WHALE HUNTING WITH GUN AND CAMERA 



and ready for pictures by the time we were near 

 enough to see the animal a sei whale blow. He 

 was spouting constantly and this argued well, for 

 we were sure to get a shot if he continued to stay 

 at the surface. The Bo's'n made a flag ready so that 

 the carcass alongside could be let go and marked. 

 Apparently this was not going to be necessary, for 

 there was plenty of food and the whale was lazily 

 wallowing about, rolling first on one side and then on 

 the other, sometimes throwing his fin in the air and 

 playfully slapping the water, sending it upward in 

 geyser-like jets. 



"Half speed!" shouted the Gunner; then, "Slow!'' 

 and "Dead slow !" 



The little vessel slipped silently along, the pro- 

 pellers hardly moving and the nerves of every man 

 on board as tense as the strings of a violin. In four 

 seconds the whale was up, not ten fathoms away on 

 the port bow, the click of the camera and the crash 

 of the gun sounding at almost the same instant. The 

 harpoon struck the animal in the side, just back of 

 the fin, and he went down without a struggle, for the 

 bursting bomb had torn its way into the great heart. 



By eleven o'clock it was alongside and slowly fill- 

 ing with air while the ship was churning her way 

 toward the station. Andersen went below for a couple 

 of hours' sleep in the afternoon, and I dozed on the 

 bridge in the sunshine. We were just off Kinka-San 

 at half -past six, and by seven were blowing the whistle 

 at the entrance to the bay. 



Three other ships, the San Hogci, Ne Taihci, and 

 104 



