NOTES. 301 



men in it, perhaps fifteen miles from the ship, with food and 

 water for but a few hour's consumption, and utterly bewilder- 

 ed in the dense fog. The darkness of night soon came on ; 

 the wind began to rise, and the billows to swell. Every ef- 

 fort was made, by firing guns and showing lights, to attract 

 the lost boat. The long hours of the night rolled away, a 

 stormy morning dawned, and still no boat appeared. 



For several days they sailed in circles around the spot, but 

 all in vain. The boat was either dashed by the whale, or 

 swamped by the billows of the stormy night, or, as it floated 

 day after day upon the desert waste of the Pacific, one after 

 another of the crew, emaciated with thirst and famine, drop- 

 ped down and died. 



Another, a sperm whaler, the bark Harriet, of Freetown, 

 Captain Durfee, when cruising on the line, lowered her boats 

 one day for sperm whales. The first and third mates had 

 each secured a whale and made them fast alongside, when 

 they returned to assist the second mate, who was fast to an- 

 other. They came up with him about nine o'clock at night, 

 and succeeded in killing the whale. They could then see the 

 ship ; but it soon began to blow, and they were obliged to lay 

 by the whale all night. In the morning the ship was not in 

 sight, it still blowing a gale and raining hard. They lay by 

 the whale three days, when they ventured to stand off to the 

 westward, in hopes of falling in with some ship. On the 

 seventh day they caught a shark, which they ate with a good 

 relish. They were then standing for the King's Mill Group of 

 islands ; but a new gale coming on, they were obliged to reef 

 down and stand to the eastward, and finally to heave to, 

 where they lay for thirty-six hours, in a gale unusual for those 

 latitudes. On the morning of the tenth day they again stood 

 to the west. On the eleventh they discovered a sail, and 

 stood for her, which proved to be the bark Hanseat, of Ham- 

 burg. They were taken on board and treated with great 

 kindness, having had nothing to eat during the eleven days 

 excepting the shark they had caught and one or two flying- 



