River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1873-09-02
CHILDREN'S CORNER.
Life ON Boar,, a whaIer.
BY F. II. WOODBURY..

time, after it has been lived; but
twenty-five years ago / thought il
should live till this time 1 should be
an old man. But here am, alive and
not old. To be sure, / have changed
in these last twenty years, and /
| don't think my looks have improved.
Of course, q man with no hair on his
head doesn't look so we'll as one with
hair, as a general thing-and then,
there are other things that affect d
mans looks Time has been at work
upon me, to be sure, but 1 am not old.
There is something that does not ap-
pear outwardly, that has still the fresh
ness of youth and that say it mod.
estly--I think has improved. Twenty
five years ago did not think there was
so much to learn. have been learning
all the time-not very fast, but learn
ing-and, as yet, have only learned
enough to know that have but Just
begun. = have come TO the conclusion
that, II ! live twenty-five years more.
/ shall not be old. / donot think shall
ever be old-thoUgh the body may
wither and turn to dust, and be scat.
tered over the earth. That's the belief
that keeps me young, and always will.
Twenty five years ago was a wild
youth. i could not bear to stay at
home and drudge on the farm. Il
thought it was drudgery, but. afterall,
did not have To work very hard.) |
thought 1 would go TO sea / must go
to sea ; and to sea ] went. 4 whaler
carried me around the Cape of Good
Hope, across the Indian Ocean and the
Pacific TO the Sandwich Islands, and
thence to the northwest coast. In one
year after leaving home had arrived
on the northwest coast, having re-
pented Of my going to sea a good many
times on the way. / had even asked
my captain to discharge me and send
me home. But for several reasons that
he thought better of than / did, he re-
fused and So 1t has happened that
have "A story to relate.
We cruised far to the nortiIward,
over ON the Kamschatka side, and clear
up TO the Straits, and then through
them, so that we were fairly in the Arc.
tic Ocean. I never shall 20 there again
of my own accord for / did not
like the weather nor the whales.
never liked the shell OF whales and,
when l finally got well clear of the
northwest, determined TO keep clear
of it.
The weather was cold, foggy, drizzly
too much daylight for the night, too,
though no great matter OF cunshine,
on account of the fogs and clouds. We
had an uncomfortable time every way.
Once in a while we had clear weather
for few hours, and bright sunshine
and then, If we had only had the time,
We should have enjoyed it at great
rate. But we hadn't the time: for as
soon as the fog lifted or the weather
cleared, the lookouts aloft would sing
out, TT h. ere she b-l-o-w-si There
she blows ~ and down would go the
boats, aud we would have to chase the
whales.
We had just about clear weather
enough to keep us at work ali the time.
Whales were plenty, and if We lost the
one We lowered for, very often another,
or others, would he raised before we
got back TO the ship. We were very
successful and that means, among
other things, that we worked hard. We
had excitement-plenty of it; fun
well, that depends upon which end of
the line you are at; it rs fun to read
about it, perhaps, but if you do it, it's
something else. Sometimes we work
ed day and night-what night there
was-till we got very tired, and sleepy
too. II was heavy work heaving in the
whales--the blubbef, ] mean, for we
never attempted to hoist in a whole
whale-and all who were not otherwise
engaged then worked Mt the windlass
brakes. Forty-eight hours, sometimes,
without sleep, made us shut our eyes
and open our mouths while we chung
to the brakes, rising and falling with
this movement, wholly unconscious
that we were helping bit. Some OF
us boys couldn't help heaTing and
sleeping in that way sometimes
though the sleep we got never did MS
much good. What made it worse was
that we were generally wet through,
and getting wettet all the time. III it
cleared off in the night, il was cold,
and our clothes froze stiff, and our
fingers ached. There's where the fun
was. Everybody would get sleepy,
even the officers and once the second
mates dr0wsiness caused him to fall
into the hold through the main hatch,
as he was leaning over il. TIE blub.
Der below saved him from being hurt
but he was laughed at all the same,
and never fell through the hatch but
once.
We had taken some twenty whales,
large and small--hll OF them larger
than the Boston whales-and had tried
out more oil, the officers said, than any
whaler had tried out before in the same
length of time. The try-pots were full,
the flames and smoke streaming up
through the brick hues behind, while
the boat steerers with their forks and
skimmers were busy as demons in
front, and the ship all over, inside and
out, was as smutty and nasty as she
could he. II was Sunday, the day OF
rest, and, because il had been so foggy
all day that we could not see twenty
fathoms from the ship, we were having
watch and watch below. / had been
below, sleeping very fast all the after
noon-that is from one till four, which
is the length of an afternoon watch