WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 51 



for a lady's whim seems an extravagant way of running the 

 Lifeboat Fund. 



With a few hours' lull the engineers would get well, and 

 possibly get the engine air- starting apparatus to work ; 

 meantime it is a bit trying having the elements against 

 us, plus engine difficulty, as no engine, no success to our 

 whaling. Thank heaven we have sails ; but we must be 

 absolutely sure of our powers of starting the motor, and that 

 at short notice, or St Ebba dare not venture into certain 

 anchorages we hope to visit, such as the east of Crozets 

 and other islands. 



Wind always N. by W. ; we are drifting close hauled S.W. 



There was watery sunlight this forenoon, now in the after- 

 noon the wind is even stronger, and it is dull with spits of 

 rain, and spindrift ; everything is quivering, and throbbing, 

 with the strain, and we shall have to take in staysail. I think 

 of my first whaling voyage many years ago, when for twenty 

 days we lay hove to, out west of Ireland about Rockall. 

 Days of gale are totting up for this trip now ! And yet our 

 waist is full of water only now and then ! On that old 

 Balaena, barque-rigged, and twice as big as this little St 

 Ebba, it was knee-deep on an average, and waist-high at 

 times. This boat is marvellously dry ; of course we planned 

 her from a very seaworthy type of boat, the Norsk pilot- 

 boat shape such as those we saw come into Balta Sound last 

 year ; after they had been three months north of Shetland, 

 they had never taken a drop of sea-water on board, and we 

 think we have improved on them. 



As afternoon wore on the wind grew very heavy indeed, 

 and the sea was very high. It was Henriksen's worst experi- 

 ence of the North Atlantic. We watched on the bridge all 

 afternoon, and took in the reefed foresail, so we have only 

 the close-reefed mainsail, and we watched it anxiously lest 

 it should burst. But it is of new strongest sailcloth, Greenock 

 make, and it held. 



The watch taking in foresail was a pleasant sight to see. 

 The young fellows, all deep-sea sailors, sprang at the boom 

 like kittens and struggled with the billowing hard wet canvas, 

 tooth and nail, till it was brailed up. I was too cold and wet 



