124 WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 



the night and are satisfied, and won't do it again. We did 

 ninety miles in the night with practically only two seas 

 aboard, and we do not believe there's a boat floating of 

 our size or bigger that would do the same, and we forecast 

 our style of stern and lines under water becoming the 

 fashion. 



This morning we have a bit of foresail up again and 



an experimental jib as 

 storm trysail on our 

 mainmast, and it seems 

 just to be right. 1 



I thought I had 

 missed sport by writing 

 these notes and not 

 turning out early, for 

 when I did put up my 

 head into the wind and 

 spray, the mate was 

 silhouetted on the bow, 

 harpoon in hand, with 

 figures grouped round 

 him, holding lines, in 

 attitudes of intense 

 expectancy, and there 

 were dolphins springing 

 alongside. But it was 

 too rough. Several 



lunges were made by various members of the crew with our 

 little hand harpoon and its long spruce shaft, but they were 

 misses all. The sun shone about midday, a small incident, 

 but after three days' storm and heavy seas it was a cheering 

 sight, and the sea became blue, but always too rough to get 

 a harpoon into the dolphins. They appeared again at night. 

 The sea was full of phosphorus, so we could see their brilliant 

 tracks shooting round backwards and forwards like the 

 trail of rockets. Though I have been amongst hundreds of 



1 Later we learned that three s.s. of several thousand tons were hove to 

 during this hurricane. Bravo, St Ebba ! sixty-nine tons, one hundred and 

 ten feet, and the safest boat in the world. 



