Imperial Valley press., 1937-01-24
my Thumbs We're Lbed the Sbyouds So That Stood Toe
Mr. Mtering Himself Ripped off My Shirt and Stripped Me
to the Waia. Suddenly, Came the Cat. Was Leaming'

more orders. The boatswain knew what to do.
He proceeded to rope-end me until I promised
to get sea legs under me. I agreed, readily, to
get going as Mr.. Stuart said
ur ONE of these kids never learn" Mr.. Stuart
y informed the world, "if you let 'em run
over you, specially with hot beans" 1t hadn't
occurred to me to run over him." but now !
began to think about it, trying to devise meth
ods to annoy him-and of course, never got far
with my plans.
In England Spike may have been an aris-
tocrat, but aboard the Bessie B he was
seaman, and a good one. He was burly, harsh
with his mates, and gentle with me. Spike had
never married. and he liked youngster hang
ing on his words of wisdom. He was guardian
and teacher
We were headed for the Arctic, where we'd
be sure to strike fog banks. And according to
my mentor, fog was the one thing seamen wor
ried about
"If you don't see an iceberg, you're in trou-
ble" Spike insisted. when there's fog, you've
got to look out for bergs and other ships
which you can't usually see before you hit EN-"
I got busy with Spikes tattered BLUE jack
cts Manual, and really studied. That is in my
spare time I wasn't on any watch; I didn't
get four hours on and eight hours off like the
crew, but was on duty at every change of the
watch, at meal times, and ION CALI through the
middle and morning watch making hot cof-
fee and snacks for anyone who felt hungry
Leisure? There wasn't much leisure or any
time for sleep, especially when we killed
whale and tried it OUT. On these happy occa-
sions we all worked overtime crew and officers
and galley scullion. AS to hours Off I simply
didn't rate consideration, and got to the point
where recognition of my existence would have
shocked me.
IA /HALEs were our business, our conversa
into crews quarters There were violent argu-
ments between the others. / learned to
keep still.
Right whales pay the BEST" someone said.
You're crazy yelled the boatswain, and
heaved plate.
Spike calmed them Shut up" he said
quietly "a grand bunch of whalers, you are
mott" He strung off list of names Right
whale, Bow head Sperm, Finback Blue whale,
Humpback, Sea Whale, California gray whale :.
that's devil fish killer whale white whale,
and blackfsh pilot whae That's the way they
come, in order The Rights most important
more money in it for u.s." Then he explained
about whales knowing more than the rest Of
them all put together: there was reason for his
knowledge Spike was educated, the rest were
just run-of- -the-mill sailing men.
The Right whale, he said was native Of the
North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans 1t had
massive head about one-quarter of its length,
which averaged fifty feet, with queer forma-
ton on it's head called a bonnet" It's lower
lip was tremendous coal-black, and swung
into action freely. Around the throat and breast
it was white or sometimes white Whales va
ried lot. The Right whale was easy to handle
-. good profit in 1t, since 1t was large and
gave plenty of OIL
Ever see an Orca? That's the whale which
scares everything that swims the seas. The
Orca's killer born to kill you'd say. Not so
big. Just around 25 feet with dorsal An