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Updated: June 21, 2025
The boatswain, set over this work, was a seaman of great coolness, who inspired Captain Hull with every confidence. He had not to fear either hesitation or distraction from Howik. "Attention to the steering, Howik," said Captain Hull. "We are going to try to surprise the jubarte. We will only show ourselves when we are near enough to harpoon it." "That is understood, sir," replied the boatswain.
Five minutes later the whale-boat was at a cable's length from the jubarte. A cable's length, a measure peculiar to the sea, comprises a length of one hundred and twenty fathoms, that is to say, two hundred meters.
That is what Captain Hull did, for he was seen for a moment hoisting the boatswain on a wreck. But the jubarte, in the last degree of fury, turned round, sprang up, perhaps in the last pangs of a terrible agony, and with her tail she beat the troubled waters frightfully, where the unfortunate sailors were still swimming.
Weldon and Dick Sand then turned their eyes again on the whale-boat, which the four oarsmen bore rapidly away. It was nothing but a speck on the sea. Captain Hull, an experienced whaler, would leave nothing to chance. The capture of a jubarte is a difficult thing. No precaution ought to be neglected. None was in this case.
This jubarte was, in reality, a whale of the largest size. From the head to the tail, she measured at least eighty feet. Her skin, of a yellowish brown, was much varied with numerous spots of a darker brown. It would indeed be a pity, after an attack so happily begun, to be under the necessity of abandoning so rich a prey. The pursuit, or rather the towing, had commenced.
Captain Hull and the two sailors gave her three vigorous thrusts on the passage, seeking to strike some vital organ. The jubarte stopped, and, throwing to a great height two columns of water mingled with blood, she turned anew on the boat, bounding, so to say, in a manner frightful to witness. These seamen must have been expert fishermen, not to lose their presence of mind on this occasion.
"Very hard, very hard!" returned Captain Hull. "Those baloenopters have formidable tails, which must not be approached without distrust. The strongest pirogue would not resist a well-given blow. But, then, the profit is worth the trouble!" "Bah!" said one of the sailors, "a fine jubarte is all the same a fine capture!" "And profitable!" replied another.
"I am prepared, sir," replied the boatswain, "but one thing troubles me. It is that the beast, after having fled so rapidly, is very quiet now." "In fact, Howik, that seems to me suspicious. Let us be careful!" "Yes, but let us go forward." Captain Hull grew more and more animated. The boat drew still nearer. The jubarte only turned in her place.
Before the "Pilgrim's" sails had been brought aback, she had drawn a little nearer to the place where the jubarte continued to signal its presence by jets of vapor and water. The jubarte was all this time swimming in the middle of the vast red field of crustaceans, opening its large mouth automatically, and absorbing at each draught myriads of animalcules.
He would have had nothing more to fear for those two beings, to whom he was devoted body and soul. The ocean was deserted. Since the disappearance of the jubarte, not a speck came to alter the surface. All was sky and water around the "Pilgrim."
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