354 NIMROD OF THE SEA; OB, 



and they saw Jonah's initial on one side and a picter of the 

 American eagle on the othei*, why, they believed my story. 

 Just then I heard some one yell down the companion-way, 

 " Watch ahoy ! turn out; eight bells." Then I knowed I'd 

 been a-dreamih' an all -fired- lie of about forty nightmare 

 power.' And that's Bully Sprague's story of Jonah's whale." 



" I am sorry he dreamed, for I should like to have proof 

 of that story of Jonah, which I feel in duty bound to believe," 

 said the big.Kentuckian, Bingham. 



And allow me to say just here, that the object of the yarn 

 and song at sea is to keep the watch awake. If the reader 

 will recall what has been already written of the overmaster- 

 ing drowsiness which assails us in our night, watches, he 

 will make allowance for the exaggeration and high spice 

 which is thrown into the recitals. It requires stirring inci- 

 dent to banish sleep from the eyes of a man who would 

 scarcely waken under the shower-bath of a sea leaping the 

 bulwarks. And if I banished the yarn from my story, you 

 would have a weak picture of the real life aboard a whale- 

 ship. 



A page may well be devoted also to our meeting with the 

 Mount Vernon, of New Bedford, Captain Covill. His son, 

 George Covill, had sailed as cabin-boy, man before the mast, 

 boat-steerer, and now ranked as second mate in this ship 

 (and I may add that he afterward, as first mate, and for two 

 voyages as master, continued in her). As second mate, he 

 was steered by a man named Brooks, and gave us the follow- 

 ing story, which I repeat for the sake of the information it 

 contains relative to a sperm-whale: 



"A whale was coming to windward at a tremendous rate, 

 and his course lay directly across the head of our boat. - I 

 told the men to heave up and lie still, but to keep their oars 

 in their hands, and I ordered Brooks to stand up. It looked 

 for a minute as though the whale was going clean through 



