A	»	B	»	C	»	D	»	E
F	»	G	»	H	»	I	»	J
K	»	L	»	M	»	N	»	O
P	»		R	»	S	»		T
U	»		V	»	W	»		Z

Jane Andrews - "The Seven Little Sisters Who Live on the Round Ball"

Joseph C. Lincoln - "Cape Cod Ballads, and Other Verse"

Various - "Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4, February, 1858"

Samuel Johnson, Thomas Parnell, Thomas Gray, and Tobias Smollett - "Poetical Works of Johnson, Parnell, Gray, and Smollett"

Layoffs at Random House, Simon & Schuster
Moreover Technologies - Premier purveyor of real-time news and RSS feeds from across the Web

Citigroup Cuts Estimates and Price Target on Amazon.com (AMZN) Due To Flat Online Retail Growth
Ad - Get Info for Book Publishing from 14 search engines in 1.

Farewell To Okada In PortHarcourt
'Yes, Virginia, book publishing is NOT recession proof,' said Patricia Schroeder, president and chief executive officer of the Association of American Publishers. 'It's sad day.' At Random House, the country's largest general trade publisher, the man who

The Crater by James Fenimore Cooper

J >> James Fenimore Cooper >> The Crater




When all was ready, the whaling expedition sailed; the governor leading
on board the Mermaid, which had no less than forty females in
her--Bridget and Anne being among them. The vessels went out by the
southern channel, passing through the strait at the bridge in order to
do so. This course was taken, as it would be easier to turn to windward
in the open water between the south cape and the Peak, than to do it in
the narrow passages between the islands of the group. The Mermaid led
off handsomely, sparing the Henlopen her courses and royals. Even the
Abraham could spare the last vessel her foresail, the new purchase
turning out to be anything but a traveller. The women wondered how so
slow a vessel could ever catch a whale!

The direction steered by the fleet carried it close under the weather
side of the Peak, the summit of which was crowded by the population, to
see so unusual and pleasing a sight. The Martha led, carrying rather
more sail, in proportion to her size, than the Mermaid. It happened, by
one of those vagaries of fortune which so often thwart the best
calculations, that a spout was seen to windward of the cliffs, at a
moment when the sloop was about a league nearer to it than any other
vessel. Now, every vessel in the fleet had its whale-boat and
whale-boat's crew: though the men of all but those who belonged to the
Henlopen were altogether inexperienced. It is true, they had learned the
theory of the art of taking a whale; but they were utterly wanting in
the practice. Betts was not the man to have the game in view, however,
and not make an effort to overcome it. His boat was manned in an
instant, and away he went, with Socrates in the bows, to fasten to a
huge creature that was rolling on the water in a species of sluggish
enjoyment of its instincts. It often happens that very young soldiers,
more especially when an _esprit de corps_ has been awakened in them,
achieve things from which older troops would retire, under the
consciousness of their hazards. So did it prove with the Martha's boat's
crew on this occasion. Betts steered, and he put them directly on the
whale; Socrates, who looked fairly green under the influence of alarm
and eagerness to attack, both increased by the total novelty of his
situation, making his dart of the harpoon when the bows of the fragile
craft were literally over the huge body of the animal. All the energy of
the negro was thrown into his blow, for he felt as if it were life or
death with him; and the whale spouted blood immediately. It is deemed a
great exploit with whalers, though it is not of very rare occurrence, to
inflict a death-wound with the harpoon; that implement being intended to
make fast with to the fish, which is subsequently slain with what is
termed a lance. But Socrates actually killed the first whale he ever
struck, with the harpoon; and from that moment he became an important
personage in the fisheries of those seas. That blow was a sort of Palo
Alto affair to him, and was the forerunner of many similar successes.
Indeed, it soon got to be said, that "with Bob Betts to put the boat on,
and old Soc to strike, a whale commonly has a hard time on't." It is
true, that a good many boats were stove, and two Kannakas were drowned,
that very summer, in consequence of these tactics; but the whales were
killed, and Betts and the black escaped with whole skins.

On this, the first occasion, the whale made the water foam, half-filled
the boat, and would have dragged it under, but for the vigour of the
negro's arm, and the home character of the blow, which caused the fish
to turn up and breathe his last, before he had time to run any great
distance. The governor arrived on the spot, just as Bob had got a hawser
to the whale and was ready to fill away for the South Cape channel
again. The vessels passed each other cheering, and the governor
admonished his friend not to carry the carcass too near the dwellings,
lest it should render them uninhabitable. But Betts had his anchorage
already in his eye, and away he went, with the wind on his quarter,
towing his prize at the rate of four or five knots. It may be said,
here, that the Martha went into the passage, and that the whale was
floated into shallow water, where sinking was out of the question, and
Bob and his Kannakas, about twenty in number, went to work to peel off
the blubber in a very efficient, though not in a very scientific, or
artistical manner. They got the creature stripped of its jacket of fat
that very night, and next morning the Martha appeared with a set of
kettles, in which the blubber was tried out. Casks were also brought in
the sloop, and, when the work was done, it was found that that single
whale yielded one hundred and eleven barrels of oil, of which
thirty-three barrels were head-matter! This was a capital commencement
for the new trade, and Betts conveyed the whole of his prize to the
Reef, where the oil was started into the ground-tier of the Rancocus,
the casks of which were newly repaired, and ready stowed to receive it.

A week later, as the governor in the Mermaid, cruising in company with
the Henlopen and Abraham, was looking out for whales about a hundred
miles to windward of the Peak, having met with no success, he was again
joined by Betts in the Martha. Everything was reported right at the
Reef. The Neshamony had come in for provisions and gone out again, and
the Rancocus would stand up without watching, with her hundred and
eleven barrels of oil in her lower hold. The governor expressed his
sense of Betts' services, and reminding him of his old faculty of seeing
farther and truer than most on board, he asked him to go up into the
brig's cross-trees and take a look for whales. The keen-eyed fellow had
not been aloft ten minutes, before the cry of "spouts--spouts!" was
ringing through the vessel. The proper signal was made to the Henlopen
and Abraham, when everybody made sail in the necessary direction. By
sunset a great number of whales were fallen in with, and as Capt. Walker
gave it as his opinion they were feeding in that place, no attempt was
made on them until morning. The next day, however, with the return of
light, six boats were in the water, and palling off towards the game.

On this occasion, Walker led on, as became his rank and experience. In
less than an hour he was fast to a very large whale, a brother of that
taken by Betts; and the females had the exciting spectacle, of a boat
towed by an enormous fish, at a rate of no less than twenty knots in an
hour. It is the practice among whalers for the vessel to keep working to
windward, while the game is taking, in order to be in the most
favourable position to close with the boats, after the whale is killed.
So long, however, as the creature has life in it, it would be folly to
aim at any other object than getting to windward, for the fish may be
here at one moment, and a league off in a few minutes more. Sometimes,
the alarmed animal goes fairly out of sight of the vessel, running in a
straight line some fifteen or twenty miles, when the alternatives are to
run the chances of missing the ship altogether, or to cut from the
whale. By doing the last not only is a harpoon lost, but often several
hundred fathoms of line; and it not unfrequently happens that whales are
killed with harpoons in them, left by former assailants, and dragging
after them a hundred, or two, fathoms of line.

It may be well, here, to explain to the uninitiated reader, that the
harpoon is a barbed spear, with a small, but stout cord, or whale line
fastened to it. The boat approaches the fish bow foremost, but is made
sharp at both ends that it may "back off," if necessary; the whale being
often dangerous to approach, and ordinarily starting, when struck, in a
way to render his immediate neighbourhood somewhat ticklish. The fish
usually goes down when harpooned, and the line must be permitted to
"run-out," or he would drag the boat after him. But a whale must breathe
as well as a man, and the faster he runs the sooner he must come up for
a fresh stock of air. Now, the proper use of the harpoon and the line is
merely to fasten to the fish; though it does sometimes happen that the
creature is killed by the former. As soon as the whale re-appears on
the surface, and becomes stationary, or even moderates his speed a
little, the men begin to haul in line, gradually closing with their
intended victim. It often happens that the whale starts afresh, when
line must be permitted to run out anew; this process of "hauling in" and
"letting run" being often renewed several times at the taking of a
single fish. When the boat can be hauled near enough, the officer at its
head darts his lance into the whale, aiming at a vital part. If the
creature "spouts blood," it is well; but if not hit in the vitals, away
it goes, and the whole business of "letting run," "towing," and "hauling
in" has to be gone over again.

On the present occasion, Walker's harpooner, or boat-steerer, as he is
called, had made a good "heave," and was well fast to his fish. The
animal made a great circuit, running completely round the Mermaid, at a
distance which enabled those on board her to see all that was passing.
When nearest to the brig, and the water was curling off the bow of the
boat in combs two feet higher than her gunwale, under the impulse given
by the frantic career of the whale, Bridget pressed closer to her
husband's side, and, for the first time in her life, mentally thanked
Heaven that he was the governor, since that was an office which did not
require him to go forth and kill whales. At that very moment, Mark was
burning with the desire to have a hand in the sport, though he certainly
had some doubts whether such an occupation would suitably accord with
the dignity of his office.

Walker got alongside of his whale, within half a mile of the two brigs,
and to-leeward of both. In consequence of this favourable circumstance,
the Henlopen soon had its prize hooked on, and her people at work
stripping off the blubber. This is done by hooking the lower block of a
powerful purchase in a portion of the substance, and then cutting a
strip of convenient size, and heaving on the fall at the windlass. The
strip is cut by implements called spades, and the blubber is torn from
the carcass by the strain, after the sides of the "blanket-piece," as
the strip is termed, are separated from the other portions of the animal
by the cutting process. The "blanket-pieces" are often raised as high
as the lower mast-heads, or as far as the purchase will admit of its
being carried, when a transverse cut is made, and the whole of the
fragment is lowered on deck. This "blanket-piece" is then cut into
pieces and put into the try-works, a large boiler erected on deck, in
order to be "tryed-out," when the oil is cooled, and "started" below
into casks. In this instance, the oil was taken on board the Abraham as
fast as it was "tryed-out" on board the Henlopen, the weather admitting
of the transfer.

But that single whale was far from being the only fruits of Betts'
discovery. The honest old Delaware seaman took two more whales himself.
Socrates making fast, and he killing the creatures. The boats of the
Henlopen also took two more, and that of the Abraham, one. Betts in the
Martha, and the governor in the Mermaid towed four of these whales into
the southern channel, and into what now got the name of the Whaling
Bight. This was the spot where Betts had tryed out the first fish taken,
and it proved to be every way suitable for its business. The Bight
formed a perfectly safe harbour, and there was not only a sandy shoal on
which the whales could be floated and kept from sinking, a misfortune
that sometimes occurs, but it had a natural quay quite near, where the
Rancocus, herself, could lie. There was fresh water in abundance, and an
island of sufficient size to hold the largest whaling establishment that
ever existed. This island was incontinently named Blubber Island. The
greatest disadvantage was the total absence of soil, and consequently of
all sorts of herbage; but its surface was as smooth as that of an
artificial quay, admitting of the rolling of casks with perfect ease.
The governor no sooner ascertained the facilities of the place, which
was far enough from the ordinary passage to and from the Peak to remove
the nuisances, than he determined to make it his whaling haven.

The Abraham was sent across to Rancocus Island for a load of lumber, and
extensive sheds were erected, in time to receive the Henlopen, when she
came in with a thousand barrels of oil on board, and towing in three
whales that she had actually taken in the passage between Cape South and
the Peak. By that time, the Rancocus had been moved, being stiff enough
to be brought from the Reef to Blubber Island, under some of her lower
sails. This moving of vessels among the islands of the group was a very
easy matter, so long as they were not to be carried to windward; and, a
further acquaintance with the channels, had let the mariners into the
secret of turning up, against the trades and within the islands, by
keeping in such reaches as enabled them to go as near the wind as was
necessary, while they were not compelled to go nearer than a craft could
lie.

Such was the commencement of a trade that was destined to be of the last
importance to our colonists. The oil that was brought in, from this
first cruise, a cruise that lasted less than two months, and including
that taken by all the boats, amounted to two thousand barrels, quite
filling the lower hold of the Rancocus, and furnishing her with more
than half of a full cargo. At the prices which then ruled in the markets
of Europe and America, three thousand five hundred barrels of
spermaceti, with a due proportion of head matter, was known to be worth
near an hundred thousand dollars; and might be set down as large a
return for labour, as men could obtain under the most advantageous
circumstances.




Chapter XXV.



"The forest reels beneath the stroke
Of sturdy woodman's axe;
The earth receives the white man's yoke,
And pays her willing tax
Of fruits, and flowers, and golden harvest fields,
And all that nature to blithe labour yields."

Paulding.


Notwithstanding the great success which attended the beginning of the
whaling, it was six months before the Rancocus was loaded, and ready to
sail for Hamburgh with her cargo. This time the ship went east, at once,
instead of sailing to the westward, as she had previously done--taking
with her a crew composed partly of colonists and partly of Kannakas. Six
boys, however, went in the ship, the children of reputable settlers; all
of whom the governor intended should be officers, hereafter, on board of
colony vessels. To prevent difficulties on the score of national
character, on leaving America the last time, Saunders had cleared for
the islands of the Pacific and a market; meaning to cover his vessel,
let her go where she might, by the latter reservation. This question of
nationality offered a good deal of embarrassment in the long run, and
the council foresaw future embarrassments as connected with the subject;
but, every one of the colonists being of American birth, and America
being then neutral, and all the American-built vessels having American
papers, it was thought most prudent to let things take their natural
course, under the existing arrangement, until something occurred to
render a more decided policy advisable.

As soon as the Rancocus got off, the Henlopen went out again, to cruise
about two hundred leagues to windward; while the inshore fishery was
carried on by Betts, in the Martha, with great spirit and most
extraordinary success. So alive did the people get to be to the profit
and sport of this sort of business, that boats were constructed, and
crews formed all over the colony, there being often as many as a dozen
different parties out, taking whales near the coasts. The _furor_
existed on the Peak, as well as in the low lands, and Bridget and Anne
could not but marvel that men would quit the delicious coolness, the
beautiful groves, and all the fruits and bountiful products of that most
delightful plain, to go out on the ocean, in narrow quarters, and under
a hot sun, to risk their lives in chase of the whale! This did the
colonists, nevertheless, until the governor himself began to feel the
necessity of striking a whale, if he would maintain his proper place in
the public opinion.

As respects the governor, and the other high functionaries of the
colony, some indulgence was entertained; it being the popular notion
that men who lived so much within doors, and whose hands got to be so
soft, were not exactly the sort of persons who would be most useful at
the oar. Heaton, and the merchants, Pennock, and the two younger
Woolstons, with the clergyman, were easily excused in the popular mind;
but the governor was known to be a prime seaman, and a silent
expectation appeared to prevail, that some day he would be seen in the
bow of a boat, lancing a whale. Before the first season was over, this
expectation was fully realized; Governor Woolston heading no less than
four of what were called the colony boats, or boats that belonged to the
state, and fished as much for honour as profit, taking a fine whale on
each occasion. These exploits of the governor's capped the climax, in
the way of giving a tone to the public mind, on the subject of taking
whales. No man could any longer doubt of its being honourable, as well
as useful, and even the boys petitioned to be allowed to go out. The
Kannakas, more or less of whom were employed in each vessel, rose
greatly in the public estimation, and no _young_ man could expect to
escape animadversion, unless he had been present at least once at the
taking of a whale. Those who had struck or lanced a fish were now held
in a proportionate degree of repute. It was, in fact, in this group that
the custom originally obtained, which prohibited a young man from
standing at the head of the dance who had not struck his fish; and not
at Nantucket, as has been erroneously supposed.

In a community where such a spirit was awakened, it is not surprising
that great success attended the fisheries. The Henlopen did well,
bringing in eight hundred barrels; but she found six hundred more in
waiting for her, that had been taken by the in-shore fishermen; some
using the Abraham, some the Martha, some the Anne, and others again
nothing but the boats, in which they pursued their game. In the latter
cases, however, when a fish was taken, one of the larger vessels was
usually employed to take the creature into the Bight. In this way was
the oil obtained, which went to make up a cargo for the Henlopen. The
governor had his doubts about sending this brig on so distant a voyage,
the vessel being so slow; but there was no choice, since she must go, or
the cargo must remain a long time where it was. The brig was accordingly
filled up, taking in seventeen hundred barrels; and she sailed for
Hamburgh, under the command of a young man named Thomas. Walker remained
behind, preferring to superintend the whaling affairs at home.

So high did the fever run, by this time, that it was determined to build
a couple of vessels, each to measure about a hundred and eighty tons,
with the sole object of using them to take the whale. Six months after
laying their keels, these little brigs were launched; and lucky it was
that the governor had ordered copper for a ship to be brought out, since
it now came handy for using on these two craft. But, the whaling
business had not been suffered to lag while the Jonas and the Dragon
were on the stocks; the Anne, and the Martha, and the single boats,
being out near half the time. Five hundred barrels were taken in this
way; and Betts, in particular, had made so much money, or, what was the
same thing, had got so much oil, that he came one morning to his friend
the governor, when the following interesting dialogue took place between
them, in the audience-chamber of the Colony House. It may as well be
said here, that the accommodations for the chief magistrate had been
materially enlarged, and that he now dwelt in a suite of apartments that
would have been deemed respectable even in Philadelphia. Bridget had a
taste for furniture, and the wood of Rancocus Island admitted of many
articles being made that were really beautiful, and which might have
adorned a palace. Fine mats had been brought from China, such as are,
and long have been, in common use in America; neat and quaint chairs and
settees had also been in the governor's invoices, to say nothing of
large quantities of fine and massive earthenware. In a word, the
governor was getting to be rich, and like all wealthy men, he had a
disposition to possess, in a proportionate degree, the comforts and
elegancies of civilized life. But to come to our dialogue--

"Walk in, Captain Betts--walk in, sir, and do me the favour to take a
chair," said the governor, motioning to his old friend to be seated.
"You are always welcome, here; for I do not forget old times, I can
assure you, my friend."

"Thankee, governor; thankee, with all my heart. I _do_ find everything
changed, now-a-days, if the truth must be said, but yourself. To me,
_you_ be always, Mr. Mark, and Mr. Woolston, and we seem to sail along
in company, much as we did the time you first went out a foremast-lad,
and I teached you the difference between a flat-knot and a granny."

"No, no, Bob, everything is not so much changed as you pretend--I am not
changed, in the first place."

"I confess it--_you_ be the same, governor, blow high, or blow low."

"Then Martha is not changed, or nothing worth mentioning. A little more
matronly, perhaps, and not quite as much of a girl as when you first
made her acquaintance; but Martha, nevertheless. And, as for her heart,
I'll answer for it, that is just the colour it was at sixteen."

"Why, yes, governor; 'tis much as you say. Marthy is now the mother of
four children, and that confarms a woman's appearance, depend on't. But,
Marthy is Marthy; and, for that matter, Miss Bridget is Miss Bridget, as
much as one pea is like another. Madam Woolston does full credit to the
climate, governor, and looks more like eighteen than ever."

"My wife enjoys excellent health, Betts; and grateful am I to God that
it is so. But I think all our women have a fresh and sea-air sort of
look, a cheerful freshness about them, that I ascribe to the salt and
the sea-breezes. Then we have mountain air, in addition, on the Peak."

"Ay, ay, sir--I dare say you've got it right, as you do most matters.
Well, governor, I don't know which counts up the fastest in the colony,
children or whales?"

"Both flourish," answered Mark, smiling, "as our reports show. Mr.
Secretary tells me that there were, on the first of the last month,
three hundred and eighteen children in the colony under the age of ten
years; of whom no less than one hundred and ninety-seven are born
here--pure Craterinos, including your children and mine, Betts."

"It's a fine beginning, governor--a most capital start; and, though the
young 'uns can't do much at taking a whale, or securing the ile, just
now, they'll come on in their turns, and be useful when we're in dock as
hulks sir."

"Talking of oil, you must be getting rich, Captain Betts. I hear you
got in another hundred-barrel gentleman last week!"

"Times is altered with me, governor; and times is altered with you, too,
sir, since you and I rafted loam and sea-weed, to raise a few cucumbers,
and squashes, and melons. _Then_, we should have been as happy as
princes to have had a good roof over our heads."

"I trust we are both thankful, where thanks are due, for all this,
Betts?"

"Why, yes, sir, I endivour so to be; though men is desperate apt to
believe they desarve all they get but the ill luck. I and Marthy try to
think of what is all in all to us, and I believe Marthy does make out
pretty well, in that partic'lar, accordin' to Friends' ways; though I am
often jammed in religion, and all for want of taking to it early as I
sometimes think, sir."

"There is no doubt, Betts, that men grow in Christian character, as well
as in evil; and the most natural growth, in all things, is that of the
young. A great deal is to be undone and unlearned, if we put off the
important hour to a late period in life."

"Well, as to unl'arnin', I suppose a fellow that had as little edication
as myself will have an easy time of it," answered Betts, with perfect
simplicity and good faith; "for most of my schoolin' was drowned in salt
water by the time I was twelve."

"I am glad of one thing," put in the governor, half in a congratulating
way, and half inquiringly; "and that is, that the Rev. Mr. Hornblower
takes so well with the people. Everybody appears to be satisfied with
his ministrations; and I do not see that any one is the worse for them,
although he is an Episcopalian."