212 WHALING 



where the wicked stand. It was a hard hfe, but it made a man 

 of him. 



Of all the incidents of that adventurous voyage the grimmest 

 and the one most sobering to the boy whaleman, happened three 

 months out. They had touched at Flores and at Fayal, where 

 they had landed seventy-six barrels of oil by lighter. Thence 

 they had taken a new departure and had stood southwest. 

 Lowering several times for blackiish, "coopering" oil, sheathing 

 the decks, and one day sending a boat on board a passing French 

 ship, they had made good progress on the second leg of the long 

 voyage. But on November 22d, Captain Cushman died, after 

 an illness of a few hours. 



Consider the appalling suddenness with which death came 

 among them in mid-ocean. They were prepared for death in 

 the heat of action, but not for such a death as this. During 

 four days they steered toward Pernambuco, with all sail set. 

 On the fifth day they raised land; and on the sixth they made 

 Pernambuco harbour and sent a boat on shore with Mrs. Cush- 

 man ; but the port authorities clapped the captain's widow and 

 the crew of the boat into quarantine, and refused permission to 

 land Aaron Cushman's body. 



For seven days the Lancer lay off and on at Pernambuco, with 

 the captain's body on board in a pipe that the cooper had set up 

 for it. 



On the seventh day, the boat's crew came out to the ship for 

 "Mrs. Cushman's duds" — I take the phrase from the log book 

 — which they fetched ashore. On the second day thereafter, 

 December 6th. the Lancer took on board fresh water, and on 

 December 8th, still standing off and on with her dead master, 

 she spoke the brig Thomas Walker of Philadelphia, bound to 

 her home port, whose captain agreed to take Aaron Cushman's 

 body to North America. 



It was a sad experience for all who were in any personal 

 way associated with the captain ; and in more ways than one 

 it affected the fortunes of young Len Sanford. Chief Mate 

 Owen Fisher became master; and perhaps it was because Cap- 

 tain Cushman had kept an eye to young Sanford 's welfare that 



