THERE GOES FLUKES ! 35 



faults may be, will gain him respect botli from officers 

 and crew; sailors, as a class, admiring reckless 

 courage, and although they will always follow where 

 an officer in whom they have confidence leads, the 

 slightest suspicion of their leader's capabilitj- or 

 courage is sulficient to damp their ardor, and cause 

 them to act with lukewarm efforts. I do not mean 

 to cast a stigma on the well-won reputation of seamen 

 for courage, but from the discipline of a well-regu- 

 lated ship, the seaman is taught to look up to his 

 officers, who, in his eyes, bear all the responsibility, 

 and thus in a measure he resrulates all his motions 

 by that of his superior, and if anything goes wrong, 

 imputes the error to its proper source. They possess 

 an old and familiar proverb — viz., " Obey orders if 

 yon break owners," and nine-tenths of seafaring men 

 adopt it to the letter, and thus avoid blame. 



Two weeks after leaving home we were startled at 

 about six o'clock A. M., by the look-outs at the fore 

 and maintopgallant cross-trees singing out, " There 

 blows ! there blows ! there blows !" continuously, at 

 intervals of about thirty seconds. After about ten 

 minutes of vocal execution, they cried out, " There 

 goes flukes," emphasizing with great force the second 

 word in the sentence. This was confirmatory of the 

 presence of sperm whales, and as their yield is by 

 far greater in value than that obtained from any 

 other fish, we of course were anxious to capture one 

 or more of them. After considerable manoeuvrinof 

 on our part, attended by excitement and bustle, three 

 boats were lowered away. Several hours were fruit- 

 lessly spent in pulling and sailing, when the chase 

 was given up as hopeless, the whales going faster 



