When we came up, the captain told us that they had hardly struck when there was a kink in the line, and they immediately cut the warp. “But,” he exclaimed, “there are two irons in him, and there is nothing to do but chase him up. The whale didn’t sound for a long period and the direction he took was to wind’rd.” There was no stepping the mast and setting the sail, so the men in the two boats tugged away at the oars.
We pursuers were soon outdistanced. Our own ship had not been able to work to windward, and so had to beat her way in the direction we were taking. As Lakeum pushed on my oar, he said, “These bowheads are so shy and cunning you are only sure of them when they are cut-in and stowed down. It may be that fellow will hold up till we reach him, but I should feel more satisfied if it was a sperm.”
We had been pulling for an hour or more, and we were tired and, I think, pretty cross, when Lakeum said, “There’s a boat clear ahead, and, as far as I can see, it’s fast to a whale.” This was encouraging, if the whale were the one the captain’s boat had lost. But what chance was there? I think if it had been put to vote, our men would have voted that the chase was a foolish one. But it wasn’t a foolish one. Even sailors are often mistaken as to things which happen on the sea. Our boat was just a little ahead of the captain’s and when we arrived the whale was in the last flurry and soon rolled over. Captain Gamans was an assertive man, and was never much troubled with modesty.
It had seemed to me that the captain took some risk in his assertion, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
“Guess again,” said the mate of the other boat.
“You’ll find two fresh harpoons in him, with the cypher of my ship on them,” insisted Gamans.
The mate of the boat merely ignored our captain and gave orders to attach the tow-line. The men obeyed as if they were unaware that there were claimants of the whale in the neighborhood.
Captain Gamans was exasperated and shouted, “My ship’s harpoons are in that whale, and I claim the whole carcass, bone and all.”
“I can see the line attached to the harpoon, and I’m going to keep on claiming my ship’s property, and I’m going to have it, too.”
“How are you going to get it?” inquired the mate, who now looked defiance, and kept changing the lance from one hand to the other, as if he was about to use it for some other purpose than on the bowhead’s body.