44 



THE WHALE HUNTERS 



with the mates to recruit fresh men and when Jonathan 

 and Joseph slung their hammocks there was still no news 

 that their efforts had been successful. 



But when they were called to scrub decks at dawn they 

 saw that all but one of the hammocks in the forecastle 

 had been slept in. 



'Other one, he in boat,' Chimoo explained, nodding 

 towards the whaleboats on the deck. 



After breakfast mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts 

 came to wish their menfolk farewell. Mrs. Mather 

 gathered up both boys in one big tearful embrace and 

 then at a sharp order from the first mate the decks were 

 cleared. The warps were taken in, the headsails hoisted 

 and the vessel ghosted away from the wharf into the 

 morning mist leaving behind her a sad little group of 

 people, amongst whom there was one, Mr. Richard 

 Mather, whose mind was troubled by having just been 

 told the identity of the man who still lay in a drunken 

 sleep at the bottom of one of the Pilgrim^ s whaleboats. 



%e Pilgrim 



