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FOREST AND STREAM. 


[DEc. 7, 1907. | 

has come near us yet except the one in the fog. 
Sperm whales feed on squid and go in schools, 
and of course follow their 
our captain that feeding 
further south, and we are edging down that way. 
I hope that they will come thick when we do 
strike them. 
food en masse, and 
fancies they must be 
May 18—A number of steamers have passed 
us to-day, or rather four or five of them, which 
shows that we the track of the South 
America and West Indian traders. They looked 
rather good, but I was just as pleased to be 
where I am. 
are in 
The day was rather tame, though 
we had a fair breeze, for we had none of the 
You that as yet 
I have little to tell about but the weather, and 
it is a sort of stagnation. 
fine effects of yesterday. see 
Our crew are chafing 
under what seems to them the dull routine of 
the ship, for they rather expected to kill a whale 
every other day, and they are wondering why 
they don’t. Their thirst for gore may be slaked 
before they get through. 
May 
it was 
19.—I stood my watch last night because 
stormy. The wind did not blow much, 
and the sea was quite smooth, but the rain beat 
down incessantly, and the sky was as black as 
it could be made to be. The water was very 
phosphorescent, and the little flakes of 
dropped the wavetops as 
crests, 
light 
from they formed 
Sparks washed across our deck as we 
dipped our scuppers, while great patches of fire 
appeared everywhere around the ship. I have 
seen much prettier displays, but I am elad to 
see them in any degree. To help make the night 
interesting a steamer passed close to us, so that 
we heard her strike the hour on her bell, while 
long flashes of lightning revealed her form now 
and then. 
I have not told you yet much about our crew. 
We men all told and man two 
boats. With the exception of our captain the 
have seventeen 
first man of importance is the mate, a gigantic 
native of the Cape De Verde Islands, and as 
finely developed an animal as I have ever seen, 
and as usually the. case with big men he has 
quite a uniform temper. Then comes the second 
mate with his black skin and jolly rotundity, for 
he is the only fat man on board, and they tell 
him that his head will cut down a barrel of oil. 
The mate’s boat steerer is a dark-skinned native 
of the Western Islands too, and is a fellow of 
undoubted prowess. 
He has the record of striking sixteen whales 
on the last The second mate’s boat 
steerer is an old timer, and is fond of telling of 
catching right whales off Cape Horn, or some- 
where else, and of the stormy seas to the south 
of New Zealand where the cachalots are plenty, 
cruise. 
whither he sailed in the palmy days of square 
riggers. 
It was he who killed the blackfish one 
stroke of the iron the other Sunday. Then we 
have a steward and a cook, but he is not Dutch 
as he who is in the ballad: 
with 
“The cook was Dutch, and he behaved as such 
For the food that he gave the crew 
Was a number of tons of hot-cross buns 
All mixed with sugar and glue.” 
In the fo’- 
cas’le there is Joe, who has been a railroad hand, 
and knows a good deal about the police, and 
Holms, the Nova Scotian that I spoke 
about before, but he is very stupid and slow and 
not pan I thought. The next in 
my mind is Jack, who is a professional steamboat 
All the foregoing are Portuguese. 
young 
does out as 

tramp, and spends his time on this coast and in 
the Mediterranean. He has told me quite a lot 
of what he saw in Turkey. 
Then comes big lazy Dave who never seems to 
eet there on time, and Pete who has been on a 
man-o’-war. In the crowd there is a young elec- 
trician from Brookline, and another fellow that 
I cannot recall very well now. They are all 
so alike in character that it is hard to distin- 
guish their personalities one from the other. I 
must not forget two very green young Portu- 
guese, Manuel and Chico. If you could see Chico 
would no longer doubt the evolutionists’ 
hypothesis. Nor must I forget “Willie”. He is 
ceasing to be a problem, and can steer better 
you 
than most of them. 
Such is the crew of the Grozier, but the Long 
Serpent boasted a with “Ulf the 
Red on the forecastle head,” etc. However, they 
are breaking in, but some of the mistakes they 
make are very funny. Sunday has come and 
gone, and I would have liked to hear the Arling- 
ton street chimes and taken a walk through 
the Fens to-day.. I think that you would like 
Boston. 
May 20.—Here is a “pretty thought, prettily 
expressed,” that I found in a magazine pub- 
lished in 1856: 
“Take the bright 
better one, 
shell 
From its home in the lea, 
And it goes 
It will sing of the sea. 
vherever 
“So take the fond heart 
From its home and its hearth, 
’Twill sing of the loved 
To the ends of the earth.” 
It is suggested that Moore might have written 
it, but that he did not. It is a little thing that 
I saw and learned in my boyhood, and you can 
imagine how I hailed it as an old friend, when 
I unexpectedly found it. I discovered that my 
makeshift journal was getting weak in the back 
and that the leaves were coming out, so I have 
tried my amateurish hand at bookbinding. 
The day has passed as uneventful as the others 
except that the vessel is trying to outdo her 
for a heavy swell 
is running with little or no wind to steady her. 
While I am writing I am braced at all points 
to keep my seat. A swallow visited us to-day, 
but he did not stay long, and last night I heard 
the harsh, mechanical note of the petrel for the 
first time to know what it was. I was mystified 
by the sounds coming from all directions, and 
previous records at rolling, 
after a while I asked the boat steerer who was 
on watch with me what they were and he hap- 
pened to know. 
There was hardly any phosphorus in the water 
last night. sick, something the matter 
with his heart they say, and it is too bad, for 
he is a good-natured fellow, and one of the most 
valued members of the crew. 
May 21.—This is how the appears 
from the “loft” where we keep lookout. The 
mast that you see is the foremast and we see 
over the top of it. The steamer in the middle 
distance is pretty nearly a mile off, while the 
is three or four. We went by a 
bit of wreckage this afternoon with an upright 
stanchion on it that looked like a man, but we 
were glad to find that there were no sufferers 
adrift on its cheerless top. It was level with 
the water, and it was so inert that the waves 
foamed up on it as if it were-a beach. We saw 
some grampus and a species of deep sea mackerel 
that weighed about thirty or forty pounds. They 
Joe is 
horizon 
other vessel 


jump 
a fly 
and sport around, and can be caught witl! 
made by tying a white rag around a coc 
hook and playing it along to simulate a flying 
fish. But those we saw did not come near enougt 
to be tempted. 
May 22.—To-day we across the Pear} 
Nelson again, and our captain went on boarc 
for a “gam,” and came back with a prize in thi 
shape of a very small black pig, a veritable razo: 
back of the African type. 
How he did squeal when he was passed ove 
the side by one leg. It is fun to see him brac 
himself on the deck like an old salt when thi 
vessel rolls. I have made a little pen with ; 
nice bed of oakum under my workbench for hin 
to stay in nights and in bad weather. He ha: 
already had his supper and is turned in. 
We have encountered a streak of water witl 
a heavy swell and we are rolling scuppers unde 
every time. It is not very nice. The gulf strean 
is full of moods. The Nelson has not caugh 
any whales since we saw her before, and i 
seems like hard luck for all of us. Some piece 
of squid have floated by us, which shows tha 
whales have been feeding near us, and that i 
about all the encouragement we have. I say 
three large turtles, too, and if the weather i 
fine we may have some turtle steak and a sout 
Joe got on deck again to-day and says that h 
feels pretty well. I wish that you could se 
the movement of the hills of gray water, for th 
sky is overcast, and it does not give any blue t 
reflect. The gigantic masses that keep chang 
ing places one with the other in a faultles 
rhythm of motion have never been painted a 
they impress me. They are a phenomenon o 
nature worth consideration. 
May 23.—This is another uneventful day ex} 
cept that the Nelson is still in company wit 
us, and we keep about a mile apart. She ha| 
been out a year and will not go home befor} 
next spring. On voyages of that class the groun] 
is changed frequently; she has been among th] 
Azores and the Cape Verdes, and from thenc} 
to this ground. From here they will go to th 
West Indies in the fall and from theré down t| 
the Rio de la Plata and then home. | 
An expedition of that sort is rather long] 
winded for me, but I think that I would like th] 
West Indies part of it for a little while. Th] 
locality is very picturesque. 
May 24.—We are yet in company with th} 
Pearl Nelson, and I have tried to show yo} 
how we look having a gam. Our ship is in th} 
foreground and Captain Dunham is returning o} 
board. It is customary for the host to sen| 
out invitations by setting a waif (a boat flag} 
in the stern boat. I saw another turtle toda} 
and it stuck its head above the surface as 
swam, It was getting some air probably. 
I find that whalers have some peculiar supe) 
stitions. The other day, while I was taking of 
a hatch I turned it upside down because it wz 
convenient for me to do so, and I raised a stort] 
around my ears, from the quarter deck to tk 
masthead, and I hurriedly set it right side u 
not knowing what I had done. They all believe 
it to be an evil omen. 
Manuel has a much battered accordeon, an 
to-night while he was sounding a strain like thy 
wail of a lost soul I suggested to our “Cay} 
Horn” boat steerer—for the harpooners a1 
called boat steerers—that we propose that tH 
owner put it up at auction and the buyer throf 
it overboard. 
Tan 

































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