188 WHALING 



could see the men cutting in, and they tried frantically to bail. 

 But the barque was moving all the time slowly away from them. 



On the morning of the second day there was no sail in sight; 

 but there was less wind and the sea was smoother; and throwing 

 overboard all remaining whale craft to lighten the boat, they 

 again attempted to bail. In the late afternoon they succeeded 

 in getting most of the water out of her; but they had lost two 

 men overboard, and of the others, two were delirious. Every 

 man on board had been in water up to his armpits, and without 

 food or drink for forty-eight hours. 



Setting as a sail all the canvas that was left, they laid their 

 course for Cocos Island, the nearest land, which was a thousand 

 miles away. But Captain Hosmer's navigation was guess-work 

 for he had neither compass nor chronometer nor sextant, and 

 he had to reckon his course as best he could by occasional 

 glimpses of the north star and by the roll of seas from the south. 



All this time, remember, they had neither food nor drink, and 

 for seven days there was no rain. On the seventh day they 

 agreed to draw lots to decide which one should die to keep the 

 others alive. In ''The Yarn of the Nancy Brig," Gilbert twists 

 such an incident into humour, but it has happened more than 

 once in grim earnest in the history of whaling. The man on 

 whom the lot fell was willing enough. 



That night it rained, but the next day another man died. 

 The ninth day, by grace of God, it rained again, and a dolphin 

 jumped squarely into the boat; and as if that were not enough 

 to give the survivors hope, some birds came so near that the 

 men, exhausted though they were, succeeded in killing them. 



Even so, it is almost incredible that they should have sur- 

 vived. But on July 13th they sighted land; and when they 

 reached it, they mustered up enough strength to catch and kill 

 a pig. 



By drinking the pig's blood, they revived themselves suf- 

 ficiently to kill some birds, which were abundant on the island, 

 and to find fresh water; and two days later they sighted a boat 

 approaching along the shore. They had succeeded in reaching 

 Cocos Island, and the whaleship Leonidas, of New Bedford, 



