246 FOLLOW THE WHALE 



for the booming of the surf. And it was a full five minutes later be- 

 fore anybody stirred or spoke. Then the old Chinese pointed. 



" Flish! He come up! " he sang out. 



And sure enough, a great gray bulk was slowly rising to the sur- 

 face by the kelp bed. Red rivulets snaked out into the clean, clear 

 water all around it. It did not move. 



It was many minutes before the last man had struggled back to the 

 waterlogged whaleboat, and they were then two less a company 

 than when they had set out. The cook had not reappeared and now 

 one of the apprentices had also vanished. It was two hours later that 

 the first of the ship's boats arrived on the scene, all aboard manning 

 oars and a sail set to catch the gentle breeze that was springing up. 

 The dinghy was still anchored to the dead Devil Fish by the two 

 harpoon lines but had been maneuvered into the kelp alongside the 

 smashed whaleboat. 



So it was that Captain Joshua Nathan took his first gray whale 

 and lost a fine cook, a promising hand, and a good whaleboat, for 

 there was hardly a timber or plank in the last that was worth repair- 

 ing. And so it was, also, that he swore to fill his barrels with the oil 

 of these cunning creatures whatever might be his other losses. He 

 filled twenty from that first animal, and he filled the rest before the 

 spring, for he started out that very day after the remainder of the 

 school, and he kept right after them all through the winter right 

 down to the Gulf of California and back. But he never lost another 

 man or a boat, although he hunted the whales like one possessed. 

 Nor did he ever venture into the kelp beds again. Instead, he cut a 

 channel through them and then came upon the beasts in the clear 

 water to landward. 



Others were not so successful as he, and not a few of them lost 

 their lives, but he filled his casks three years in succession, during 

 which his wife never once offered a single prognostication upon the 

 migration of any whale or the behavior of the Devil Fish in particu- 

 lar. This was a great relief to Captain Nathan. 



After the War of 181 2, the Yankee whalers found themselves in 

 a new world. The economic structure of the Union had changed. 

 The industrial age was dawning, population was already growing 



