136 BARQUE LADY MACINTOSH GAMMONED. 



expected to see plenty of right whales : and we did 

 see them, too, and that was all the good they done 

 us, as we would sight them from the ship, but the 

 moment a boat was lowered they absquatulated in as 

 secret and effectual a manner as a defaulting bank 

 clerk. Finding we could do nothing with these shy 

 gentlemen, we steered north-west for Cape Leuwin, 

 hoping to see sperm whales, to recompense us for six 

 months' time thrown away. On the passage we gam- 

 moned with the barque Lady Macintosh, of London. 

 She last sailed from Adelaide, having carried railroad 

 iron to that port for the purpose of constructing a 

 railway to Melbourne, which, when finished, will be 

 the first work of the kind on the island. She was then 

 bound to the East Indies for a cargo of teak-wood. 

 It is not usual for merchant ships to lose time in 

 visiting ; but in this case both ships were becalmed 

 within a few miles of each other, and she setting her 

 signal our captain went aboard. 



From the date of leaving King George's Sound, 

 until the 11th of January, 1857, little transpired 

 worthy of record, except the capture of half-a-dozen 

 blackfish, and the usual amount of gammoning with 

 other whaleships — some of which had done better, 

 others worse, than ourselves. During the whole of 

 this time we could not catch a glimpse of a sperm 

 whale ; and whilst ships in our immediate neighbor- 

 hood could see and capture them, we were doing 

 nothing. We double-manned our mastheads, made 

 more sail, and passed over a greater space ever}^ day 

 than heretofore, but all to no purpose ; the wdjales 

 were still beyond our vision. Meantime our crew 

 began to get discouraged, almost a year having elapsed 



