THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 255 



shift your tobacco ;" and the boat is thus preserved in a run 

 in which an empty boat would be instantly capsized. 



I verily believe that a fast whale, for fifteen or twenty 

 minutes, can run at the rate of fifteen or twenty miles an 

 hour, and I would rather add two than take one mile from 

 the estimate. As I think I have before explained, the dash 

 of a whale is known as a " Nantucket sleigh-ride ;" and 'tis 

 perhaps the most killing ride the world wots of. I am 

 aware that very many experienced whalemen hold the speed 

 of the whale at a lower estimate ; and Captain Sullivan, of 

 New Bedford, warned me against falling into the usual over- 

 estimate. He stated that ten or twelve miles is the whale's 

 greatest speed ; that in passage the creatures do not travel 

 more than five miles ; and that we misjudge the speed of 

 the boat because the eye is so close to the water. At 

 any rate, to-day our whales beat us out, and I guess we 

 got our boat through the water at more than five miles an 

 hour. 



As we advance southward, the weather becomes squally 

 and wet, and all hands suffer more or less from severe colds. 

 The hoarse, barking coughs we hear in the nightwatches 

 are an unpleasant reminder of Northern climes. The first 

 time in my long life and I am almost of age that I have 

 had to study up pulmonics has been while I have been stand- 

 ing barefooted on the wet deck, saturated with sea-spray, 

 and baying at the moon in a midnight watch, between the 

 tropics of Cancer and Capricorn an admirable position, 

 surely, for practical knowledge of the enduring capacity of 

 the human lungs. The cause of sickness on board is the 

 constant wet from deluging rains and spraying seas leaping 

 over the bows of our. beautiful craft. At 9 P.M. to-day the 

 gaff -topsail was blown into ribbons. We double-reefed fore 

 and maintop sail, and ran our course. 



Jan. 16. In the third watch we were visited by one of the 



