I was in a great flutter of excitement when the hour of departure really _did_ arrive, which was not till near noon instead of eight sharp, as the skipper had announced. I was like a monkey just escaped from its cage, here, there, and everywhere; and when we dropped down the river to the harbour’s mouth, on the very last of the ebb, I can recollect how I scrambled aloft when the order was given to loosen and hoist sail. I did not know what to do certainly, but I watched the others, and worked away till my fingers, arms, aye and every limb ached again--but I was supremely happy until _mal-de-mer_ overtook me, and then I went below and turned into my berth. A couple of days found me all alive again, and on deck as merry as a cricket. We were now off Aberdeen, quietly drawing along under all sail, and everything going as merry as a marriage bell. As night began to close in around us we had Peterhead (the chief whaling port) right on our port beam, and that gave Captain Cooper an opportunity to tell some of his yarns about the whaling cruises he had participated in when a young man in the Greenland seas. After dark, being past Kinnard’s Head, near Frazerburgh, we had the great gulf between Aberdeenshire and Caithness on our port beam, and were quite out of sight of land. The wind, which had been lazy all the day, now began to freshen and back a little to the south of west, which was very favourable for our sailing. Seeing this the captain made up his mind not to call in at Kirkwall, the chief town in the Orkneys, but to leave it for the homeward voyage, and take advantage of the favouring breeze to push on to Lerwick in the Shetland Isles. His orders before turning in were consequently given to the mate to be carried out, unless a change of wind should occur, in which case the skipper was to be called. Having got over my sea-sickness and found my sea-legs, the day appeared too short for me, so I agreed with the cabin-boy, Joey Nicholls, that we would not turn in till the end of the first watch (midnight), but stay on deck and enjoy the beautiful evening, for it was a lovely mild moonlight night. My own watch was the second dog-watch, which is over at eight p.m., so Joey and I had laid ourselves out for a further four hours’ fun before turning in.