THE "ANNA LOUISA." 29 



cabin of the "Anna Louisa 1 ' at once decided me to 

 stick to the schooner as long as possible. 



The "Anna Louisa" was an extremely ugly, 

 clumsy little tub of a sloop, of about 30 tons Brit- 

 ish measurement, and was rigged with a particular- 

 ly ill-fitting mainsail, a staysail, a jib, and a small 

 square topsail. She was high at the bow and the 

 stern, and round in the bottom, and altogether look- 

 ed as if the intention of her builder had been that 

 she should make as much leeway as possible, and 

 upset at the first opportunity. The latter fate I 

 afterward learned had very nearly overtaken her 

 the summer before, and her subsequent perform- 

 ances in making leeway did not at all belie her ap- 

 pearance. She had been engaged in a Spitzbergen 

 trip the previous summer, and looked and smelled 

 as if she had not been cleaned since, as the stench 

 of the putrid walrus oil in and all over her was 

 perfectly sickening. 



Her crew consisted of a "skyppar" or captain, 

 two men rated and paid as harpooners and mates, 

 a cook, and eight other seamen. The captain, the 

 two harpooners, and two of the others had been 

 many times at Spitzbergen, and were considered 

 good and experienced hands. 



She was fully equipped with harpoons and lines, 

 lances, seal-hooks, axes, blubber-knives, a large bun- 

 dle of white pine sticks, in the rough (to be con- 

 verted into oars and shafts for the lances and Jiar- 

 poons) ; casks for the blubber (at present full of 



