A LONG BLUE WHALE CHASE 



had sounded, and the rope hung straight down from 

 the bow as rigid as a bar of steel. 



Fifteen minutes we waited and there was no sign 

 from below. Olsen began to get uneasy and to stamp 

 upon the line, hoping to stir the great animal which 

 was sulking on the bottom. 



"I don't want him to die down there," he said, "for 

 I'm afraid of this line. The starboard rope is all 

 right but this one is weak. If he doesn't come top- 

 sides to blow so I can get in another harpoon, we 

 may break the line in heaving him up. He's down 

 a long way and the strain will be awful." 



After twenty minutes the rope began slowly to come 

 in, and I went forward with the Captain to the gun 

 platform, waiting for the whale to spout. \Ye saw it 

 at last, but so far away that I thought it was a differ- 

 ent animal. The engines had been stopped when the 

 whale was down but now the ship began to move. 

 Faster and faster the vessel tore through the water 

 until Olsen ordered half speed astern. 



The harpoon had struck the whale in a bad place, 

 for with the iron imbedded between his massive shoul- 

 ders he could pull with all his strength. For half 

 an hour we were dragged through the water and again 

 he sounded. This time he was down ten minutes 

 and came to the surface with a rush which threw half 

 his eighty feet of body into the air. Then he started 

 off at a terrific pace. The Captain did not dare to 

 check his dash and ordered another line to be spliced 

 on when the men called up from below that the rope 

 was almost gone. Three-quarters of a mile of line 



133 



