Of course there are exceptions to this old rule.
The afternoon clouded up while we were so busy, and by the time we had finished, it was blowing. When I turned in there was some snow and it was much colder.
July 6th. Sunday. I found the ship with the main yard aback, dodging about in a rather choppy sea. The sky was cloudy and it looked like winter. Three ships were in sight down the Sound, all under canvas. We were quite close to the south side, as the captain believed that fish would come up that way, and it proved that he was correct. After breakfast a whale was seen blowing among some loose ice to the north of us. Six boats put off in pursuit, while the ship followed. Two of the boats kept straight to the ice while the other four, including Jack McLean's, in which I was, kept around it. The sea was quite choppy and the air cold, but we warmed up with the rowing.
The boats going straight to the ice were able to pass through and entered open water beyond before we got around to it. The fish came up and gave the second mate a long shot just as she was going down; but a harpoon easily enters a whale's bent back so he got fast and "A fall! a fall!" was joyfully shouted by us all. As we passed the fast boat we saw her jack flying proudly and her bow enveloped in smoke as McKechnie tightened the line around the bollard head. Gyles was standing by, so with the other boats we pulled in the direction the fish had gone, and as we were getting close to more loose ice, those of us who were rowing and consequently looking astern saw the fast boat—which had been well down by the bow—right herself and we knew that the iron had drawn. We pulled away however in the hope of again getting fast, but this whale was only seen once more, a long way off, and after a hard row through loose ice we gave up. The ship had followed and she now picked us up. As the wind had gone down we sailed back towards the south side and made fast to the solid floe, getting our bran boats out before tea time. We picked up the fast boat on the way, she having her lines on board. The weather looked very settled at bedtime and the unusual exertion of the past two days made me sleep well.