288 WHALING 



With orders to cruise some six months in the Atlantic, then, 

 shipping home from Fayal any oil that he might take, to sail 

 for Bunbury, West Australia, where he was to arrive in the 

 spring of 1876 and wait for the Australian agent of the com- 

 mittee to communicate with him. Captain Anthony left his 

 baby and his bride of a year on the exact anniversary of his 

 wedding. 



There has been, probably, no other whaling voyage like that 

 of the Catalpa in 1875. Whaleships have sailed from New 

 Bedford, ostensibly for the whaling grounds, on voyages that 

 have had no concern with whaling; but Captain Anthony, 

 who canied in his head an international conspiracy, cruised in 

 good faith for whales and took eight before he touched at 

 Teneriffe for fresh water. His troubles, though, had been 

 various: in fitting a key to his chronometer he had so changed 

 the rate that his observations, taken when he was several days at 

 sea, showed the Catalpa to be in the interior of the State of 

 New York, and a second chronometer, which he brought from 

 Captain Crapo of the barque Osprey, proved also to be unre- 

 liable; Captain Anthony himself, going ashore at Flores with 

 a boatload of fresh fish, was arrested for smuggling; at Fayal he 

 discharged three sick sailors, and nearly all the others deserted ; 

 and before leaving Teneriffe, whence he was to sail on the long 

 voyage round Good Hope to Australia, he was obliged to tell 

 his first officer the true purpose for which the owners had sent 

 the Catalpa to sea. 



Calling the mate into the cabin, when they were a few days 

 out from Fayal, he said, " Mr. Smith, you shipped to go whahng. 

 I want to say to you now, before we get to Teneriffe, that the 

 Catalpa has done about all the whaling she will do this fall. 

 We're bound to the west coast of Australia to try and liberate 

 six Fenian prisoners who are serving a life sentence in Great 

 Britain's penal colony. This ship was bought for that purpose 

 and fitted for that purpose, and you have been utterly deceived 

 in the object of this voyage. You have a right to be indignant 

 and leave the vessel at Teneriffe. You will have the opportunity 

 when we arrive there, and if you go, I can't blame you. 



