But the beginning of the cruise had been fortunate, and the whales had not entirely forsaken the Atlantic despite the grumbling of the crew. We killed two small humpedbacks within the week and then came upon sperms again. At daybreak the lookout hailed and the sea seemed fairly alive with them.
We tumbled out and, with only a pannikin of coffee in our stomachs, and a cold bite in our fists, made off in the boats for the royal game. Ben Gibson’s boat had a good tally so far and we were not going to let the others beat us much. We had our pick of half a dozen sperms and we took after a bull that seemed promising.
We struck on and the wounded whale ran a little way in fright, trying its best to shake out the harpoon. Finding this impossible, despite its porpoise-like gambols, the whale sounded; then occurred one of the strangest happenings that can be imagined. The bull went down, and we paid out a goodly portion of line. Finally the line stopped running, but the whale did not rise.
“What do you know about this, Tom?” demanded the young second mate. “That critter’s gone to sleep down there, hasn’t it?”
“It’ll be drowned!” exclaimed the old harpooner. “That’s what’ll happen to it.”
“Drowned!” cackled one of the crew. “What you givin’ us, old hardshell? Drown a whale, eh? That’s like the boy that pumped water on the frog to drown him.”
“You wait and see,” growled old Tom. “If that bull don’t come up pretty soon we’ll have a circus with it, now I tell ye!”
The whale gave no sign. We tried hauling on the line, and of course it wouldn’t budge.
“It’s sure got its feet stuck in the mud down there,” admitted the second mate, and he stood up and wigwagged frantically for the ship.
There were only four boats out and the captain himself chanced to be aboard. He knew old Tom would not give up anything easy, and so he brought the Scarboro into hailing distance and we told him what had happened. We had caught a Tartar; the whale wouldn’t come to the surface and we couldn’t let go without losing our line and iron. It was no use jerking on that line. One can’t play a whale like a rock bass!