We strike a Fish. o9 



Friday, May lQth. — This has been rather an 

 eventful and exciting day, though the result has not 

 turned out as we could all have wished. A little 

 before noon a fish was seen. Two boats were im- 

 mediately lowered and sent in pursuit. We were 

 at this time close to the edge of very heavy pack 

 ice. After an anxious half-hour had passed, the 

 whale was seen to rise close to the boat in which 

 was the speksioneer. All was now breathless ex- 

 citement, which was increased, if possible, when we 

 saw the bow oar laid fore and aft, and the spek- 

 sioneer rise to his gun. A puff of smoke, a moment 

 of intense anxiety, relieved quickly by the captain's 

 voice from the crow's nest, calling, " A fall ! a fall ! " 

 and the same cry borne along the water from the 

 successful boat, and we knew that Davey Smith, 

 the speksioneer, was fast. Immediately the upper 

 deck was alive with men, all frantically shouting, 

 " A fall ! a fall ! " 1 and rushing to the boats in 



1 The cry, " A fall ! a fall ! " which is always called the in- 

 stant a boat is fast to a fish, is most probably derived from 

 the Dutch word of command " waZ," signifying to man the 

 boats. 



It may also be ascribed to the Dutch word " wall " (pro- 

 nounced val) meaning a whale. 



Some of the old whalers, however, are under the impres- 

 sion that when " a fall !" is cried, it implies that the men on 

 board are to stand by the falls of the boats in readiness to 

 lower. There are numerous old and quaint words and phrases 

 made use of in the whaling trade, whose origin it would be 

 difficult to trace. 



