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There, for one fateful moment, he stands erect, his whole tense body like the full-drawn bow before it speeds the arrow home. He throws: and then, for some desperate minutes, it is often a fight to a finish between the whale's life and his own. The old wooden whaling vessel under mast and sail is almost extinct. But it had a long and splendid career.
Captain Flett tried to make my position comfortable and my work agreeable, and sometimes when I was on deck with him at night, he would remain by me smoking, and make the time pass lightly by telling me of his early experiences in the Dundee whaling ships; or more often he would instruct me in seamanship, and teach me regarding the tides and channels of Orkney.
Wyllys then proceeded to ask some questions, which had been agreed upon before the meeting. "What is your precise age, sir?" "I shall be thirty-seven, the tenth of next August." "Where were you born?" "At my father's country-place, in county, Pennsylvania." "When were you last there before his death?" "After my whaling voyage in the Sally-Ann, in the summer of 1814."
Israel, to drown his heavy-heartedness, complied. The liquor began to take effect. "Ever at sea?" said the stranger, lightly. "Oh, yes; been a whaling." "Ah!" said the other, "happy to hear that, I assure you. Jim! Bill!"
Macquarie Island anchorages are treacherous, and several ships engaged in the sealing and whaling trade have left their bones on the rocky shores, where bask great herds of seals and sea-elephants. The 'Aurora' sailed from the island on December 31, and three days later they sighted the first iceberg, a tabular berg rising 250 ft. above the sea.
The 'Britannia', a convict ship, the property of Messrs. Enderby & Sons, arrived at Sydney on October 14th, 1791, and reported that vast numbers of sperm whales were seen after doubling the south-west cape of Van Diemen's Land. Whaling vessels were fitted out in Sydney, and it was found that money could be made by oil and whalebone as well as by rum.
Time passed on, till he reached the age of sixteen years, when spurning the restraints of home, the erring boy left his father's house and became a wanderer, no one knew whither; but it was rumored that reaching a seaport town he had entered a merchant vessel bound upon a whaling voyage for three years.
The Times special correspondent, in a letter from Vancouver's Island, published on 10th August, says, "Productive fisheries, prolific whaling waters, extensive coalfields, a country well timbered in some parts, susceptible of every agricultural improvement in ethers, with rich gold fields on the very borders these are some of the many advantages enjoyed by the colony of Vancouver's Island and its fortunate possessors.
From the fat of some very large whales more than two hundred barrels of oil could be secured. The men on the whaling ships were gone from home for years at a time. When there were no whales in sight, they had to find ways of amusing themselves. Many of them carried sharp pocket knives, and passed their time in whittling. By long practice they became very skillful with their knives.
Colonel Whaling, with one small company, the recruits, the band, and the non-combatants, would remain to take charge of the post. Sending for his first sergeant, Truscott ordered him to have everything put in readiness at once. A man was sent to town to recall all soldiers on pass. There had been no drills during the day.
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