60 OLD WHALING DAYS. 



all the hours which used to be spent in towing and tracking, 

 belong to the past. I have gone through Melville Bay with 

 steam in twenty-four hours, without losing a moment's rest, 

 whereas I have been six weeks going through with a sailing 

 ship, and no better prospect in view. So things are more 

 easily done than formerly. 



Here ends my apprenticeship. I became master of the 

 Truelove in the year 1861, to Davis's Straits. Like 

 mortals, ships have a termination. The old Truelove 

 all honour to her memory no longer exists. She is broken 

 up. Her stout timbers suffered many a tight squeeze in the 

 great ice fields of the north. The good ship went through 

 all these without being seriously endangered, and with the 

 close of the Hull trade to Davis's Straits her occupation was 

 gone. Peace to her ashes. 



