16 THE CBUISE OF THE "CACHALOT.'' 



to instruct tbem in tlieir duties, albeit the teachers were 

 all too apt to beat their information in with anything 

 that came to hand, and persuasion found no place in 

 their methods. 



The reports I had always heard of the laziness pre- 

 vailing on board whale-ships were now abundantly 

 falsified. From dawn to dark work went on without 

 cessation. Everything was rubbed and scrubbed and 

 scoured until no speck or soil could be found ; indeed, no 

 gentleman's yacht or man-of-war is kept more spotlessly 

 clean than was the Cachalot. 



A regular and severe routine of labour was kept up ; 

 and, what was most galling to me, instead of a regular 

 four hours watch on and off, night and day, all hands 

 were kept on deck the whole day long, doing quite 

 unnecessary tasks, apparently with the object of 

 preventing too much leisure and consequent brooding 

 over their unhappy lot. One result of this continual 

 drive and tear was that all these landsmen became 

 rapidly imbued with the virtues of cleanliness, which 

 was extended to the den in which we lived, or I verily 

 believe sickness would have soon thinned us out. 



On the fourth day after leaving port we were all 

 busy as usual except the four men in the " crow's-nests," 

 when a sudden cry of *' Porps ! porps ! " brought every- 

 thing to a standstill. A large school of porpoises had 

 just joined us, in their usual clownish fashion, rolling 

 and tumbling around the bows as the old barky wallowed 

 along, surrounded by a wide ellipse of snowy foam. 

 All work was instantly suspended, and active prepara- 

 tions made for securing a few of these frolicsome 

 fellows. A "block," or pulley, was hung out at the 

 bowsprit end, a whale-line passed through it and " bent " 



