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And, therewith, Milsom left the bridge and ran down on to the fore deck, from which he was presently hoisted to the fore-masthead in a boatswain's chair bent on to a whip rove through the sheave-hole at the masthead.
In other respects the vessel was fitted up much in the same manner as ordinary merchantmen. The only other peculiarity about her, worthy of notice, was the crow's-nest, a sort of barrel-shaped structure fastened to the fore-masthead, in which, when at the whaling-ground, a man is stationed to look out for whales.
The morning of the third day dawned fair and fresh, and once more the solitary night-man at the fore-masthead was relieved by crowds of the daylight lookouts, who dotted every mast and almost every spar. "D'ye see him?" cried Ahab; but the whale was not yet in sight. "In his infallible wake, though; but follow that wake, that's all. Helm there; steady, as thou goest, and hast been going.
On the following Monday morning at daylight the furnace fires were lighted on board the disguised yacht, and at the same time a man with sharp eyes was sent aloft to the fore-masthead to watch the offing over the tops of the low mangrove trees, and give notice of the passage of the Maranon, should she happen to heave in sight; but hour after hour passed with no sign of her, unless one of the eastward-going trails of smoke that showed on the horizon during the forenoon happened to emanate from her.
As the great golden orb vanished below the horizon we rounded the boat to, lowered our sails, and moored her to a sea anchor made of the oars lashed together in a bundle with the painter bent on to them. And later on, when it fell dark, we lighted a lantern and hoisted it to our fore-masthead, as a beacon for which the other boats might steer.
Once she is there, I will take charge again, and give you my directions from the fore-masthead, whither I am about to go; and I shall want you to stand by the engine-room telegraph and transmit my orders to the engine-room smartly.
I thought it would be a good idea placing after it a note of interrogation to put it as a heading to this portion of our narrative. Did that word, dropped from our fore-masthead, indicate an island or a continent? And, whether a continent or an island, did not a disappointment await us? Could they be there whom we had come to seek?
After the crew had whistled the air quite full, it all condensed and turned into a breeze on the third evening, I think it was, and I mast-headed myself again, and there was another man sent up to the fore-masthead." "I beg your pardon," said Mark, with a feeble smile upon his thin face. "I said another man was sent up to look-out.
I shall pass Fortress Monroe at about seven in the morning, and shall sail straight out." "And how shall I know your ship?" Vincent asked. "There may be others starting just about the same time." The sailor thought for a moment. "When I am four or five miles out I will hoist my owner's flag at the fore-masthead.
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