206 WHALE-FISHERY. 



the fish, when in an instant it shot from them with 

 singular velocity and disappeared. In this way 

 the chase was continued for fourteen hours, when 

 the fish again turned to leeward. But the men, ex- 

 hausted by such continued exertion, together with 

 the hard labour to which they had been previously 

 subjected, at the same time being without meat or 

 drink, and sparingly sheltered from the inclemency 

 of the weather by clothes drenched in oil, were 

 incapacitated from taking advantage of the only 

 chance they had ever had of success from the be- 

 ginning of the chase. 



By this time we had reached the boats with the 

 ship. The wind had increased to a gale, and a 

 considerable sea had arisen. We had no hope 

 therefore of success. As however we could not 

 possibly recover the lines at this time, stormy as the 

 weather was, we applied a cask as a buoy to sup- 

 port them, and moored an empty boat having a jack 

 flying in it, to the cask with the intention of keep- 

 ing near it during the storm, and with the expecta- 

 tion of recovering our lines, and a faint hope like- 

 wise of gaining the fish after the termination of the 

 gale. The boat was then abandoned. We made 

 an attempt to keep near the boat with the ship, but 

 the increasing force of the gale, drove us in spite of 

 every effort to leeward. On the first cessation we 

 made all sail, and plyed towards the boat; succeed- 

 ed in finding it, recovered boat and line, but lost the 

 whale. 



