All this work and bustle of preparation was so rapidly carried on, and so interesting, that before supper-time everything was in readiness to commence operations, the time having gone so swiftly that I could hardly believe the bell when it sounded four times, six o’clock.

*

CHAPTER III

FISHING BEGINS

During all the bustle of warlike preparation that had been going on, the greenhorns had not suffered from inattention on the part of those appointed to look after them.  Happily for them, the wind blew steadily, and the weather, thanks to the balmy influence of the Gulf Stream, was quite mild and genial.  The ship was undoubtedly lively, as all good sea-boats are, but her motions were by no means so detestable to a sea-sick man as those of a driving steamer.  So, in spite of their treatment, perhaps because of it, some of the poor fellows were beginning to take hold of things “man-fashion,” although of course sea legs they had none, their getting about being indeed a pilgrimage of pain.  Some of them were beginning to try the dreadful “grub” (I cannot libel “food” by using it in such a connection), thereby showing that their interest in life, even such a life as was now before them, was returning.  They had all been allotted places in the various boats, intermixed with the seasoned Portuguese in such a way that the officer and harpooner in charge would not be dependant upon them entirely in case of a sudden emergency.  Every endeavour was undoubtedly made to instruct them in their duties, albeit the teachers were all too apt to beat their information in with anything that came to hand, and persuasion found no place in their methods.

The reports I had always heard of the laziness prevailing on board whale-ships were now abundantly falsified.  From dawn to dark work went on without cessation.  Everything was rubbed and scrubbed and scoured until no speck or soil could be found; indeed, no gentleman’s yacht or man-of-war is kept more spotlessly clean than was the cachalot.

A regular and severe routine of labour was kept up; and, what was most galling to me, instead of a regular four hours’ watch on and off, night and day, all hands were kept on deck the whole day long, doing quite unnecessary tasks, apparently with the object of preventing too much leisure and consequent brooding over their unhappy lot.  One result of this continual drive and tear was that all these landsmen became rapidly imbued with the virtues of cleanliness, which was extended to the den in which we lived, or I verily believe sickness would have soon thinned us out.