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