CHAPTER II 



THE MEN OF THE " ALEXANDER " 



|HE brig Alexander was a stauncH, Sea- 



worthy little vessel. She had no fine lines ; 



there was nothing about her to please a 

 yachtsman's eye; but she was far from being a 

 tub as whaling ships are often pictured. She 

 [svas built at New Bedford especially for Arctic 

 whaling. Her hull was of sturdy oak, reinforced 

 at the bows to enable her to buck her way 

 through ice. 



Though she was called a brig, she was really 

 a brigantine, rigged with square sails on her 

 fore-mast and with fore-and-aft sails on her 

 main. She was of only 128 tons but quite lofty, 

 her royal yard being eighty feet above the deck. 

 On her fore-mast she carried a fore-sail, a single 

 topsail, a fore-top-gallant sail, and a royal; on 



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