Those on board raised a shout as they saw a little flag fixed on the body.
The boats now made chase after another whale, which gave them more trouble than the first; but they attacked it bravely, now pulling up and hurling harpoons and lances into it, and now pulling away to avoid being attacked in return.
Presently we saw one boat again dash forward, almost the next instant its fragments rose in the air, and the crew were scattered far and wide around. Which boat it was we could not tell. Some fancied it was the captain’s, others that it was the second mate’s.
“He regained his sight to-day,” said an old Orkneyman. “It’s a question whether it wasn’t that he might have a last look on his fellow-creatures and the mighty sea.”
Chapter Eighteen.
Our first whales caught—I hear news of Jack.
The moment the accident was perceived Mr Griffiths ordered the only remaining boat away, and jumped into her, for the carpenter had not yet finished the two building to replace those lost off Cape Horn. I asked to go.
“No! You stay on board and help to work the ship up to us,” he answered.