Chapter 11 - Page 2

of the passage occurred. "There is a man overboard from the other
schooner, or they see a spout."

"A spout! a spout!" shouted Stimson, in return; "and a spalm (sperm, or
spermaceti, was meant) whale, in the bargain! Here he is, sir, two p'ints
on our weather beam."

This was enough. If any one has had the misfortune to be in a coach drawn
by four horses, when a sudden fright starts them off at speed, he can form
a pretty accurate notion of the movement that now took place on board of
Deacon Pratt's craft. Every one seemed to spring into activity, as if a
single will directed a common set of muscles. Those who were below
literally "tumbled up," as seamen express it, and those who were aloft
slid down to the deck like flashes of lightning. Captain Gardiner sprang
out of his cabin, seemingly at a single bound; at another, he was in the
whale-boat that Hazard was in the very act of lowering into the water, as
the schooner rounded-to. Perceiving himself anticipated here, the mate
turned to the boat on the other quarter, and was in her, and in the water,
almost as soon as his commanding officer.

Although neither of the schooners was thoroughly fitted for a whaler, each
had lines, lances, harpoons, &c., in readiness in their quarter-boats,
prepared for any turn of luck like this which now offered. The process of
paddling up to whales, which is now so common in the American ships, was
then very little or not at all resorted to. It is said that the animals
have got to be so shy, in consequence of being so much pursued, that the
old mode of approaching them will not suffice, and that it now requires
much more care and far more art to take one of these creatures, than it
did thirty years since. On this part of the subject, we merely repeat what
we hear, though we think we can see an advantage in the use of the paddle
that is altogether independent of that of the greater quiet of that mode
of forcing a boat ahead. He that paddles looks _ahead_, and the approach
is more easily regulated, when the whole of the boat's crew are apprised,
by means of their own senses, of the actual state of things, than when
they attain their ideas of them through the orders of an officer. The last
must govern in all cases, but the men are prepared for them, when they can
see what is going on, and will be more likely to act with promptitude and
intelligence, and will be less liable to make mistakes.

The four boats, two from each schooner, dropped into the water nearly
about the same time. Daggett was at the steering-oar of one, as was
Roswell at that of another. Hazard, and Macy, the chief mate of the
Vineyard craft, were at the steering-oars of the two remaining boats. All
pulled in