help itdown, a small piece of biscuit which had been reserved for her. Walterthen climbed up again and joined the party on the whale's back.

  The skin and blubber affording ample fuel, they were able to keep uptheir fire and cook a considerable quantity of blubber; for to eat itraw in its present condition they felt would be impossible, but toastedin thin slices it would, they hoped, keep for some time. They triedseveral portions, and agreed that the most eatable were those on eitherside of the hump. As the chest and casks did not appear to be driftingaway from the whale, they agreed that it was not necessary to put offexpressly to get hold of them. Having cooked as much blubber as waslikely to keep till it was consumed, they carried it down to the raft,where it was stowed away in the hen-coop, which was considered coolerthan any other place. The mate proposed that while they were alongsidethe whale they should take the opportunity of more firmly securing thefresh part of the raft, as they had now a favourable opportunity fordoing so. This took them some time, but they were well satisfied whenthe work was done.

  "And now, my lad, we must not go away, without the harpoons and spears,for I have hopes, by their means, of getting a good supply of food. Wemay catch bonitoes and other big fish with the harpoons; and with thespears we may strike any smaller ones which come within reach."

  "I have been thinking, Mr Shobbrok, that if we could manage a lamp, wemight, on a calm evening, attract the fish to the side of the raft, asis often done, I have read, by savages, who then spear them; and theblubber will afford us oil for the purpose."

  "Bery bright idea, Massa Walter," exclaimed Nub. "De hole where we madede fire is full of oil, and me fill up two of de empty bottles with it;den, as we have no saucer for de lamp, suppose you take one of yourshoes,--it will hold de oil for de purpose."

  "I will gladly give up both my shoes," said Walter.

  "So will I mine," exclaimed Alice; "if they are of any use."

  "We need not deprive you of yours, Miss Alice," said the mate; "I mustinsist rather on mine being taken. And for a wick, we have only to picka rope to pieces and twist it up lightly."

  Nub, taking the two empty bottles, climbed up again on the whale's back.He found even more oil than he had expected, and filling the bottles,lowered them on the raft. He was about to descend, when he was seenlooking eagerly out on the other side of the whale.

  "What is it?" asked the mate.

  "A sail! a sail!" he shouted, clapping his hands, and dancingfrantically about at a great risk of slipping off into the water. Themate and Walter quickly climbed up, anxious to ascertain the truth ofNub's assertion.

  "Dere! dere!" he exclaimed. "To the south. Dere she comes! MissieAlice and Massa Walter soon be safe!"

  "That's not a ship," observed the mate. "If you look steadily, you willsee that it's a long way on this side of the horizon, and but littleraised above the water. It would not appear so distinct as it does ifit was the topgallant-sail of a ship, hull down. That's the sail of aboat or a raft; and before long it will be near at hand."

  Alice eagerly inquired what they were looking at. Walter having toldher what the mate said, could with difficulty persuade her to remain onthe raft, so anxious was she to climb up to see the object in sight.

  The party on the whale's back stood watching the sail; but instead,however, of it coming directly towards them, as they had expected itwould do, it was seen, when about a mile off, to be steering a course onwhich it would pass them scarcely nearer than it then was. Walterseized the flag out of the whale's back and waved it over his head,shouting at the top of his voice, as did the mate and Nub, to attractattention; but apparently they were not seen, and certainly could nothave been heard.

  "It is more than I can make out, what they are about," observed Walter."They must have caught sight of the whale, and whether that's a boat ora raft, it's surprising that they should not have come nearer to have alook at us. They seem to have a pretty stiff breeze out there, and itwould not have taken them much out of their way."

  "I am sure that it is a raft," said the mate, "as, with the breeze theyhave got, and that large sail, a boat would move much faster through thewater than they are doing. Depend on it, those are the _Champion's_people, and they have got some reason for not wishing to communicatewith us. I am pretty sure they fancy that this whale was killed by thecaptain, and that, not finding the ship, he returned to it. I may bewrong, but I think I am not much out in my calculations."

  "But suppose you are wrong, and my father is on board the raft, couldnot we shove off and overtake it?"

  "As it is almost dead to windward, we should not have the slightestchance of doing so; and see! they are still holding their course. Ifthey had wished to communicate with us, they would have lowered theirsail; and they must see the smoke of the fire, even should they not makeout the flag,--though they could scarcely have failed to do that."

  "I tink I could swim much faster dan our raft could pull against dewind," said Nub; "supposing de captain on board, den I tell him datMassa Walter and Missie Alice on de whale, and he sure to come."

  "You had better not make the attempt, Nub," said the mate. "You willhave a long swim before you can reach the raft; and if you fail to doso, you will be exhausted before you can possibly get back."

  "Neber fear, Mr Shobbrok," he answered. "If I get tired I can rest onone of dose casks, or perhaps I find some spar or piece of timber whichkeep me up;" and before the mate or Walter could stop him, Nub hadslipped off into the sea on the opposite side to that to which the raftwas secured, so that Alice did not see him. Nub struck out boldly, andmade rapid way. The mate and Walter stood watching him.

  "That black is indeed a first-rate swimmer," observed the mate. "Heavenprotect the brave fellow."

  Nub, however, had not got more than two or three cable's lengths fromthe whale when he was seen to turn, while he furiously beat the waterwith his hands and feet, at the same time shouting out loudly.

  "Oh, what are those black-looking things moving about on either side ofhim?" exclaimed Walter.

  "Those are sharks' fins," answered the mate. "He must have caught sightof them; and he knows well that, should he get tired, they will attackhim."

  "O poor Nub! poor Nub! Can he escape them?" exclaimed Walter, wringinghis hands and looking the picture of despair. "O Mr Shobbrok, can wedo nothing to save him?"

  "We can only shout and try to frighten the sharks, as Nub is doing,"answered the mate.

  "Oh, I will do that," cried Walter; and he began to shriek and jumpfrantically about in a way which made the mate begin to feel anxious onhis account: still Mr Shobbrok himself shouted at the top of his voice,and then bethought him of cutting pieces of blubber and throwin
g them asfar away as possible, in order to attract the savage creatures and todraw their attention off from the black. The plan seemed to succeed,and several of them were seen to dash forward and spring out of thewater to catch the blubber before it reached the surface. Nub,meanwhile, was making rapid way towards the side of the whale.

  "Now, Walter," said the mate, "do as I have been doing, while I get aharpoon-line ready to haul the black out of the water; but take care, mydear boy, that you don't slip off."

  Walter did as the mate told him, still continuing to shriek out asloudly as before. Bending the end of one of the lines to the centre ofa spear, Mr Shobbrok let it drop into the water, where it floated;while he stood by to haul up Nub as soon as he caught hold of it.Walter continued in the meantime cutting off pieces of blubber andthrowing them towards the head of the whale, and as long as he did sothe sharks remained on the watch for the delicious morsels. At lengthNub reached the spear, and grasping hold of it, endeavoured to haulhimself up; but he was evidently greatly exhausted by his rapid swim,and the dread he had experienced of being seized by one of the monstersswarming around. The mate, who had begun to haul him in, called Walterto his assistance. They had got the black half out of the water, whenthey saw several of the dark fins gliding towards him. How poor Waltershouted and shrieked!--while he and the mate hauled away with all theirmight, every instant dreading to see the savage creatures tear at Nub'slegs. With all their strength they hauled away, when, just as Nub'sfeet were clear of the water, two enormous sharks rose with open mouthsabove the surface to seize him. Happily they were disappointed, for thecreatures in their eagerness rushing against each other, missed theiraim, their heads nearly touching the soles of his feet--which, as may besupposed, he quickly drew up; while the mate and Walter, hauling away,got him fairly up to the top of the whale's back. As soon as he wassafe, Walter threw his arm around him, exclaiming, "Have the creaturesbitten you, Nub? Have you really escaped them? oh, why did you go--oh,why did you go?"

  "Yes, Massa Walter, I quite safe, neber fear," answered Nub, panting forbreath. "Dey no hurt me, though dey would have liked to eat me up asthey did the blubber which you and de mate threw to dem; no doubt aboutdat."

  "I am thankful that you have got back safe, Nub," said the mate. "Itwas a bold attempt, but it would have been a vain one; for I am as sureas I stand here that the captain is not on board the raft out there."

  "Oh, where can my father have gone, then?" exclaimed Walter, who wasstill in a state of unusual excitement, into which, weakened as he wasby famine, the alarm he had just experienced had thrown him.

  "Your father is in his boat, be assured of that, Walter," answered themate calmly; "and now, the sooner you go on the raft and join yoursister the better." Still Walter did not go, but again seizing theflag, kept waving it; but the raft glided on, moved by the strong wind,which now reached the part of the ocean on which the whale floated. Themate himself could not help standing to watch it, but it rapidly gotfarther and farther off. At last, taking Walter's arm, he said, "Come,we must waste no more time here; Nub and I will help you down to theraft."

  Walter made no resistance, but allowed himself to be lowered down, themate and Nub following him. Alice threw her arms around his neck whenshe saw him, exclaiming,--"What has all that noise been about? I havebeen so frightened. Why did you not come and tell me?"

  The mate briefly explained what had happened; while Walter, withapparent calmness, added a few remarks; and, soothed by his sister'svoice, he soon appeared to recover, and Mr Shobbrok had noapprehensions about him. The mate told him to lie down and rest, whichhe at once did. The raft being on the lee side of the whale, he and Nubthen hoisted the sail.

  "Oh, Massa Shobbrok, we have forgotten de harpoons!" exclaimed Nub.

  "So we have," answered the mate. "In my anxiety about Walter I forgotthem."

  "Den I go up and get dem," said Nub; and he again climbed up the side ofthe whale. He had lowered down a couple of harpoons and three spears,when the mate, who had in the meantime cast off the lines which hadsecured the raft to the whale, in his anxiety to lose no time, sprang upto pull out another spear which had been fixed nearer the tail; Alice,who was standing near him, taking hold of the line still attached to it.At that moment, from some unknown cause, the monster body began tomove, and before either the mate or Nub could descend, over it rolled;while Alice, in her terror still holding on to the line, was lifted fromher feet and dragged into the water. The sail, no longer under the leeof the huge carcass, filled, and away glided the raft, leaving the poorlittle girl, with the mate and Nub at some distance from her, strugglingin the water.

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  Note 1. The author confesses that he has had some difficulty inunderstanding the descriptions in the old journal from which the tale istaken. From its evident truthfulness and general accuracy, he would notfeel justified in altering them. But the illustration beats him, andsets at defiance all the accounts in his books of natural history. Hemust therefore leave his readers to judge for themselves.