182 WHALING 



(the first act of the natives had been to cut the captain's head 

 nearly off by the blow of a spade); the second officer had 

 jumped overboard, as had the three seamen who lost their lives, 

 and had been killed in the water. Seven men were wounded. 

 Of the ship's company, fifteen men were uninjured, and Mr. 

 Silas Jones of Falmouth, a few hours since a mere third mate, 

 had become captain. There, if you please, was a promotion on 

 the field of battle! 



The boat-steerer, Perkins, who had been aloft when the fight 

 broke out, and by virtue of his office had assumed command of 

 the men in the rigging, had succeeded in bracing the main yard 

 and trimming the sail fairly well to the breeze, for the main 

 braces led to the fore top, and he had not scrupled, for once, to 

 order ropes cut. So, with the help of the light breeze, they had 

 got a headway of a knot and a half. 



The fight as seen from aloft had been furious and swift. In 

 their first rush the natives got eleven of the fourteen spades, 

 killed the captain, and carried the deck by storm. Mr. Gardner, 

 the first officer, had got a spade, but he struck it clean through 

 the body of the man that killed the captain, and couldn't get it 

 out again. From half to two thirds of the crew were on deck; 

 three were aloft, and the rest were in the forecastle. Of those 

 on deck, three, as I have said, followed the second officer over- 

 board and were killed or drowned, and two or three followed Mr. 

 Gardner when he dropped through the hatch. The rest suc- 

 ceeded in getting aloft by the headstays. 



The natives had thrown their own dead overboard before leav- 

 ing the ship, and each had taken whatever pieces of iron he could 

 find, of a size easily carried, when he dived from the rail. 



When the men from the forecastle ''came up and saw me 

 standing on the quarter-deck," Captain Jones wrote in his 

 log, ''they ran aft and in the height of joy exclaimed, 'My God! 

 Mr. Jones, we are glad that you are left us,' and many expres- 

 sions of praise to me, which it was impossible for them in the ful- 

 ness of their joy to suppress. I mention this incident to show 

 by what sudden impulses the mind of the sailor is often turned, 

 as I was well aware that one or two of those very men who were 



