The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1875-09-23
VOL. %.
STORY FROM A WHALER.
from Appleton's Journal.

of the whaler GaZelle, OF New Bedford.
He was twenty-thfee years old, six feet
high, and strong as an oak tree.
He was the favorite ON the sh1p-and
no wonder. He was tender and gentle,
perhaps because he was strong; he was
peaceful, because he was wonderful
And the soft word that turneth away
wrath, with the gentle hand to soothe a
su fferer, is often needed in the whale
fisheries. Most of the foremost hands
of the Gaz ellie were rough Portuguese
lads, from the Western Islands, on their
first voyage. They were treated with
coarse contempt by Jew American sea-
men and by the officers. The only
"whiteman as the Yankee sailor loves
to call himself-who was kind and patti
ent with the rude boys was Chips; and
he was never tired of showing or teach
ing them something of what he knew.
He was one of those unselfsh fellows
who do not believe in keeping knowl-
edge to themselves. He had never been
years of his voyage, he had attended 70
so many things besides his own easy
work that he was looked on as one of
the best and coolest whalemen aboard
Although exempt from standing watch.
he had insisted on doing so from the
first day out. At night, if the weather
was good, he would sit on the main
hatch, in the center of ring of Port
ugese lads, and with wonderful patience
teach them to make spices and knots,
and to speak English. He never tired
of doing this OF any other kindly thing
for them. In the daytime, if there
were work for him at his trade, he still
had them round him, explaining every
thing as he sawed or planed, just as if
he wished to make them as good carp
enters as he was himself
On Sunday, when every one brought
his letters and pictures on deck, Chips
showed the only sign of isolation he
ever gave, He was the only one on
pictures or letters-neither face nor
word to remind him of home. When
the ship touched at some port with a
post-ofice, and every one else ran for
his letters, Chips remained aboard-he
knew there was none for him. In one
of the boys albums he found the picture
of an old, white-haired woman-the lads
mother-and every Sunday he asked for
that album, and always gave it back
when he turned to that picture.
The Gazelle had been cruising for
the coast of Western Australia
great penal colony of England
during that time had not fallen in with
single sperm whale. One raw after
noon, with harsh breeze and rising
sea, at last we heard the long, sing song
cry from the masthead, "He blows
there ee-ablo-o-ws w Four times at
regular intervals of about forty seconds,
the cry was repeated, and then we knew
it was sperm whale.
It was five in the evening when the
first cry was heard, and the sun went
down at half-past six with scarcely five
minutes of twilight. As rule on board
American whalers, when whales are seen
late in the evening, the boats are not
sent down, unless the course of the
whales and the speed of their travel are
carefully noted. When ''on course"
school of sperm will move at the rate
of about six miles an hour; when "feed-
ing" they keep on the same ''ground,
not moving more than q few miles a
day. When seen late in the eve-
ming, the ship is steered during the
night according to the observations, and
often finds the school in sight in the
morning, when the boats are at once
sent down.
This course was not followed on the
evening in question. 1t was not a
school we saw, but ''lone whale" and
one of extraordinary size. The night
promised to be q rough one, and the
whales motions were strangely irregu-
lar, as if he had lost himself in an un-
known sea.
There is something solemn and mys-
terious in the sight of a ''lone whale, +" and
marvellous superstitions are current
among whalemen respecting them.
Though spending year after year on the
great waters, whalers become more i'm
pressionable to supernatural things than
other seamen; and long observation of
the shoals or schools of the vast crea-
lures they pursue tends to fill them with
amazement and awe when they meet
with a solitary leviathan, who has
abandoned all fellowship with his kind,
who lives by his own law-lonely, nigh
ty and terrible
Soon after the cry from aloft we saw
the whale from the deck, only a short
distance from the ship, and we might
have seen him long before had not his
white, bush-hke spout been lost in the
angry whiteness that was fast spreading
over the sea.
For moment all eyes were fastened
ON the long body, like great, black
tube, over which the waves washed.
Every face was wonder-stricken at the
immense size of the whale. Captain
Clifford had been examining him through
a glass, which he handed In turn to each
of his officers. ''What do you say, Mr..
Hussey % he inquired of the first mate,
who glanced at the setting sun. and an
sxxnrod 600 down sir. we 1,an do IL >,