130 THE WHALE HUNTERS 



'Stern all!' he shouted and the boat, having been 

 brought to the lee side for this very purpose, was easily 

 backed away from the whale which now fought with all 

 the fury of its waning life to smash its tormentors with its 

 tail and its snapping jaws. 



Hamm's boat riding nearby had reached the whale too 

 late, despite the efforts of his oarsmen, to be in at the 

 kill. 



The Meribah came alongside the whale and its tail was 

 secured with a heavy chain to her starboard bow. 



Thomas's battered boat was hoisted on to the deck for 

 repairs and he and his crew went below to change their 

 soaked clothes. 



When he went on deck again the first and second mates, 

 Hodge and Jacobs, were steering their boats into the 

 Meribah's lee. 



'We lost two lines, Cap'n,' reported Hodge disconso- 

 lately as he came over the side. 'He took mine first and 

 then Jacob's and the rate he was diving I reckon he'ld 

 have taken a third.' 



'Never mind, Hodge,' said the captain, 'the ship has 

 one whale to her credit and we'll commence cutting as 

 soon as the hands have had dinner.' 



And whilst the men of the Meribah are enjoying a well 

 earned meal let the reader enlighten himself if he so wishes 

 on some of the peculiarities of the type of whale which 

 wallows in the shark infested sea under the ship's side. 



The spermaceti whale is called the sperm whale for 

 short. In the American whalemen's vocabulary it was 

 often called the 'parmaceti' and the English, borrowing 

 from the French, named it cachalot. Whereas there are 

 several large varieties of the baleen or whalebone whales, 

 the sperm whale is the only large member of the toothed 

 family. The male sperm whale is bigger than its wives 



