846 DIFFICULT CAPTURE. 



when their hoat was stoven they had a jest to crack 

 at the greenhorns. Poor fellows, they were much 

 more entitled to our commiseration than derision ; 

 we have been through the mill, and have seen and 

 suffered, whilst they, unless circumstances should 

 very much favor them, are doomed to a three years' 

 stay in the Indian Ocean, where, if "forthcoming 

 events cast their shadows before," they are fated to 

 discover that their one stoven boat is but a foretaste 

 of what they will experience in that line before their 

 time is up. 



Before we saw the whale we observed a ship some 

 five miles to windward, with her boats down, and 

 another about the same distance to windward of her, 

 manoeuvering as if for whales. We subsequently 

 ascertained that, between noon and the time we 

 struck, five vessels had attempted to capture this 

 whale. All these vessels beino; in a direct line with 

 our own ship, the whale following a straight course 

 and going to windward, they gave up the chase as 

 useless. We only succeeded by dropping our boat 

 when he was a short distance to leeward, and at a 

 time when the sun's rays favored a near approach to 

 him. He was a noble fellow, and well worthy the 

 trouble we had with him. 



After turning the whale up, we took him along- 

 side our ship. When ships' boats in company take 

 a whale, it is customary, either to give one party the 

 head and the body to the other, or else to release 

 the ship whose boat fastened first from all further 

 trouble with the prize : her companion taking the 

 whale alongside, cutting him in, trying him out, and 

 then either stowing down, or rafting half the oil to 



