“Whale vomit,” he answered.
I couldn’t see what was so funny about Swanson throwing away whale vomit so I persisted in questioning further.
“What’s it good for?”
“Joan, ambergris is worth thirty-two dollars an ounce. He threw away about sixty thousand dollars worth just through ignorance.”
“Well, what’s the good of whale vomit? Why is it worth money?”
“Perfume companies use it as the base for rare perfume. And I wish to Christ I could find some.”
“Why don’t you try and find what Captain Swanson left?”
“Because anybody but an old fool like Swanson would know that sea birds eat ambergris. What he left is gone long ago. I only hope he does hunt it. It will keep him off the trade route for six months.”
And that is exactly what happened. Captain Swanson spent six months looking for his ambergris and found nothing. But Father told the story in every port and nowhere Swanson went did seafolk allow him to forget it.
I couldn’t forget ambergris either. If Swanson could find it why couldn’t we? There must be some way of locating it.