And then--it was almost a relief--with a roar as of ten thousand lions mad with hunger, the full hurricane burst upon them. Where it struck them none knew, or what the ship did when she felt it; for whether she was beneath the sea or above no one could tell. The awful blast ripped off the surface of the sea, and spread it through the air so that sight, speech, almost breath became impossible. But they all noticed that, although the ship beneath their feet seemed as if she was being hurled through space, she was now quite steady; the drunken uncertain motion she had previously been suffering from had altogether ceased, for under that pressure of wind no sea could lift its head. I said there was almost a sense of relief, and this is really true, for now it did not appear possible that matters could become worse. Men’s minds refused to entertain the possibility of any increase in the force of the wind, and all felt dimly that any change now must be for the better--that the hurricane was doing its worst.
The skipper, aft by the useless wheel, with the two mates near him, endured like the rest. Having done all that was humanly possible, and commended himself and his charge to his Father, he had now but to set his teeth, bend his head, and bear in patience, awaiting without a tremor the manifestation of God’s will concerning him. There was a certain indefinite satisfaction in having his two mates near him--the same feeling that the other members of the crew had in being huddled together like sheep on the edge of a cliff when the gale howls furiously landward and sweeps the downs like the breath of a destroying angel. In fact, neither Captain Hampden nor his officers took the trouble to think now. They just let their mental powers lie dormant, having used them at the right time to the best advantage, and being quite ready to exercise them again when any good could thereby be done.
And now, what of those brave men so perilously cut off from their ship, left to themselves in the midst of such potentialities of destruction that camping out unsheltered and unarmed in the heart of an Indian jungle would have been safety itself by comparison? For a time, while the whale kept his unswerving and unfaltering rush into the blackness ahead, Mr. Pease’s energies and thought seemed solely concentrated upon the means of compassing the death of his gigantic steed--any ideas concerning his own danger or that of his crew did not seem to find admission to his mind. After satisfying himself that the whale was holding a straight course he called upon all hands to put forth a supreme effort to get up near enough to the monster, and make some feasible attempt at fatally wounding him. And they, seizing the tow-line and straining every sinew to the work, found that they could actually gain upon him a little, although the sprays coming over the bows threatened every now and then to swamp them. But gradually they found their task becoming easier, and although the thickening gloom chilled their hearts they encouraged one another with shouts of ‘There she feels it,’ ‘Hand over hand, hearties,’ ‘Walk her up to him!’ ‘He’s our whale,’ &c. And suddenly the mate yelled at the utmost strain of his lungs, ‘Lay off--lay her off, Walter; lay off, fur God’s sake!’ Nobly Walter responded; the light craft sprang off sideways under the pressure of the great steer oar and Walter’s straining muscles, and the whale’s huge flukes, brandished high in air, came down with a crash like thunder, and smote the water just a yard or two abaft the after oar. But that blow cost the whale his life. For the boat shot up alongside of him, and in towards his side withal, and at the same moment Mr. Pease, taking deliberate aim, sent a bomb-lance point blank into the great body. Almost before the muffled report from within told that the destructive weapon had exploded, a hand-lance had followed it, and slid up to its pole within the vast black mass.