284 TEE CRUISE OF THE " CA CEAL T. " 



everything he receives. The charity is bestowed upoD 

 a far different class of people to merchant Jack. Let it 

 be granted that a man is sober and provident, always 

 getting a ship before his money is all gone, he will pro- 

 bably be well content at the home, although very few 

 seamen like to be reminded ashore of their sea routine, 

 as the manner of the home is. If the institution does 

 not pay a handsome dividend, with its clothing shops 

 and refreshment bars, as well as the boarding-house 

 business on such a large scale, only one inference can 

 be fairly drawn — there must be something radically 

 wrong with the management. 



After this burst of temper, perhaps I had better get 

 back to the subject in hand. It was, I suppose, in the 

 usual contrary nature of things that, while we were 

 all in this nearly helpless condition, one evening just 

 before sunset, along comes a sperm whale. Now, the 

 commonest prudence would have suggested letting him 

 severely alone, since we were not only short-handed, but 

 several of our crew were completely crippled by large boils; 

 but it would have been an unprecedented thing to do 

 while there was any room left in the hold. Consequently 

 we mustered the halt and the lame, and manned two 

 boats — all we could do — leaving the almost useless 

 cripples to handle the ship. Not to displace the rightful, 

 harpooner, I took an oar in one of them, headed by the 

 captain. 



At first my hopes were high that we should not 

 succeed in reaching the victim before dark, but I was 

 grievously disappointed in this. Just as the whale was 

 curving himself to sound, we got fairly close, and the 

 harpooner made a "pitch-pole" dart; that is, he hurled 

 his weapon into the air, where it described a fine curve, 

 and fell point downward on the animal's back just as 



