FISHING AT JUAN FERNANDEZ.--FIGHT WITH AN UGLY WHALE.
"Blacksmith, how long is it since you read Robinson Crusoe?" asked the
mate, as he stopped in his walk near the mainmast, and leaned against
the top-sail-sheet bitts. "Some years, I suppose?"
"No, sir," said I. "The last time I read it was less than one year ago,
and I found it as fresh and entertaining as ever."
"No doubt of it," replied Father Grafton. "Nothing connected with
my schoolboy days has so firmly stamped itself on my memory as the
appearance of the old copy of Crusoe, that I owned for many years;
indeed, I carried it to sea with me on my first voyage, and it was
accidentally lost overboard. I can see the brown paper and the quaint
old type with its _f_ and long _s_ so dangerously alike, and its
horrible woodcuts! for it was a copy of a very old edition, and had, no
doubt, delighted two or three generations of boys before it fell into
my hands. But what reminded me of it to-night is the fact that we shall
probably make Juan Fernandez to-morrow."
"Yet this island is not mentioned in the story, I believe," said I.
"No, the scene of the romance lies on the Atlantic side, somewhere near
the mouth of the Orinoco; but it is probable that De Foe got the idea
from the story of a Scotchman who lived three years on this island."
"O yes," said I, "I remember the soliloquy of this Selkirk that I used
to read and declaim at the country school,
"'I am Monarch of all I survey.'
Then I suppose this Selkirk story is really true, is it?"
"Yes, there is no good reason to doubt it. He was taken off the island
by the English circumnavigator, Rogers, in 1709, if I remember right."
"Is there any one living on it now?" I asked.
"I don't know. There was no one there the last visit I made to it. But
I have heard since that the Chilian government made use of it as a
penal settlement, or something of the kind. But we shall not probably
land there. What we want is a good haul of fresh fish, and this is just
the place to find it. We must muster all the fishing-lines in the ship;
the old man has got plenty of hooks; and, by the way, I want you in
the morning to get an iron hoop from the cooper and net it across with
ropeyarn ('Cooper' will know just what I want), to catch some crawfish."
"What sort of fish are they?" asked I.
"Why, they are a species of the lobster family, and fully equal to any
of our lobsters in flavor."
"Juan Fernandez," resumed the mate, "is a name that more correctly
belongs to both islands, some seventy or eighty miles apart. The
Spaniards called them _Mas a tierra_ and _Mas a fuera_, from their
relative positions, 'more inshore,' and 'more off-shore.' The
westernmost is still known by its name of Masa fuera, but this one
seems to have taken 'Juan Fernandez' as its distinctive title."
We stood in near this beautiful island, which is invested with a sort
of romantic interest from the circumstances to which the mate alluded;
and certainly, I thought, if a man _must_ load a solitary life for
a series of years, this would not be the last place he would select
for his hermitage. The larboard and waist-boats were equipped and
lowered for the fishing excursion, and we shoved off in high feather.
We were provided with convenient anchors which we dropped within a
short distance of the rocks, where the water was alive with fish of
various kinds, which could be plainly seen darting and winding below
us. The lines were hardly down among them when some one hauled a fish
into the boat; some one else followed with another; and the sport was
fairly begun. Pieces of pork furnished bait to start with; then the
fish supplied tempting morsels of their own flesh for the hook, to
allure their cannibalic brethren to share their captivity. O ye amateur
anglers who sit with a rod and fly, tempting little innocent fish to
nibble and thinking it not bad sport if you get two or three nibbles
an hour, come to Juan Fernandez and find good, hearty, muscular sport,
that you will not fall asleep at.
"Halloo!" shouted Obed B., as he recoiled from the haul he had made,
staring with disgust, "what the deuce have I got on my hook now?"
"Conger eel!" said the mate, with a roar of laughter. "That's not the
kind you used to spear in Nantucket docks, or stay all night for at
Maddaket ditch. Let's see you get clear of him, now you've caught him,"
for the eel had wriggled and twisted himself into a hopeless snarl with
the line, after swallowing the hook firmly; and defied all his attempts
to release him, for, as Hoeg expressed it, he "wouldn't be handled."
Manoel, the Portuguese, being better acquainted with eels of that sort,
soon got him clear. He said they were good eating; but Hoeg slung him
overboard again with, "Who in thunder do you suppose wants to eat that
flat-headed snake?"
And now every one began to haul more or less of these eels, which
created much merriment and boisterous laughter, while it consumed much
time in clearing lines and getting rid of them.
The first haul of my impromptu net brought up one crustaceous monster
of the kind I wanted, among a snarl of eels who had writhed and
squirmed into and through the meshes of the net, with their teeth
fastened among the rope-yarns, and clinging with a pertinacity and
muscular power of jaw, which plainly said, "nought but death shall
part us." Over it went again, eels and all; and I caught several
more crawfish, great, ugly-looking fellows, who added greatly to the
confusion under our feet by flinging their claws and feelers about
among the fish at the bottom of the boat.
A loud hail from Mr. Dunham, whose boat was anchored at some distance
from us, suddenly interrupted the sport upon which we had been so
intent; and looking up with one accord, we saw that his crew were
hauling in their lines for a start, while he himself was gesticulating
with his arm extended in the direction of the ship. The ensign was
flying at the gaff; a signal of recall.
"He sees whales!" said Mr. Grafton. "In lines, boys! Make them up at
once. Haul in your net, Blacksmith, or cut it adrift, and set the sail,
as soon as you can get the anchor aweigh!" The orders were obeyed with
all speed, and the two boats were soon nearing the ship as fast as the
sails and oars would carry us. The small flag was already up at the
main; and the extended "pointer" (a light pole with a black ball on the
end of it, to be used at the masthead, when the boats are down) told us
that the whale was off the ship's lee bow.
"There he hauls aback!" said Father Grafton, "and I declare, there goes
the starboard boat down. The whale must be in range of the ship from
us, and pretty near the ship too, for the old man can't wait for us,
and is going to try him alone--Look! Here's another ship hove in sight
round that point, and coming under all sail. Spring hard men, and get
alongside! If we only had our line tub in, I wouldn't go to the ship at
all, I'd take the fish with me, or else throw them overboard."
The second mate was but little ahead of us in getting alongside the
ship, and we both strove to outdo each other in getting the lumber out
of the boat and the lines in. Fish flew in on deck with the fury of a
bombardment; fishing-lines and boat anchors were bundled in among them;
we sung out for our line at the same moment Mr. Dunham was shouting
for his, and the cooper in the maintopgallant-crosstrees excited us
to still greater exertions, by the cry "The old man's most on! If he
spouts twice more, he'll have him!"
"Bear a hand with that tub!" said Father Grafton. "Be careful to keep
it upright, and don't break the coil! So; lower handsomely now! Let go!
Shove off, and get your oars out as fast as you can!"
As we swung out by the stern of the ship, the cooper roared again:
"There's white wate-e-er! _The old man's fast!_"
"Bend on your craft, Blacksmith, as fast as you can," said the mate,
"and be sure you have everything clear. Pull ahead, the rest of you."
The two boats were pretty equally matched for a pull; for, though ours
was a little the fastest when under sail, Mr. Dunham's crew were rather
heavier than ours, and the excess of muscular power counterbalanced the
slight difference in the models of the two boats. We diverged a little
so as to give each other full swing, and then "hooked down" to our
work; for the whale was spinning off to leeward at a smart pace, and a
stern chase is proverbially a long one.
"He stays up well," said the mate, who kept his clear eye fixed upon
the fast whale; "he hasn't sounded yet, but he runs so that the old
man can't haul up to him. There he 'mills!' he's headed along on a wind
now," said he, rapidly altering the boat's course with the steering
oar, so as to forereach on him. "Stretch hard men! he's milling more
yet! coming to windward! right at us now! All right, we'll take him
'head and head!'"
The two boats now converged again, both aiming for the same point of
attack, and steering for the nib-end of the whale. The general reader
may be surprised at this mode of approaching him, unless informed that
the sperm whale cannot see directly ahead of him, but if a boat pulls
for his broadside, he is much more liable to take the alarm.
"Stand up, Blacksmith, and get your craft ready," said the mate,
quietly. "See that everything is clear. Be sure and keep cool, and
don't dart too soon. Ease pulling, all! He's coming quick enough;
there's no need to pull, but stand by your oars, all ready at the word."
He was indeed coming, with a vengeance! As I stood up, he was just in
the act of rounding his immense back above the water, after blowing,
and the white water was flying from his sides in clouds, as he forced
himself to windward. The muscular power of an animal like this is
fearful to think of; and I must confess to anxious feelings, nay, to a
feeling of dread, even, at the novel position in which I had been so
suddenly placed. I remembered Father Grafton's injunction to keep cool,
and then thought of the old man's expressive and characteristic words,
"_Get a good scote, and grit the ends of your front teeth off._" I had
not time to think of much more, for as his spout-hole made its next
appearance above the surface, I saw that he had lessened the distance
between us fully one half. He blew off his spout, clear and strong, and
as his back rose again, I saw that the captain's boat was but slightly
fast by one iron. He had his second iron in the crotch, having hauled
it in, but had not yet been able to haul near to the whale, so as to
use it.
"Look out next time," said Mr. Grafton in a low, anxious tone. "Don't
be in a hurry to dart till you are past his head."
I glanced round; the other boat was waiting the crisis like ourselves,
on the other side, just giving room for the whale to pass handsomely
between us. Fisher stood balancing his first iron, all eagerness for
the fray.
A roar saluted my ears, and a cloud of spray was blown into the air
like very fine rain, so near as to envelop me in its cool shower. I
grasped my iron; all feelings of fear or dread had vanished. Not so the
feeling of anxiety, but it was only anxiety lest the prey might yet
escape me.
"Steady, my boy!" said the mate again, "Hold your hand!"
His massive head drew swiftly towards me; the boat rocked in the swell
forced off from his glossy side: and his broad back lay temptingly
before me. It was a sure thing.
"Now Blacksmith!" said the mate, throwing the boat's head off as he
spoke.
I needed no second bidding; my first iron went in to the socket, and
the second followed it, though not quite so deeply.
"Good!" said Father Grafton. "_Heave your box-line overboard!_"
With his shout was mingled a cry of "Stern! Stern hard!" from the
other boat; I saw Fisher's iron cleave its way through the shining
blackskin opposite my own, there was a convulsive heaving and rocking
of everything about us, then a loud crash and splintering sound. The
waist-boat's crew were all swimming amid the chaotic wreck of their
frail craft. Her broadside was crushed in clear fore and aft. The whale
had thrown himself over towards her, and we had escaped without injury.
The monster had disappeared instantly, but was evidently not far
beneath us, as all the lines hung slack. The second mate had, of
course, cut his, as soon as he could get at it. We sterned off out of
the slick where the whale had gone down, and lay just at the outer rim
of the bloody water.
"You are well fast, Mr. Grafton, with both irons; you hold on!" said
the old man. "I'll cut off and pick up the crew. Never mind, we'll
divide 'em. Take three men into your boat, and we'll both hold on.
Never mind the stoven boat; we can't bother about her now."
The dripping crew were all rescued; for, by a good fortune which seems
almost miraculous in hundreds of similar cases, no one was hurt; and
we now prepared for a fresh attack with nine men in each boat; though
reinforcements of this kind were not at all desirable as the boats were
overloaded, and every one was in every one else's way. But the ship had
run down, and was close by us, in case of further accident; we had yet
three hours to sundown, and the strange ship was also near, watching
our movements, and had hoisted her private or owner's signal, by which
we knew her to be the Fortitude; which lay at the "Bar" when we sailed
and had shortly followed us.
"Where is the whale?" said the old man. "Our line is all slack." Then
suddenly he roared, "Look out! Stern all! stern, out of the way!"
The ponderous head of the whale was standing erect above the water like
a milestone; it swayed for a moment, and then seeming to fall over
backwards, the lower jaw, with its ugly display of ivory, was thrust
up, nearly at right angles with the upper.
"Stern! Stern hard, and give him room! He'll bear watching, Mr.
Grafton. We shall have to look out for slants. I would like to get my
second iron in, but I'm afraid he wont give me a chance soon."
But he did, however; for after impotently gnashing his jaw two or three
times, he rolled over and straightened out, spouting, apparently, as
strong as ever. It was plain that he had plenty of fight in him yet,
and was fairly brought to bay. He did not intend to run any more.
The starboard boat pulled up carefully within dart, and as she did so,
leviathan rolled up sidewise to meet her. Captain Upton was not to be
daunted, however, but crying "Stern all!" he pitched his second iron
in near the fin, and as the whale continued rolling, followed it up
with his lance in the breast, between the fins. Quick as lightning,
down settled the monstrous body, and the whale again stood on end with
his jaw out. He flung the jaw over with a desperate sweep, which would
have dealt destruction to the boat and all hands had the range been a
little shorter. The starboard boat fell back to her former position
with the loss of her midship oar and the gunwale split, but that was
a trifle. The whale had received two more severe wounds, at any rate;
and it was our turn to take the next round with him, when he should
straighten again, which he immediately did, still spouting clear,
though not so strong as before.
In the language of the ring, Mr. Grafton "was on hand at the call of
time;" but the whale "played the drop game on us," and with partial
success. He went down like a stone; sinking so quickly that he received
the mate's lance much higher in the body than was hoped or intended.
"He's an ugly customer, Mr. Grafton," said the captain as we sheered
off again. "Keep your eyes peeled! there's no telling where he'll come
next."
But I soon had reason to know where he was. There was a light rippling
under the stern of our boat, then a rise of the sea, lifting her a
little; and that fatal lower jaw stood like a small tower on one side
of the boat, with its double tier of ivory cones towards me, while the
tremendous head, full of scars, overshadowed me on the other. I did
not stop to investigate their beauties; but, while the tub and stroke
oarsmen vanished over the gunwales, one each side, I vaulted a sort of
back somersault over the steering strap, just as the monster "shut pan"
upon her, crushing her stern up like an egg-shell. This "steel-trap"
manoeuvre had proved a perfect success, and nine men were swimming
for their lives while the captain's boat was already overloaded with
the other nine!
But reinforcements were not far off. As I looked about me when I rose,
the captain's waif was set for help, and the Fortitude's three boats
were already splashing into the water. The old man had cut adrift from
the whale, and had already thirteen men in his boat formed in close
column, the other five clinging to the wreck of the larboard boat, when
the three boats of our consort, all abreast, got within hail.
"Pick up, my men, Wyer, and let some of your boats strike the whale!"
said the old man. "You shall have half of him, and welcome, if we can
manage to muckle him out before night. But work shy with him, or you
will lose some of your boats, too."
"All right!" answered Captain Wyer. "Come, Grafton, light into my boat
here. Jump in, my boys, all of you. Look out for the whale, Mr. Swain,"
to his own mate, "and if you get a chance, pitch in. Be a little
careful, though, and you too, Mr. Russell, don't go harem-scarem! Where
_is_ the whale, Upton?"
"Somewhere under us," returned the old man, as coolly as if he had
said he was two miles off. "There he is!" he continued, as the whale
broke water within a ship's length of the Fortitude's waist-boat, and
Russell's boatsteerer jumped up and down in the excitement of the
moment.
[Illustration: FIGHT WITH AN UGLY WHALE. Page 150.]
A few strokes sent the boat alongside of him, going on "quartering,"
but both Russell and his boatsteerer were a little too eager, or
"harem-scarem" as his captain termed it. A blow from the monster's
immense "fan" swept the two oars from the port side of his boat,
ripping out the peak-cleets and splitting his gunwale, while his bowman
was considerably hurt by one of the oars striking him in the head. His
boat was still tight, however, and the injured man was transferred
to Captain Wyer's boat, and I took his place to "bow on" if a chance
offered.
"Never mind, Mr. Russell, try him again!" said our captain. "Here's
spare oars, if you want, pick 'em up, all round here. Hold on a bit,
though; let Swain have a try, he's got the chance now."
The mate of the Fortitude was one of those long-limbed, powerful men,
who seemed to have been built expressly to "straighten ten fathom of
lance-wrap and do execution." He was wary too, in his approach, and
waited for what he thought was a "good time in." He hurled his iron
when four fathoms distant, and put it well in, calling, "Stern, stern
hard!" As he drew back his lance for a long dart, it seemed to me
impossible that he could reach him, as he poised it in his hands, still
backing with his oars. When he judged himself at a safe distance, it
sped for its mark with a momentum that was positively fearful. He drew
it back; a quiver was perceptible in the sides of the vast body of
the monster who had fought so valiantly for his life; and thirty-six
voices greeted the thick clots of blood now faintly gushing from his
spout-hole, with glad shouts of victory.
"He's throwing up the sponge," said Mr. Swain, quietly. "A child can
take care of him now."
We picked up and secured the wrecks of our boats and gear, while
the whale was hauled alongside the Fortitude. It was agreed that
Captain Wyer should cut and boil him, and we would divide the oil in
Talcahuana, as we both expected to be there soon. We bought a boat of
the Fortitude, rigged the spare one overhead, and thus were enabled
to lower the complement of three. We stretched across to Massafuera
and back, cruising between the two islands, till one more large whale
rewarded our efforts; and bore away for the rendezvous, our consort
having left the ground the day before. The cooper had added one to his
stock of yarns which would require but little embellishment to make it
marvellous. Mr. Grafton and Fisher were converts to the "eating whale"
theory; and "the doctor" listened with delight as we rehearsed the
incidents of the capture of "the Juan Fernandez whale;" displaying,
as he listened, an array of ivory almost as formidable as that of the
redoubtable whale himself.