WHALE-FISHERY. 167 



their hands, and crowd into the boats, with a tem- 

 perature of zero. Should a fall occur, the crew would 

 appear upon deck, shielded only by their drawers, 

 stockings, and shirts, or other habiliments in which 

 they sleep. They generally contrive to dress them- 

 selves, in part at least, as the boats are lowered 

 down; but sometimes they push off in the state in 

 which they rise from their beds, row away towards 

 the " fast boat," and have no opportunity to clothe 

 themselves for a length of time afterwards. The 

 alarm of a " fall," has a singular effect on the feel- 

 ings of a sleeping person, unaccustomed to the 

 whale-fishing business. It has often been mistaken 

 as a cry of distress. A landsman in a Hull ship, 

 seeing the crew, on an occasion of a fall, rush upon 

 deck, with their clothes in their hands, when there 

 was no appearance of danger, thought the men were 

 all mad; but, with another individual the effect w r as 

 totally different. Alarmed with the extraordinary 

 noise; and still more so, when he reached the deck, 

 with the appearance of all the crew seated in the 

 boats in their shirts, he imagined the ship was sink- 

 ing. He therefore endeavoured to get into a boat 

 himself, but every one of them being fully manned, 

 he was always repulsed. After several fruitless 

 endeavours to gain a place among his comrades, 

 he cried out, with feelings of evident distress, 

 u what shall I do? — Will none of you take me in?" 

 The first effort of a " fast-fish," or whale that 

 has been struck, is to escape from the boat, by sink- 



