Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Married people -- Fiction; Seafaring life -- Fiction; Whaling -- Fiction
Before the work on this whale was half done, it became apparent that a
gale was brewing. Cross swells, angling together at the mouth of Foveaux
Straits, kicked up a drunken sea that made the _Sally_ pitch and roll at
the same time; a combination not relished by any man. Nevertheless, the
head was got off and hauled alongside for cutting up....
This work had taken the better part of the night; and with the dawn,
there arose a whine in the wind that sang a constant, high note in the
taut rigging. With the _Sally_ pitching and rolling drunkenly, the
fifteen ton junk was got off the head and hoisted aboard, while every
strand of rigging creaked and protested at the terrible strain. The
blubber was coming in; but the wind was increasing....
In the end, the _Sally_ had to let go what remained of her catch and run
for it, losing thereby the huge "case" full of spermaceti, and a full
half of the blubber. But it was time.... The wind was still
increasing.... The _Sally_ scudded like a yacht before it....
They ran into Port William for shelter, and Noll Wing swore at his ill
luck, and when the ship was anchored, went sulkily below.... Dan'l drove
the men to their tasks....
The weeks that followed were repetitions of this first experience, with
such capricious modifications as the gales and the sea chose to arrange.
They killed many big whales; some they lost altogether, and some they
lost in part, and some few they harvested. They fell into the way of
running for port with their kill as soon as the whale was alongside,
rather than risk the storms in the open.... It was hard and steady work
for all hands; and as the men had grumbled at ill luck when they sighted
no whales, so now they grumbled because their luck was overgood. The
deck of the _Sally_ was filled with morose and sullen faces....
Dan'l found them easy working, ready for his hands; and by a word
dropped now and then through these busy times, he led them in the way he
wished them to go.... He never let them forget, for one thing, the
ambergris beneath the cabin. When they grumbled, he reminded them it
was there as a rich reward for all their labors.... And he reminded
them, at the same time, that Brander claimed it.... Neither did he let
the men forget that which he wished them to believe of Faith and
Brander. By indirections; by words with Roy which he took care they
should overhear; by reproofs for chance-caught words, he kept the matter
alive in their minds, so that they began to look at Faith sidewise when
she appeared upon the after deck....
Brander was not blind to this; and if he had been blind, Mauger's one
eye would have seen for him. He knew the matter in the minds of the men;
but he could not be sure that Dan'l was putting it there.... Could not
be sure; nevertheless, he spoke to Dan'l of it one day.... It was the
first time since Brander came aboard that he and Dan'l had had more than
passing word.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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