52 THE WHALE HUNTERS 



waters of the bay and Jonathan availed himself of this 

 opportunity to make some observations in his diary. As 

 he sat at the forecastle table, the only sounds were the 

 scratching of his quill and the muffled creak of slack 

 rigging. Yet he sensed something disturbing in the 

 quiet of the dimly lit forecastle and he turned and looked 

 up at one of the swinging hammocks. Through a haze of 

 tobacco smoke and screen of matted black whiskers the 

 baleful eyes of Nathaniel Sykes were watching him closely. 



Nothing was said and Jonathan went on with his writing 

 but all the time he knew that those eyes, full of suspicion 

 and hate, were boring into his very soul. 



The Pilgrim weighed anchor and continued her voyage, 

 but no whales were sighted until one morning there came 

 into view a fleet of Esquimo oomiaks which it soon 

 became obvious were in pursuit of a large right whale. 



The captain ordered sail to be reduced in the hope that 

 other whales would be sighted; but it is not the habit of 

 right whales as it is with the sperm to remain in the vicinity 

 of a stricken comrade and none were sighted. 



As the ship ghosted along at slow speed Jonathan stood 

 upon the forecastle head and watched the Esquimos. 



Each narrow craft, constructed with sealskins stretched 

 over frail wooden frames, was being propelled at furious 

 speed by a crew of fur-clad Esquimos with paddles. They 

 were continually dashing in and thrusting their stings 

 into their massive prey, like a swarm of angry wasps. 

 Each of the oomiaks carried a supply of spears to which 

 were attached bladders of inflated sealskin and as one 

 after another of these spears was implanted by the intrepid 

 Esquimos more and more of the sealskin bladders became 

 attached to the whale. They bobbed and bounced in the 

 white water beside the whale as he swam but did not 

 appear to make any appreciable reduction in his speed. 

 But, when he dipped his head and hfted his flukes to 

 sound, the bladders clung to the surface until the last 



