Ellsworth American., 1869-06-24

emile. ''some Of the dillculty h cleared
away. Now listen, all three. con.
hdently hope that Lncy may accept me
aftsr . while, and % does Abner
Now he's Oh on . cruise, and was not
going to sail till next season, as you
all know. l will not take the advan.
tage this gives me. No man on earth
shall say that acted unfairly: and
ODER, Captain Hoskins, to join yonr
ship, to share your cruise with Abner
and when wc both return We will once
more ask Lucy the question she can
not answer now. Are you agreed, Cap
tain! Are you, Lucy?"
SWELL" said the Captain, II like
yoa all the more for the offer, lad and
60 with me you shall. Lucy need not
have . word to say about it in fact
forbid her."
But have" said I. Il will not
Be less generous than Jacob; be shall
not leave this port in my company"
That" quietly answered the Cap
tain, rs for me 10 decide. Abner,
you've signed articles: so your busi-
ness Il settled. Jacob will sign with
n,e-you understand, with me and IL
l choose TO ship him aboard the Polly,
l don't know n you've got TO be con-
suited. Nay, not another word. Give
me my pipe and jug Of cider. Lucy.
The whole subjects laid on the table,
- our Congressman would say and it
u not to he lifted till the Polly sights
Nantucket harbor-maybe this time
two years. maybe less, may be more.
You'll stay. supper, lads, Of course.
Cheer up, my lass; your troubles over
for . time"
II was no use trying TO open the
discussion again. lie would not even
listen to whisper from her, and we
were fain 10 be content. Nor that
night, nor next day, nor the next, did
either OF us recur TO it.
And on the day after that-it was
on Wednesday. the twelfth Of April
a group Of women stood on the wharf,
waving their handkerchief, and watch
Ing with streaming eyes. the bark Pol
", - she was working her way out to
sea.
Life on = whale-ship il not like any
where else. II is Of grease, greasy.
The Polly was an old tub, whose every
timber was soaked with oil-oil that
bad been slowed in every part Of her.
except among the ropes and spars, un-
der decks, or aloft, and would, as We
hoped, be so again. How many mil
lions Of cockroaches we carried, heav-
IN knows but they, too, swarmed ev-
erywhere-big fellows, too, that would
Eat . mans toe-nails Off before he
would wake out Of snooze. Rats. too
--hage, ferOcious- whiskered creatures,
hat would look at you - If they owned
The ship; and fat-well they knew
what barrels Of oil were. and prof,ed
by the knowledge. And wha, with
grease, and cockroaches, and rats. and
close quarters, the cabin and the fore
castle weren't exactly like a lady's
parlor. as may well be imagined. But
the whaler combines sport with profit.
and can put up with trifles. This is
how the Polly was manned: There was
the captain and three mates myself
the third. Jacob was entered as
on shares, which made
four. There were four boats, and con-
sequently four boats crews, of six men
and steerer each. 4 couple Of ne
groes were cook and such, and two
boys made up the lot ot,-thirty-s seven
souls in all OF these, the Officers aud
steerer were Americans, the rest.
motley crowd Of all nationalitics, but
all tolerably experienced hands.
There WAS nothing unusual To note
for some weeks. We made about an
average run, and got to Bafiin's Bay
in the second week in June. We had
caught glimpse ola spouter, hooked
y blue shark, and seen icebergs in
plenty. getting more and more numer-
ous - We draw nearer the artic seas.
which were our cruising ground. l
may as we'll mention that, by common
we never spoke of Lucy, at
least, never Of the events which had
brought jacob and together. II was
4 point Of honor with us, you see.
At length we were fairly within the
region Of snow and ice, and began to
look in earnest for fish. We were
lucky. In three weeks wo had cap
tured and cut up Eve whales. and melt
ed down the blubber. On Monday Of
the fourth week, at ten Of the forenoon,
another was sighted three miles away,
On the starboard bow. Not q moment
was lost in manning and lowering the
four boats. In less time than it takes
10 tell 1t, We were pulling in a wide
haff-circle, for the doomed monster.
Jacob was hArpooner in one, l steer
ing in the same. l remember the
scene as well as twas yesterday. The
vide waste Of waters, still as lake,
With here and there the huge fantastic
iorms Of icebergs, their lofty crags and
pinnacles glittering in the arctic sun
shine the four boats gliding swiftly
and noiselessly on, with . man in the
bow Of each, with poised weapon, and
part Of the coiled line upon his arm,
waiting for the moment to strike and,
growing in bulk as We draw nearer and
nearer, the great mound Of inert mat
ter rising above the surface Of the wa
ter. At last the word was given.
From the first boat the harpoon few
,wift and true, and buried itself to the
rocket in the ish's side. Then, as he
Ielt il, with . plunge that sucked the
water into awhirlpool, down he went,
while the line ran out seventy yards, in
! cloud or fficti0n-born smoke, over
he gunwale, and dragging the boat
along like . race-horse. A pause, then