ACTIONS OF A GKEEN CREW. 345 



being taken notice of. The crew were soon picked 

 up, and in other boats were trying to revenge their 

 sense of injury on the whale. The third mate of the 

 Plover now essayed to lance the whale, but with no 

 better success, his boat being stove in the same 

 manner. Our second mate next tried and succeeded ; 

 the other boats, having encircled the whale, diverted 

 his attention, and we turned him up. The whales 

 on the Madagascar ground are notorious for their 

 belligerent propensities, and I have been assured 

 by old habitues of the vicinity, that if a boatheader 

 escapes once in three times from having his boat 

 stove, more or less, he is either an admirable man- 

 ager, or a wonderfully lucky fellow. 



The Plover is but five months from home, and her 

 crew had previously done no whaling — she having 

 taken no oil ; therefore it was amusing to watch the 

 woebegone and rueful countenances with which the 

 boats' crews obeyed the order of their ofiicers to pull 

 up to the whale, whilst, on the contrary, when 

 ordered to pull in the opposite direction, their faces 

 would brighten up with an expression of heartfelt 

 relief; and then to look at our own fellows, inured 

 to all the vicissitudes of this adventurous pursuit, 

 taking everything as coolly as if engaged in the most 

 ordinary occupation; making sport of hardships and 

 a jest of danger; eager as the most insatiate sports- 

 man to be in at the death ; assisting their boatheader 

 to the utmost, anticipating his orders, and acting out 

 all his requirements ; so that boat, officer, and crew, 

 seemed to be a nicely constructed machine, work- 

 ing by a secret spring actuating the muscles of each 

 of its occupants with the self-same power. Evea 



