Life and Adventure in the South PacificJones, John D.
History
Life and Adventure in the South Pacific
Jones, John D.
Emily Morgan (Ship); Oceania -- Description and travel; Whaling
Of all the miserable beings in the world, the sea-sick “greeny” is
the most miserable. Those who have been sea-sick can appreciate
his situation when we tell them that, in addition to the feeling
produced by the sickness, he is made the butt and laughing-stock of
those around him who escape the infliction. Those who have never
experienced this sickness can not appreciate the blessing of having
escaped it, and we will not attempt, therefore, to describe it.
However, to use a homely expression, when one is really sea-sick,
good and strong, he “doesn’t care whether school keeps or not!”
CHAPTER II.
Sick of the Sea.—Description of the Boats and Whaling Apparatus.—
Boat-headers.—Boat-steerers.—Mastheads.—The first Whale.—“There
she blows!”—All hands excited.—Lowering the Boats.—“Pull, every
man of you.”—A Fisherman’s Luck.—Whales again.—Cape Verd Islands.—
St. Antonio.—St. Jago.—Fogo, the Island of Fire.—Going ashore.—A
noisy Crowd.—Tom and the Portugee Donkey.—Manuel.—Now for Cape
Horn.
It blew very fresh through the night, and could the old ship have
come to an anchor about this time, we hardly think many of the “green
hands” would have remained on board. But it was of no avail now to
complain; all were in for it, and must take the evil with the good
from this time until the end of the voyage.
Nothing worthy of note transpired, with the exception of occasionally
seeing a sail, until Wednesday, November 31st, being about five weeks
out, when we saw our first sperm whale. But before we lower the boats
and capture this fellow, let us make the reader acquainted as much as
possible with our boats and whaling apparatus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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