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A WHALING EXPEDITION.

      "There she blows!" sung out a man, in the usual measured tones, from the fore-top-mast head of a whaler, cruizing in the Mozambique. "There she blows!" — the same sound was re-echoed from every part of the vessel, and in an instant crowds were pouring up from all the hatches, and every eye directed upwards. "Whereabouts?" resounded half-a-dozen voices at once. "On the weather quarter," sung out the man. "There she blows." — "Tell the Captain," was the cry; but the Captain had heard it, and was up already. "Down with your helm," said he to the steersman, "and luff the ship to the wind; haul in the lee braces, and aft with the main sheet. Mr. Long," he sung out to the second mate, "get those fore and jib sheets aft, and make her all snug for going about; send a couple of hands up to shake the reef out of the fore-top-sail, and loose the fore-top-gallant-sail; we'll see if we can't make the old craft crack her sides with laughing to-day. You, sir," continued he to the man at the mast-head, "Whereabouts is the spout now?" "Bluff on the weather-bow, sir; there's a whole school" (shoal). "That's glorious," said he; "Steward, give the men a glass of grog." "Aye, aye, sir," said that functionary, to whom it just occurred, that in his hurry to hear the news he had left the cabin-boy in charge of a cask of rum, which he was broaching. "He'll be drunk as a piper," said he, — fully acquainted with the boy's propensities; and he bolted down below, vowing vengeance against the unfortunate lad if his breath even smelt of rum.

      The reef was now out, and the top-gallant-sail hoisted, all the yards sharp braced, and the bowlines taut hauled; the breeze was stiff, and the old craft leaned to it within a foot of the gunwales, and foamed at the mouth like a mad dog. "There she blows!" sung out a number of fellows, who had in their eagerness to get a sight of their anticipated

prey, climbed up the fore-rigging. "They're meeting us," said the man at the mast-head. "Boatsteerers, get your geer in, we'll lower in half-an-hour," were the orders of the Captain, who was standing in the main rigging, with his glass in his hand; "and Mr. Brown, you'll get my boat ready; we'll have fine sport to-day, I guess, as Jonathan says.'

      All was hurry and excitement as these orders were given; boatsteerers were bringing their irons and lances up from below, getting their tubs into the boats, and bending up their lines. The men were each springing their oars, and examining their tholucks. "Jack," said an after to a fore-oarsman, "have you got a mat in your tholuck? I'll be hanged if some one ain't pinned mine. If I could catch him, I'd wring his head off." "You'll find a new one," said Jack, "in my lumber-box below, and while you're at it, just put your hand in the till, and bring me up two or three inches of neger-head: if I ain't mistaken, there'll be tough work to-day."

      "Steward," sung out the Captain, "where's that glass of grog? Mr. Bowker just see if that black rascal's smother'd in the rum cask." At this moment the thick woolly head of this official, which bore no inconsiderable resemblance to a 40s. iron pot, emerged from the companion hatch, and after it followed in due order, his face, neck, and upper extremities, as the Doctor called them; and I dare say he was quite right to class all the four extremities together, for they bore no inconsiderable resemblance to each other, the upper being in no great degree dissimilar in bulk, length, and clumsiness from the nether. In one of his mittens he grasped the neck of a bottle as if about to strangle it, while the other held, in as delicate a manner as nature would permit, the glass which was to measure out the delicious beverage. Samson was, notwithstanding his awkward figure and address, a good-natured and faithful fellow; and, although inclined to brag a little sometimes of his adroitness to strike a whale, which he had only tried once, and was then so nervous that he missed the fish, and, entangled in a coil of line, followed his own iron, precipitating himself over the bows of the boat, yet was generally very much respected by the Captain and all his shipmates. The men who were not immediately engaged, had assembled aft, on the quarterdeck, all in the light rig of a shirt, canvas trowsers, and straw hat or striped night-cap, and evidently in great glee: some brought tin pannikins for their own or their messmates' grog; whilst others, trusting to the metallic character which their throats had acquired by long habit and free indulgence, boasted that they could swallow thunder and lightning if it were only in the form of real Jamaica.

      After the grog was served and the preparations were made, the confusion subsided for a short time. We were evidently fast nearing our object, for the spouts now could be clearly discerned from the deck, and fine ones they were, and a goodly number of them too; joy seemed to brighten up every countenance at the prospect of a good day's sport, after three weeks of idleness. Even the old cook was jerking the tormentors at every one within his reach; and the little cabin boy was pitching heavers and balls of yarn at the pigs, accompanying the motion with a squeaking, "There she blows." Another five minutes and the orders were given, "Stand by the boats." In an instant every hand

was at his station; a dead silence succeeded — not a whisper was uttered; you might have heard a pin fall. "Luff her up and back the fore-top-sail." The braces rattled through the blocks, the yards swung round, and the sail flapped against the mast. "Lower away," and every boat disappeared from its davits, and their separate crews hurried over the side after them, ready to jump in as soon as they touched the water. "Keep that boat off the side, you'll jam her under the chains; there, she's all clear now and unhooked; shove off." This order was seconded by a thrust from the vessel's side; every oar was out, and the sleek boat danced over the water as cheerily as if she had been animated with the spirit of her crew. "Give way, my boys" said the steersman, "we must have the first rap at these fellows to-day;" and he accompanied the order with a forward propulsion of his body, as if to add fresh impetus to the weight of the boat, while every nerve of the crew was strained, and the ash oars bellied and sprung out of the water, as if they disdained to dip themselves in the clear blue element. "Come back," sung out the Captain from the quarter-deck, before we had got 200 yards from the vessel's side. "Long is swamped under the counter!" No, I'll be hanged if I do," said the steersman; "let, the lubberly fellow shift for himself, or sink; pull, my boys, — can't hear." "Come back," still cried the Captain; can't hear was the only reply received from the boatsteerer, and a more determined pull from the men.

      "Bad beginning this," whispered a young oarsman. "Hold that croaking red rag of yours," muttered an amiable messmate," and clap a locker on your jaw; or I'll do it for you." There was no resisting this argument at such a time, and the young fellow obeyed the injunction.

      A few minutes of anxious stillness succeeded, in which every one found sufficient employment for his muscles and lungs without wasting either in farther colloquy, when the silence was again broken by the bowman; "Where are they now?" said he, in a tone rising above a a[sic] smothered whisper. Right a-head, about a cable's length off," answered the boatsteerer, "half-a-dozen good stretches with your oar, Ben, and then you may lay it in, and get your irons ready; now, my lads, strain a point," and the boat spun like a top through the water. "Lay in, Ben; do you see that fine fellow to the leeward of the two; you must stick the iron in him. Another pull, my boys; sheer off, sheer off; the boat's nose is right under this fellow's tail," said the boatman, in an under tone. The next instant we were laying on our oars abreast, and to windward of three huge, black, greasy, and shapeless masses. What I learnt afterwards to recognize as the backs of the monsters, rose in an irregular mound from the water, level with the boat's gunwale; the head, which forms nearly a fourth of the whole bulk, was cylindrical and truncated; or, to describe it more appropriately, it appeared for all the world as if the heads of two of these brutes had been originally built in one length, like north country colliers, and the cook's axe, or some equally sharp instrument had made a fair section between their separate spout holes, and within six inches of each. The tails of these elegant playthings I could discern sculling about in the water like ladies' fans on a warm day, and heard pretty frequently of the latent energy contained in these instruments of destruction; I knew that a single whisk of one of them would have sprinkled the boat upon the water, like rain-drops after

a thunder-clap. Reader, you may suppose that my heart was anywhere but in my ribs at this moment; the fact is, it had been rapping against them since I left the ship, but it now took one tremendous leap and stuck in my throat; I was as cool, however, as a cucumber, and could with the utmost deliberation, have swigged off a stiff glass of seventeen-proof to the health of our good Queen, "God bless her." As soon as we had sheered up alongside of our prize, (for we had made sure of hoisting our colours on the carcase of one of these Spanish galleons), every eye was turned to the bowman, and the iron glanced from his hand over the backs of the interminable two, and struck the third behind the fin, just between wind and water. "Starn all," cried the bowman, but it was no use, the monster started a-head, and literally dragging the boat over his companions, almost capsized it, while the line whizzed round the loggerhead and through the groove in the boat's nose until it smoked again. "Water the line," cried the boatsteerer, through whose hand the line was gliding before it passed round the loggerhead, and who seemed to feel as if it were striking fire on his flesh, notwithstanding about half-a-dozen folds of "No. 1" canvas, which he had taken the precaution to provide himself: — two boat buckets were in immediate requisition, and the line was thoroughly drenched, as coil after coil disappeared, with the quickness of lightning from the tub. The whale had thrown up his tail and gone down. "How many coils are left?" sung out the bowman. "Only a couple," was the reply. "I fear she'll run it out all; but take another turn round the loggerhead, and snub her a bit." This was done, and the line was strained to its utmost, whilst the boat's bows were surged under water. "Slack off; you'll swamp the boat," was the cry, and a fathom or two yielded and brought her head up again: fortunately at this critical moment the fish was winded, and began to rise slowly.

      All the boat's crew were now employed in hauling in the line, and coiling it snugly aft in the stern sheets of the boat, while the bowman and boatsteerer were looking out in which direction the line tended, and managing the boat so as to clear it of the whale when she rose to the surface. All but about 20 fathoms were now in, and the fish was rising fast. "Down to your oars, pull larboard and back starboard oars: back hard; — back, I say, or the fish will lift us." This was hardly uttered, when she shoved up her head within two yards of the boat, and blew up a most refreshing shower-bath. "Back all," continued the bowman, "and slue her nose to port, while I push this lance in her." He hove the lance, and the smooth and well-polished steel glided a full fathom up to its socket into the body of the fish. "She feels that," said he, with a grim smile; and certainly she seemed to do so, for she started a-head, as if she had been pursued by a pack of blood-hounds. On we went too, tearing through the water after her, at the rate of 12 or 14 knots, and not an inch of line was yielded this time. The breeze had freshened considerably, and a little swell had got up, so that the sparkling water dashed on each side of the boat, and over her wedge-bows, and rose above her gunwale when she delved through a breaker, from which she emerged and shook off the spray like a wild duck, only to bury herself for the moment under the next.

      It was as much as the after oarsman could manage to keep the boat

clear out of the water. This was glorious fun for a real South Sea whaler, one who had acquired a thorough goût for the sport; for my own part, I confess, I thought there was considerable probability of the boat being swamped when dragged through a green sea coming bodily on to us, and whose bearded crest curled round and foamed upon us full five feet above the bow of the boat; but she passed through one after another, like a thread through a needle's eye, and I soon gained confidence, and enjoyed it as much as any one.

      By this time the whole shoal was alarmed, and was pouring down from all sides upon the whale to which we were fast, to gratify, as I suppose, that very laudable curiosity common to whales as to men — of knowing "What's the matter?" and to discover and punish any aggressors on the peace of their community. We were now in considerable jeopardy; sometimes three or four of these bull-headed monsters coming down, abreast, would threaten to lay the boat on her beam ends, and when the line was slackened off politely, and with all the speed imaginable to allow them to pass a-head of us, another would be discovered howling up a-stern, with all his canvas set, and blowing and wallowing like a grampus; the boatsteerer was plying his long oar, and sluing the boat about in every direction, to escape a disagreeable detection by any of these jealous avengers of their injured messmate. And we fortunately did escape. After they had searched a short time in vain for the cause, and found the case apparently desperate, they all slunk off, (another point, by the bye, in which whales resemble men), and left the unfortunate to shift for himself. As soon as the coast was clear, and the whale had slackened her speed, we pulled up alongside, and the boat's nose was pushed right on her, and another lance found its way up to the socket, just under her fin. "That's surely a sticker," said the bowman, but she threw up her tail, and started a-head again, with accelerated speed.

      "Hallo,” said the boatsteerer, "there's Bowker water-logged, and our fish is running right down upon him; if she shoves her nose into his boat there'll be a pretty mess" but fortunately she didn't steer direct for him, but passed within about half a cable's length. Here we could see the poor fellows in the water, on each side of their boat, rolling her from side to side, to jerk the water out of her. "What's the matter?" sung out the boatsteerer. "Lost a couple of irons, and got capsized to the bargain," was the reply. "Do you want us to help you?" "No," said they, "we'll manage it ourselves; mind you don't lose that fish." "We'll take care of that," muttered the bowman, and he again ordered to haul up alongside, that he may take a little more blood from his patient. "I think," said he, "this is one of Jonathan's fish; you must sound nine fathoms of cold steel before you reach his heart; here, then, goes for the third fathom;" and he certainly gave the full measure. Ah, there she spouts blood," and the sea was all round in a short time dyed with blood, and covered with lumps of clotted gore. "Now, my lads, prepare for the flurry." The fish was quiet for a few moments, as if dead, and then started a-head by fits, backing upon the boat as suddenly, requiring the most adroit management to keep it clear of its tail, which was playing about, as if feeling for its tormentors, lashing the water into a foam, and dashing it in green seas over the boat; it would

then give a spring out of the water and turn short round upon the boat; which was slued round as quickly; and round and round they both went five or six times, like corks in a whirlpool, the one close to the other; while the fish was spouting a deep crimson blood, which indicated, as the boatsteerer very sagely remarked, some main-pipe had sprung a leak;" and, after a few more eccentric movements, her strength appeared wasted.

      Just at this juncture the boasteerer cast his eyes to windward, and saw Brown's boat fast to a fish, which was cutting all manner of capers; and twisting itself about like a lamprey. "That's a wicked one," said he, "and will try a young hand like Brown." The next moment a wild cry arose from that quarter, and a crash was heard. "He's done for, at last," said the imperturbable man, in the same calm tone. "Ben, just clap the drag with the blue flag on our fish, that the ship may pick it up, and let's pull to windward and see what's the mischief. I'm mistaken, if our messmate Brown aint gone to Davy Jones."

      In a few minutes we were alongside the wreck. All the bow of the boat was sliced off as clean as if cut by a carpenter's saw, and the crew had placed the oars athwart the remainder, to steady it and keep it on its keel. As we pulled up to them, there was a kind of forced smile on their countenances. "Bad sport, to-day," said one or two of them. "Where's Brown?" asked our boatsteerer. "He's gone!" was the mournful reply; "the fish jammed him into the bow of the boat, and carried them off together." "Poor fellow," said the boatsteerer, "he's been my messmate three voyages; I taught him when he was a boy to splice knots and tie a reef-point, and a better boatsteerer there wasn't in the ship." As he paid this tribute to the memory of his departed messmate, more simple and sincere, as well as better deserved, than many a pompous eulogium, which is pronounced over the dust of the great, the tear dimmed his eye, and trickled down his iron cheek. "Well," said he, "its no use blubbering," and he drew his brawny and sunburn arm across his face, to brush away the only drop that human weakness had forced down its furrows, perhaps since his childhood. "Jack," said the bowman, "do you see that bit of the wreck to the windward of us, steer for it, perhaps we may chance to pick up a few of Brown's timbers there, and you know it will be just as well to sow them up decently in his hammock, and get the doctor to read the service over them." As we neared the bit of wreck alluded to, it was discovered to be the bow of the boat. "I think I see Brown's hulk," said the bowman, "and there's a shovel-nose lawyer (shark) making for it." "Run your lance through him," said the boatsteerer. "I won't be such a fool," was the reply, "it would only strike fire upon his side, and be fit for the lumber-locker afterwards." When he saw the voracious animal, however, turn up the white of his side, and open his enormous jaws, to seize a leg of the corpse, "I can't stand that," said he, and he caught up his lance, and plunged it through the body of the brute. The fish turned round, and writhed himself further up the lance, and clenched it on the other side. "Here's a pretty business," said the bowman, and laying hold of the pole, tried in vain to drag it out, while the fish spun round like a weather-cock in a whirlwind, and twisted the shaft into a corkscrew; two or three more drags to equally little effect, and he seized the boat-knife, and

cut the line which bound the iron to the pole; off the fish started almost directly downwards, with the lance through his body. "He won't get that out of himself," remarked one of the men. I shant find another like it in a hurry," said the bowman, and as deep a cloud of grief seemed to pass over his countenance for the loss of his favourite lance, as had, a few minutes before, over the boatsteerer's for the loss of his messmate.

      We now looked about for the corpse; it drifted a little to the leeward during this affray, and we dropt down upon it. It was sadly mangled; all the upper part of the body was beate n into one pulpy mass, and the skull was flattened like a pancake upon the jaws on the head sheets of the bow, which was floating near, we could discover where the poor fellow's head had been crushed by the tail of the whale; a part of the skull was jammed into the wood with the scalp and hair on it. We lifted the body out of the water, and laid it on the line in the stern sheets, and having taken the wreck of the bow in tow, in rather a mournful manner, which was strangely contrasted with the hilarity and excitement of the few hours before, we proceeded to return to the assistance of the six men who were hanging on the wreck, with their oars crossed. Long, who had got his boat righted and patched up by the carpenter, had lowered from the ship, and reached them before we arrived. We divided the crew between us, and took both parts of the wreck in tow. "I hope," said one of the fellows, "the Captain will give us a glass of grog, after this sousing — need to wet inside as well as out." "Jack," said another, "have you got a quid in your hat, I've been chawing at this rope-yarn an hour."

      During the course of these interesting remarks, we were pulling towards the ship, and as we neered the old craft, we could discern the earnest expression of the countenances gazing over the side. "Who's gone?" roared out several voices at once. Our tale was soon told, and as each one heard it he dropt some expression of compassion, or tribute of praise to the memory of the departed. The body was lifted upon deck, and the sailmaker immediately set to work to sew up a hammock, with half-a-dozen shot at its feet; this was effected while the men were taking their suppers below; and in about an hour the bell began to toll: the crew collected slowly at the gangway, and formed round the corpse. It was beautiful then to see the stern features of many a weather-beaten face relaxed into a childlike softness, and the heart, which only a few hours before beat high with intrepid daring, subdued and melted with generous pity. There was an awe in the scene which overcame even the most thoughtless. The topsail was backed, and the noble ship had stayed her gallant course for a moment, as if to act as mourner in the scene; and the bubbling sound of the water, as it laved her dark and glittering side, when she lurched in the long and heavy swell, or splashed beneath her heaving counter, answered in solemn cadence to the creaking yards and the whistling shrouds, and the snow-white sea bird, as it wheeled its airy flight around the giddy mast-top, uttered its shrill cry, which struck prophetic on the ear. The sun was setting just opposite the gangway, and its large red globe magnified through the mists that skirted the horizon, cast a livid glare upon the breakers, as their tops curled into a white foam, and was reflected on the faces of the men,

while above the deep dark ridge of vapours which lay upon the bosom of the waters, and into which the sun was just entering, like fleecy clouds of all fantastic shapes, whose hue was ever varying; sometimes of a deep purple, and edged with gold, then azure and crimson, and then all golden, were floating in a sea of ether: you might have thought the spirit of the departed had gone to inhabit those islands of the blessed, so calm and beautiful they seemed. The bell ceased to toll,-and in a clear and audible voice the surgeon read the solemn burial service of the English Church. When he came to that part, we commit this body," he stopt, — a low stifled sob arose from the crowd, and even the men who had hold of the grating from which the corpse was to be precipitated, seemed for a time palsied; it was only for an instant, a heavy plunge in the next told that the sea had received its dead; — the waters closed over him.

      The mighty ocean is the tomb of one who was almost unknown but to a few shipmates, who were paying these last honours to his mangled corpse, and it mocks in its magnificence the mausoleums of kings.

      Sly's African Journal, Cape Town, 1844.                                                            E.

"A Whaling Expedition."
      The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle, for 1845.
Enlarged series, No. 3 — vol. for 1845.
pp. 135-142

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