336 TEE CRUISE OF TEE " CACEALOT.'' 



value of this incredible school must have been incalcul- 

 able. Subsequent experience satisfied me that such a 

 sight was by no means uncommon here ; in fact, " lone 

 whales " or small "pods" were quite the exception. 



Well, we all " waded in," getting, some two, some one 

 whale apiece, according to the ability of the crews or the 

 fortune of war. Only one fell to our lot in the Cachalot, 

 but it was just as well. We had hardly got him fast by 

 the fluke alongside when it began to pipe up from the 

 north-east. In less than one watch the sea was fairly 

 smoking with the fierceness of the wind. We were 

 unable to get in anywhere, being, with a whale along- 

 side, about as handy as a barge loaded with a haystack ; 

 while those unfortunate beggars that had two whales 

 fast to them were utterly helpless as far as independent 

 locomotion went, unless they could run dead before the 

 wind. Every ship made all snug aloft, and hoisted the 

 boats to the top notch of the cranes, fully anticipating a 

 long, hard struggle with the elements before they got 

 back to the cruising ground again. Cutting-in was out 

 of the question in such weather ; the only thing possible 

 was to hope for a shift of wind before she got too far 

 out, or a break in the weather. Neither of these events 

 was probable, as all frequenters of South New Zealand 

 know, bad weather having there an unhappy knack of 

 being as persistent as fine weather is brief. 



Night drew on as our forlorn and heavily-handi- 

 capped little fleet bore steadily seaward with their 

 burdens, the angry, ever-increasing sea battering at ua 

 vengefully, while the huge carcasses alongside tore and 

 strained at their fastenings as if they would rend the 

 ships asunder. Slowly our companions faded from 

 sight as the murky sky shut down on us, until in 

 lonely helplessness we drifted on our weary way out into 



