On Sunday, April 27th, we lowered away for, and captured a fine sperm whale. The James Allen’s boats lowered at the same time with ours; they arrived first to the whale, ran on, and darted; but their boatsteerer missed, and our waist boat, seizing the opportunity, ran on and fastened. On the following Sunday we again saw sperm whales, and captured another; on the succeeding day the weather was boisterous, but we proceeded, in the face of numerous difficulties, to cut him in: just as we had got him in a good position for hooking on, the fluke chain parted, and away he went. We lowered away, and a second time secured him. In attempting to veer, the whale got under the ship, and it was only by strenuous tugging and hauling that we raised him. At length we began to cut, and towards noon had the head severed from the body; but, after various attempts, we gave up all hopes of saving it; it was then allowed to tow from the quarter; we then went to work at the body, and at 5 o’clock in the afternoon had it all aboard. The weather having moderated, we renewed our efforts to save the head, and succeeded so far as to get it in tow forward, when the hawser parted; we next attached a studdingsail tack to it; but, although the rope was large and new, it parted like packthread. A tub of line was then bent on, and the head allowed to float astern; but in a short time the strap attached to the head chain parted, and away it went, a total loss, leaving us with nothing to console us, except the reflection that we had done all that men could do, to save it. I noticed throughout this arduous day’s work, the general alacrity of the crew in striving to do their utmost, and could not but comment on the advantages of giving each man a proportion of the vessel’s earnings, instead of monthly wages; in our case all felt themselves personally interested, and conducted themselves accordingly. It will be noticed that three-fifths of our whaling up to this time, has been on Sunday, and, subsequently, this day of days proved equally fortunate for us. I do not wish to defend the practice of Sunday whaling, and think that if a man makes it an invariable rule to whale only on week days, that Providence would so dispose it that he should not be a loser. We saw several of these Sunday ships, as they are called, and in each instance they had quite as much oil as their neighbors; at the same time, it takes a strong religious bias to induce a man who depends upon the capture of whales for an early return to home and friends, after being separated from all that he holds dear, perhaps for years, to forego attempting their capture on a Sunday. In fact, the temptation is strong; and, strange to say, most whalers see greater numbers of whales on the Sabbath than on any other day.