[7] This snatch block hangs on a wire rope that passes over a sheaf and leads down to the hold, where it is attached to an enormously strong steel spiral spring. This makes a give-and-take action when hauling up the dead whale from the depths to counteract the jar on line and donkey-engine that comes from the rise and fall of the steamer on the sea.
[8] In these waters a small shrimp called a “krill” colours the water a rusty red for miles.
[9] Later we learned that three S.S. of several thousand tons were hove to during this hurricane. Bravo, St Ebba! sixty-nine tons, one hundred and ten feet, and the safest boat in the world.
[10] Only a few of our men have done bottle-nose whaling, but that is the same thing on a small scale.
[11] Ambergris. [See Appendix.]
[12] These carros are the cabs of Funchal, like four-poster beds, brilliantly painted, with chintz hangings, and sledge runners instead of wheels. Their progress is like that of a crab—neither fast nor certain.
[13] Don José and Don Luis Gongolez Herrero.
[14] Don Luis Herrero Velasquez.
[15] Seal oil is manufactured into olive oil in Paris and the patent leather is made at Dundee.
[16] Not proved. The smaller 250 bore and higher velocity seemed to us all to be most effective and stopping.