THE WHALING FLEET SAILS AWAY 59 



She was built for speed, had ten tons of lead on her keel, 

 and with a good wind could sail faster than any of the 

 arctic whaling fleet could go under combined steam and 

 sail — or so Sten told me. Through his influence over his 

 brothers-in-law and the other owners of the Penelope, 

 Sten was now practically master of this craft. 



When the Charles Hanson was gone, carrying away 

 Captain Tilton and the crew of the wrecked Alexander, 

 Sten began to tell stories that had not been heard while 

 his former captain was still in port. Those were to the 

 effect that when the Alexander ran on the rocks at Cape 

 Parry, she did so bow on, under full pressure of sail and 

 steam. The shock lifted her so high out of the water that, 

 while she drew sixteen feet regularly, she was now draw- 

 ing only nine feet forward and thirteen at the stern. In 

 other words, as Sten said, she was as solid as a lighthouse 

 perched on the rocks of Cape Parry. 



Sten's account ran that the Alexander had sailed on the 

 rocks in a fog so thick that the man at the lookout did 

 not have half a minute's warning from the sighting of the 

 breakers until the ship was high and dry. The excite- 

 ment had been so great and the fear of not overtaking 

 the whalers at Herschel Island had been so keen, that no 

 time had been lost by the Captain in getting everybody 

 off the ship. I think Sten said it was only fifteen or 

 twenty minutes from the actual wreck until the whale- 

 boats were launched and under way. 



Another point is that the whaling ships carry insurance 

 that covers not only the ship but also all the whalebone, 

 fur, etc., that have been captured or purchased and en- 

 tered into the ship's records. In case of wreck it is 

 necessary only to save the ship's papers and the insur- 

 ance company in San Francisco will be compelled to re- 



