ON THE SOLANDER GROUNDS. 329 



American whalemen, to whom their perilous calling 

 seems to have become a second nature. And on other 

 occasions I have lamented that our own whalers, either 

 at home or in the colonies, never seemed to take so 

 kindly to the sperm whale fishery as the hardy " down 

 Easters," who first taught them the business ; carried it 

 on with increasing success, in spite of their competition 

 and the depredations of the Alabama; flourished long 

 after the English fishery was dead ; and even now 

 muster a fleet of ships engaged in the same bold and 

 hazardous calling. Therefore, it is the more pleasant 

 to me to be able to chronicle some of the doings of 

 Captain Gilroy, familiarly known as " Paddy," the 

 master of the Chance, who was unsurpassed as a 

 whale-fisher or a seaman by any Yankee that ever sailed 

 from Martha's Vineyard. 



He was a queer little figure of a man — short, tubby, 

 with scanty red hair, and a brogue thick as pea-soup. 

 Eccentric in most things, he was especially so in his 

 dress, which he seemed to select on the principle of 

 finding the most unfitting things to wear. Kumour 

 credited him with a numerous half-breed progeny — 

 certainly he was greatly mixed up with the Maories, 

 half his crew being made up of his dusky friends and 

 relations by marriage. Overflowing with kindliness and 

 good temper, his ship was a veritable ark of refuge for 

 any unfortunate who needed help, which accounted for 

 the numerous deserters from Yankee whalers who were 

 to be found among his crew. Such whaling skippers as 

 our late commander hated him with ferocious intensity ; 

 and but for his Maori and half-breed bodyguard, I have 

 little doubt he would have long before been killed. 

 Living as he had for many years on that storm-beaten 

 coast, he had become, like his Maories, familiar with 



