S28 TEE CRUISE OF TEE " CACEALOT." 



the gale told eloquently of the unpleasant state of affairs 

 prevailing outside. Two whale-ships lay here — the 

 Tamerlane, of New Bedford, and the Chance, of Bluff 

 Harbour. I am bound to confess that there was a great 

 difference in appearance between the Yankee and the 

 colonial — very much in favour of the former. She was 

 neat, smart, and seaworthy, looking as if just launched ; 

 but the Chance looked like some poor old relic of a 

 bygone day, whose owners, unable to sell her, and too 

 poor to keep her in repair, were just letting her go while 

 keeping up the insurance, praying fervently each day 

 that she might come to grief, and bring them a little 

 profit at last. 



But although it is much safer to trust appearances 

 in ships than in men, any one who summed up the 

 Chance from her generally outworn and poverty-stricken 

 looks would have been, as I was, " way off." Old she 

 was, with an iudefiuite antiquity, carelessly rigged, and 

 vilely unkempt as to her gear, while outside she did not 

 seem to have had a coat of paint for a generation. She 

 looked what she really was — the sole survivor of the 

 once great whaling industry of New Zealand. For 

 although struggling bay whaling stations did exist in a 

 few sheltered places far away from the general run of 

 traiSc, the trade itself might truthfully be said to be 

 practically extinct. The old Chance alone, like some 

 shadow of the past, haunted Foveaux Straits, and 

 made a better income for her fortunate owners than 

 any of the showy, swift coasting steamers that rushed 

 contemptuously past her on their eager way. 



In many of the preceding pages I have, though 

 possessing all an Englishman's pride in the prowess 

 of mine own people, been compelled to bear witness to 

 the wonderful smartness and courage shown by the 



