130 WHALING 



down to us in the terse narrative of Hussey and Lay, in the 

 depositions of other members of the crew, and in the newspapers 

 of 1824 and 1825. The returned crew Hst bears it out; and 

 the court records, so far as they go, confirm it. 



It was the custom of the Glohe that the captain and chief and 

 second mates should not stand watch at night, unless the crew 

 was boiling blubber. The third mate and the two boat- 

 steerers had charge, respectively, of the three watches; and 

 during the first watch that night, from seven until ten o'clock, 

 Gilbert Smith, a boat-steerer, had kept the deck. 



Captain Joy, of the ship Lyra of New Bedford, had spent most 

 of the day on board the Glohe, and had agreed with Captain 

 Worth that, during the night, one or the other would show a 

 lantern as a signal for tacking, so that the two whalers could 

 come together and bear each other company for at least another 

 day. When Captain Joy had returned to the Lyra, Captain 

 Worth had gone down into the cabin; but at eight o'clock he 

 had come up for an hour, had had two reefs taken in the top- 

 sails, and had given orders to continue by the wind until two; 

 then, setting the light as a signal for the Lyra to keep company, 

 to tack. 



Gilbert Smith, the boat-steerer in charge of the first watch, had 

 gone below with his men at ten o'clock, leaving on deck Samuel 

 B. Comstock, the other boat-steerer, and the crew of the 

 waist boat, with George Comstock, the younger brother of 

 Samuel, taking the first trick at the helm. 



Assume for a moment young Comstock's point of view, since he 

 represents the majority of those on board the Glohe, and since he, 

 by reason of his station, saw certain things that no one else 

 saw. Two hours later, when the time for his relief had come, 

 the boy — he was only sixteen years old — sounded the sailor's 

 rattle that was used for such signals on board the old whalers. 

 For two hours no living thing had stirred on deck. For two 

 hours he had steered the ship, without hearing so much as a 

 human whisper. Then, in the darkness by the helm, which was 

 broken only by the light of the binnacle lantern, when he 

 swung the rattle, his brother appeared beside him and whis- 



