at the same time, he went clean overboard.  Davy, who was standing by the man at the helm, told him to put the helm down and let the vessel come to.  He then ran forward and got a steer-oar from underneath the boots, and threw it overboard.  McCann, being an expert swimmer, swam to the oar, a boat was launched, four men got into it, picked him up, and brought him aboard again none the worse.  There was too much sea on to hoist in the boat, as there were no davits, and while she was being towed in she ran ahead of the vessel, which went over her and filled her with water.  On arriving in Western Port the boat was found to have been not much damaged.  There was on board the ‘Thistle’ an apprentice whom Davy had stolen in Sydney after he had served four years of his time to a boat-builder named Green.  This apprentice repaired the boat, which afterwards proved to be the fastest out of forty-one boats that went out whaling in Portland Bay every morning.

There were in 1837 eight parties of whalers in Portland Bay, and so many whales were killed that the business from that year declined and became unprofitable.  Mills’ party in the ‘Thistle’ schooner, of which Davy was mate and navigator, or nurse to Mills, who was not a trained seaman, had their station at Single Corner; Kelly’s party was stationed at the neck of land where the breakwater has been constructed.  Then there were Dutton’s party, with the barque ‘African’; Nicholson’s, with the barque ‘Cheviot’, from Hobarton; Chamberlain’s, with the barque ‘William the Fourth’, of Hobarton; the ‘Hope’ barque, and a brig, both from Sydney.  The Hentys also had a whaling station at Double Corner, and by offering to supply their men with fresh meat three times a week, obtained the pick of the whalers.  Their head men were Johnny Brennan, John Moles, and Jim Long, natives of Sydney or Tasmania, and all three good whalers.

When the ‘Thistle’ arrived at Portland Bay every other party had got nearly one hundred tuns of oil each, and Mills’ party had none.  He started out next morning, choosing the boat which had picked up McCann at Western Port, and killed one whale, which turned out six tuns of oil.  He did not get any more for three weeks, being very unlucky.  After getting the schooner ready for cutting in, Davy went to steer the boat for Charles Mills, and always got in a mess among the whales, being either capsized or stove in among so many boats.  At the end of three weeks Captain Mills got a whale off the second river, halfway round towards Port Fairy.  She was taken in tow with the three boats, and after two days’ towing, she was anchored within half-a-mile of the schooner in Portland Bay, and the men went ashore.  During the night a gale of wind came on from the south-west, and the whale, being a bit stale and high out of the water, drove ashore at the Bluff, a little way past Henty’s house.