05 Whale Adventure Read Online Free PDF Page B

racing away like a scared cat. It was rapidly overhauling the other boats. ‘The kid’s got something,’ said Durkins. The whale was now in plain sight. Its great black hulk blocked the sky. To Roger it looked as big as the ship. This little twenty-foot boat was only as long as the monster’s lower jaw.
    He realized fully for the first time the risk men take who go out in such an eggshell to attack the greatest living creature on the face of the earth. Excitement raced up and down his spine. He had to confess to himself that he was scared. He almost hoped that one of the other boats would get there first.
    And that was what happened. The boat in which Hal was pulling shot up alongside the whale a split second before the mate’s. The harpooner standing in the bow hurled his iron. In his hurry to be first he threw at too great a distance and the harpoon fell into the water.
    At the same instant the mate’s boat, propelled by both oars and sail, slid into position beside the whale just behind its enormous head. The harpooner was Jim son. Dropping his oar he leaped to his feet in the boat’s bow, raised his harpoon, and plunged it into the black hide.
    The monster hardly felt it, for the iron ‘boned’ - that is, instead of penetrating deep into the flesh, it struck a bone, and with such force that the iron was bent. Then it dropped away into the sea.
    At once Jimson snatched up his second iron and threw it with all his might. It sank in up to the hitches.
    A tremor like an earthquake ran through the giant body.
    ‘Stern all!’ yelled the mate, and the men lost no time in rowing the boat backward out of reach of the whale’s flukes. At the same time the enormous two-fluked tail, bigger than the screw of any vessel afloat, rose thirty feet into the air and came down again upon the water with a resounding crash not six inches from the gunwale of the boat. The wave made by this gigantic blow washed into the boat and half filled it.
    Away went the sea giant, towing the boat behind it. The line from the harpoon to the boat was as taut as a tightrope. The boat was flying through the spray at a good twenty knots. Wave-tops kept tumbling in. The men shipped their oars and bailed for their lives.
    A picture of the whole exciting operation was being taken by Mr Scott in the third boat. But it was only a few moments before the whale and the towed boat had disappeared behind the blue waves, tearing across the sea on what whalers choose to call the ‘Nantucket sleigh ride’. Roger wondered if it was the last picture that would ever be taken of him. If they couldn’t get the water out of the boat faster than it came in, they would all very soon be on their way down to visit Davy Jones.

Chapter 6
Man overboard
    Suddenly the whale changed direction. The boat was yanked round to the right so forcibly that a man who had stood up to bail a bucket of water into the sea went over the side.
    Roger was amazed that no one did anything about it.
    ‘Man overboard!’ he yelled.
    Surely they would cut the tow-line, turn the boat about and go back to the rescue. But the mate gave no such order. He stood, gripping the steering-oar, gazing straight ahead at the speeding whale. The other men were equally silent. They kept on scooping out the water. The mate noticed that Roger had stopped work and was staring at him in astonishment.
    ‘Bail, boy, bail!’
    ‘But the man -‘
    ‘One of the other boats may pick him up. If not, it’s his bad luck.’ Seeing the shocked look on Roger’s face the mate went on: ‘You’ll soon learn, boy. Whaling is serious business. That big bull has a hundred barrels of oil in him. What d’ye think the captain would say if we let him go just to pick a man out of the water?’
    Roger went back to bailing. He felt he was in a world of a hundred years ago. The whaling ship Killer stuck to the old traditions. Human life was cheap. What mattered was barrels of oil. Today, men who work are protected by many safety