SPERM WHALE I25 



*Steady as she goes, helmsman,' ordered the captain. 



*Lines in the four boats! Stand by to lower!' 



The watch below poured from the hatches struggling 

 into their jackets and the fore and mizzen lookouts sUd to 

 the deck like monkeys. 



'Starboard a little,' said the captain. 'Steady,' and 

 the ship's head moved a point or two so that her boats 

 could be dropped to windward of the school which 

 was swimming with the wind at two or three knots. 



'Haul aback the mainyard!' cried the captain and the 

 ship's speed was slowed. 



'Lower away! And the good Lord be with you, lads.' 



Thomas and Jamie were already in their respective 

 places in the stern and the bow. The boat had barely 

 smacked the crest of a wave before they had the falls 

 unhooked and the other four of the crew were leaping 

 from the ship's side to their places at the oars. 



'Pull her clear, lads,' urged Thomas as the ship rolled 

 towards their cedarwood cockleshell. 



'Hoist the sail and we'll reach them before they show 

 flukes,' he cried. 



He gripped the long vibrating steering oar as the craft 

 planed before the strong following wind down the long 

 slopes of the waves. More than once she became almost 

 unmanageable and when after about ten minutes the 

 whales were only a few hundred yards ahead he gave the 

 order to roll up the sail and use the oars. 



Now the boat poised itself in the tumbling white water 

 at the crest of a sea and below him in the trough swam the 

 rearguard of the school. 



'Stand up, Jamie,' he thundered and the harpooner 

 shipped his oar, jumped to his feet and stood ready with 

 his harpoon raised as the boat plunged downwards to- 

 wards its prey. The bow shot past the tail of what 

 Thomas took to be the rearmost whale and as he pressed 

 his chest to his steering oar the boat turned towards the 



