26 A YEAR WITH A WHALER 



the best whaleman aboard the brig; as skillful 

 and daring as any that ever laid a boat on a 

 whale's back; a fine, bold, hardy type of seaman 

 and an honor to the best traditions of the sea. 

 He lost his life — poor fellow — in a whaling 

 adventure in the Arctic Ocean on his next 

 voyage. 



Mr. Landers, the mate, was verging on sixty ; 

 his beard was grizzled, but there wasn't a streak 

 of gray in his coal-black hair. He was stout and 

 heavy-limbed and must have been remarkably 

 strong in his youth. He was a Cape Codder and 

 talked with a quaint, nasal, Yankee drawl. He 

 had been to sea all his life and was a whaleman 

 of thirty years' experience. In all these years, 

 he had been ashore very little — only a few weeks 

 between his year-long voyages, during which 

 time, it was said, he kept up his preference for 

 liquids, exchanging blue water for red liquor. 

 He was a picturesque old fellow, and was so ac- 

 customed to the swinging deck of a ship under 

 him that standing or sitting, in perfectly still 

 weather or with the vessel lying motionless at 

 anchor, he swayed his body from side to side 



