Keeping his eager eyes upon the scene below him, C. B. noted that rapid as the whale’s progress had been on the surface he was now moving very sluggishly downwards and so he turned his attention to the other boats which he found were scattered widely, but all three evidently having some trouble with their whales. He became very anxious as to his position and was about to keep away again when he saw that the whale his skipper was fast to was coming up at a great rate. And when he reached the surface he was still accompanied by the other two whales, who seemed determined to put every obstacle in the way of his being killed that they could. Both Captain Taber and Mr. Merritt were fully alive to the danger of injuring a “loose” whale while fast to another one, but something had to be done, so Captain Taber fired a bomb lance at one of the loose whales which was between him and the whale he was fast to. C. B. heard the crack of the shot and the boom of the exploding bomb, and then saw, just as if a submarine mine had gone off, a tremendous upheaval in the water where it was evident that the intruder had got his mortal wound, and had gone immediately into his death flurry.
There was no question as to the danger of the situation, danger, too, which no amount of energy or skill could avert. The three huge beasts, apparently maddened by pain and fright, and mixed up with the line, which was a mass of entanglement, fairly surrounded the boat. Even if she had not been threatened with being smashed every moment by the writhings and plungings of the mighty creatures, it was obvious that she was only kept afloat by incessant baling, owing to the immense amount of water which was hurled over her in the struggle.
The apparently inevitable end came soon after C. B. had shouted from his perch an order to man the spare boat and keep her in instant readiness for lowering. One of the whales rose by the side of the hemmed-in boat with widely extended jaws, fell over upon it sideways, at the same time clashing those awful jaws together. Boatmen and whales disappeared for a moment in a wallow of crimson flecked foam. C. B. waited no longer. Snatching at a backstay, he glided to the deck, shouted as soon as his feet touched the rail—
“Take hold, Chips, an’ keep as near me as you can.”
Into the boat and with a whirr of the falls they were off, not a moment too soon. Two whales were dead and a third was still moving about as if unable to leave the spot; but clinging to fragments of the destroyed boat were the crew, all hurt and hurt badly, and the skipper, sustained by Merritt, looked almost as if he had fought his last fight.
Disregarding entirely the urgency of securing the whales, all the men were saved and brought on board with utmost speed. Then it was found that three of them were absolutely helpless as far as work was concerned, while the skipper needed instant attention if his life was to be saved. Merritt, though sorely bruised and fatigued, took upon himself this duty, and with C. B. to help him they made an examination of the captain’s body. They found that his left arm was broken in four places, most of the flesh was torn and lacerated on that side of his body, his left thigh was out and his left foot crushed. Yet so great was the man’s vitality, and also because there had been but little loss of blood, that the good fellow was really not so nearly gone as might have been expected.
“Now, boy,” said Merritt, “you got your hands fuller’n ever you had ’em. Git on deck an’ sen’ me the cook and steward, an’ tell ’em t’ bring a handy billy with ’em. I must get that thigh in fust off. Then you gotter get hold o’ the’ whales. Get ’em alongside; they’s two hundred barrel on ’em, I do believe, and then dig out fer the other fellows. They’ll be all right, I guess, fer I’ve noticed that things like these scarcely ever gets too bad for a man to handle. Now git.” And C. B. got, climbed to his lofty perch again, finding however that when he reached there he had a strange giddiness come over him for a few moments. He sent up a swift prayer for strength under his heavy burden, remembering how recent had been his great weakness.
Then he sprang up like a giant, and shouted the necessary orders to bring the ship down on the whales, which were lying almost side by side. He did not want to lower a boat, so conned the ship with utmost care, and when he headed straight for them he had the yards backed to deaden her way a little. Then taking an iron prepared with an ordinary towline attached, he darted it as she came near enough, and hauled one whale alongside at the same time as one of the shipkeepers performed a similar feat on the whale which lay at the opposite side of the ship.
Technicalities about any business are bound to become tiresome, no matter how interesting the business may be in itself, or I would explain the enormous amount of labour and skill expended upon getting these two whales properly secured by a length of chain round the small of their bodies and a hawser attached to that. A small cut would explain it better than a page of letterpress. All hands worked nobly (ah, how nobly do the rank and file often work for honourable reasons, knowing that no recognition ever comes their way), and at last the two vast bodies were well secured astern, and C. B. had now to solve the problem of getting his ship to where the other boats were waiting for him, with those two enormous masses hanging to his stern.