05 Whale Adventure Read Online Free PDF

captain and Roger turned to look. There was no mistake about it this time. The boy’s report had been right The jet was four points on the weather-bow and it was the spout of a sperm-whale.
    ‘All hands on deck!’ roared the captain. The call was repeated by the mate below: ‘All hands on deck! Back the main yard! Stand by to lower!’

Chapter 5
Nantucket sleigh ride
    At once the ship came alive. There was the sound of heavy sea-boots on the deck as the men ran aft to the boats. The mate kept shouting orders. Again the captain turned upon Roger.
    ‘Well, what are you doing here? Get down to the boat’.’
    Very willingly, Roger left the captain and scrambled down to the deck as fast as his gammy arm would permit. Durkins, the second mate, caught sight of him.
    ‘You -1 can use you in my boat. Third oar.’
    The men leaped into the whaleboats. The lashings were cast off.
    ‘Lower away!’
    The falls raced through the sheaves. Down went the boats. The men bent to the oars. Three light cedar whaleboats, six men in each, streaked away towards the spouting whale.
    ‘All right, boys,’ shouted the mate, ‘give way now and spring to it. Put some beef in it.’
    Roger felt the mate’s eye on him. He could guess what
    the mate was thinking. This greenhorn would probably catch a crab - get his oar fouled with the others.
    Durkins relaxed when he saw that Roger knew how to handle an oar. The kid kept his eye on the stroke-oar and timed his own stroke with it. What the mate could not guess was how painful this was for Roger with the right arm singing from the blow of the belaying-pin.
    The mate stood at the steering-sweep. He could not see the whale, and even the spout was hidden by intervening waves. Yet he knew where to steer. He kept glancing at the ship, which had turned its prow towards the whale.
    He knew, too, when the whale was on the surface and when it dived. This information was signalled to him by the captain at the masthead. When the whale broke water the captain ran up a flag; when it ‘went flukes’, plunged beneath the surface, the flag was lowered.
    Roger saw his brother in one of the other boats. Hal was pulling lustily. His boat was edging ahead. But Durkins was not to be easily beaten.
    ‘Pull, boys. Pull like steers. Pull. Pile it on. Long and strong. Pull - every son of you. What’s the matter, kid?’
    This last remark was addressed to Roger, who was in such pain that he could no longer pull the fourteen-foot ash oar.
    ‘My arm,’ said Roger.
    ‘And I don’t wonder,’ said Durkins, ‘after the rap that pig gave you. Ship your oar.’
    Roger took in his oar. He felt like a deserter. With only four oars working the boat steadily lost ground. Both the other boats passed it. Durkins still urged his men on, but it was hopeless. Roger knew how disappointed the second mate must be. Then his eye lit on the mast, which lay across the thwarts. ‘I could put up the sail,’ he suggested. ‘No good,’ said the mate. ‘We’re too close to the wind.’ Roger knew nothing about whaling, but a good deal about sailing. He did not want to argue with the mate. Testing the wind on his face, he felt that the sail would draw enough air to be worth while. They might even be able to overtake the other boats. ‘Please, sir, may I try it?’ he ventured. The mate hesitated. ‘Guess it will do no harm,’ he said, and added rather bitterly: ‘You’re no good to us, anyway. You may as well be doing that as sitting there like a lump on a log.’
    Roger lost no time in stepping the mast. Lifting it, he placed it erect in the hole in the forward thwart. The boom dropped. The triangular sail opened and hung like a tired dishcloth. The men muttered in disgust.
    Roger hauled in on the sheet-rope. The sail suddenly filled with air and began to pull.
    Roger handled the sheet like the rein of a racehorse, drawing a little, giving a little, to suit every changing whim of the breeze. The boat gained speed. Presently it was