'They are playing,' the quarter-master explained, 'and only live in warm latitudes. We call them "bottle-noses."'
'Is it not wonderful how many strange creatures there are in the sea, Readyman?' Jack said.
'It is indeed, Master Jack,' the quarter-master replied; 'I have often thought so, and tried to guess what some of them were made for.'
Like war-ships in line ahead the bottle-noses approached still closer.
'They will strike us!' Jack cried.
'No, no, you need not fear that,' Readyman said; 'they are more scared of you than you could be of them. Directly they see the vessel they'll dive.'
Almost immediately their leader did so, and, sinking fathoms deep beneath the keel of the speeding clipper, all disappeared, but were soon seen far off to starboard.
The steady wind proved so favourable that considerable progress was made, but by degrees it began to slacken, until at last the 'Silver Crown' was left wholly becalmed within the 'doldrums.'
The heat had now become most oppressive, especially for those obliged to sleep under decks, but the captain ordered several 'windsails' to be rigged up fore and aft, and their long, tubular bodies were dropped below, so that the slightest breath of passing airs might be directed into the 'tween and orlop, or lower decks. The crew, too, whistled for a breeze that might take all hands out of such discomfort.
Yet day after day the vessel remained unassisted on the glittering sea; the pitch oozed in black bubbles from the main deck seams; the yards were constantly swung to catch the slightest 'cat's-paw' of air; the timbers fore and aft groaned unceasingly, and the rigging and the canvas suffered chafe as the hull rolled helplessly on the equatorial ocean.