Going Whaling

Chapter 2
Early Adventures

So, all was decided. Soon, the Angela was back in New Bedford being refitted with all the spars and lines that were needed to make the ship seaworthy.

One afternoon after school, while Adam and I stood watching the work, he asked, “Do you know the names of all the lines?”

“I only know some of them. Do you know them all?”

“No, but I guess we’ll learn them soon.”

Rigging the ship seemed to take forever, but finally she was ready to put to sea.

The day before we set sail, we loaded our luggage on a cart which a donkey pulled down to the harbor. Since there was not much space on the ship, we had to choose very carefully what we would take. All my belongings had to fit in my sea chest. In it, besides my extra clothes, were my pocketknife, my telescope, two books, and some line and hooks for fishing. Neither Adam nor I took our marbles because we certainly would not play marbles on a rolling ship.

Jessica was limited to one toy, so of course she chose Sarah, her favorite doll. She said goodbye to the others tearfully and promised them she would come back. Mother, who insisted that we were going to do schooling during the voyage, brought books, slates, chalk, paper, and pencils.

We were all to sleep on the level below the main deck in the captain’s cabin, which was in the stern. Adam would sleep in steerage, which was on the same deck outside our cabin. Others sleeping in steerage were the steward, the cook, the carpenter, the cooper, the mates, and the harpooners, who were also called boatsteerers. They had very small cabins with two bunks which they shared. As it happened, Adam did not share his cabin but had it to himself. The regular seamen were also below decks crowded into the bow of the ship in what was called the “forecastle” (pronounced fo’c’stle).

While we were stowing our gear, the sailors came aboard with theirs. Some of them had been on many voyages; some, called green hands, had never been on a whaling ship before; some had never been on any kind of ship before. They were from several countries and spoke different languages. To me they looked very rough.

When everyone had their things stowed away, we were all called on deck, where the ship’s owner, along with Father, as captain of the ship, welcomed the crew aboard and introduced our family as well as the men who would be in steerage.

Afterwards the crew was divided into two watches. One would be on duty for four hours while the other rested or slept. Then they would change places. After asking each man about his experience, the first and second mates chose their watch crews. It was not an easy task, since the crew members spoke several languages, but those who had been whaling before helped those who had not. Then we were all dismissed. The family could go ashore but the crew couldn’t for fear of some of them getting drunk and not returning.

I was so excited that night I am not sure I slept at all. I kept dreaming about chasing whales and spending days on wonderful, romantic, tropical islands. Morning came at last, and it was time for a final breakfast at home before we went aboard and set sail.

After breakfast, Father headed quickly to the ship while Mother, Jessica, and I closed up the house. Then we walked to the harbor, where the Angela lay anchored.

Soon a whaleboat came off from the Angela and picked us up. I wondered how Mother would get up the rope ladder to the deck in her long dress, but as we pulled up to the side of the ship, a chair, called a gamming chair, was lowered. Mother climbed into it and was raised to the deck while Jessica and I scrambled up the rope ladder.

The Angela was not due to depart until the tide changed in the early afternoon, so Jessica and I explored the ship together while Adam busied himself becoming familiar with his duties. We were surprised to see chickens, two pigs, and two goats on board. When I asked Father about them, he said that the chickens would provide us with eggs and meat, the pigs would eat our garbage and provide meat, and the goats would supply milk for Jessica and me.

After lunch, we went back on deck to watch the ship set sail. There were men at the capstan in the bow, pushing it around, raising the heavy anchor. Adam was one of them.

As the men circled the capstan pushing it forward, they sang a chantey.

Other men were at lines which raised some of the sails. They too were singing a chantey. This one gave a very strong beat for hoisting the sails.

Soon the ship began to make her silent way out of the harbor, riding the wind and the outgoing tide. Adam joined us at the rail as we watched New Bedford slip away behind us. Just the nearness of him excited me.

We knew we would not see the town again for four or five years, but we were so happy to be sailing we didn’t even think about that.

As the Angela left the protection of the harbor and moved into the ocean, she picked up the rolling motion of the swells. At first Adam, Sarah, and I had difficulty walking on the deck, for none of the three of us had ever been to sea before, but within a day we got our sea legs and walked about easily.

While they worked, the crew chattered among themselves, some in English, some in Portuguese, and some in other languages. Sometimes one would speak Portuguese, and another would answer him in English or in a Pacific Island language, yet they all seemed to understand each other.

Already the men were preparing the whaleboats to chase whales. Four of the six whaleboats were equipped with everything that would be needed to chase and capture whales – at least two harpoons with lines, lances, oars including a steering oar, a sail and a mast, hatchets, water buckets, a lantern, matches, and extra food. Once a boat had harpooned a whale, there was no telling how far it would be towed by the angry whale before the mate could kill it. Food, water, and the lantern might be needed through the night.

The ship sailed steadily eastward, for we were going to cross the Atlantic to the Azores, before turning back across the ocean to South America. The Azores are a chain of islands west and south of Portugal. The reason for heading east was that the winds in different parts of the ocean tend to blow in different directions. For now, we were in the northern trade winds, which would carry us east.

After supper, prepared by Cook and served by Steward and Adam, Mother read a story to me and Jessica and then told us it was time for bed. Chips, the ship’s carpenter, had built bunk beds into Father’s cabin. I had immediately claimed the upper bunk, while Jessica made herself at home in the lower one.

As I lay in my bunk I stroked my cock, but soon the rocking of the ship had me sound asleep.

I awoke during the night, badly needing to piss. Hoping not to disturb my family asleep in the cabin, I went as silently as I could onto the main deck, which was dimly bathed in the light of a half moon. I stood at the rail and was about to pee when I was quietly joined by Adam, who seemed to have the same need. As that now-familiar feeling of excitement grew whenever I was near him, we pissed over the side of the ship together. This was the first time I had seen Adam’s cock for quite a while. I had begun to grow a little hair, but his cock was surrounded by a bush. We looked at each other, began stroking, and for the first time we shot into the ocean. Then we giggled and returned to our bunks.

Shortly after breakfast the next day Adam went to work on his chores. Each day he washed the dishes and tablecloths used in steerage and by our family, and he scrubbed the floors in Father’s cabin and in the steerage cabins. Adam was also supposed to do anything Steward told him to do, for he was Adam’s and Cook’s boss.

After Adam had finished the floors in our cabin, Mother called Jessica and me in from the main deck and told us it was time for lessons. Despite our groans, Mother did not give in. Soon we were toiling away at reading, spelling, arithmetic, geography, and history, and I began to study Latin.

Jessica and I usually had the afternoons to ourselves. Sometimes we tried fishing over the side of the ship, and occasionally we caught something for supper. Other times we watched as the men lowered the whaleboats to practice rowing together and gain the special skills they needed to hunt whales. The whaleboats were pointed at each end and about 28 feet long, and the four men who rowed had to learn to go backwards as well as forwards. That would be very important when they harpooned a whale which might try to smack the boat with its tail, or flukes. In that case, they would need to be able to row backwards quickly away from the whale before the whaleboat capsized or was smashed.

Since our ship was still short a couple of men, whom Father hoped to recruit in the Azores, Adam was asked to row. Now sixteen, he was considerably bigger and stronger than I was, so I was not asked. I stood at the rail watching and envying him.

At first, the men’s rowing was very sloppy, as some of the men had never held an oar before. Their rowing began to improve with time, but we could see they would need a lot more practice.

Each boat was steered by one of the mates. When the harpooner, who was in the bow of the boat, threw his harpoon into the whale, it stayed there like a giant fishhook. Then the harpooner would change places with the mate in the stern, and the harpooner would steer the boat while the mate stood in the bow to lance the whale. Usually it was the lance, not the harpoon, which killed the whale. I wondered if a mate and a harpooner ever lost their balance and fell in the water as they changed positions.

Day followed day, as a routine was developed on the ship ‒ school for Jessica and me in the mornings and fishing or watching whaleboat practice in the afternoon.

Sometimes, if Father was not busy, he showed me the charts that he used to navigate. One day as we were looking at the charts, he said, “Now maybe you can begin to see why you need to learn arithmetic. You will need it when plotting a course, figuring how much whale oil you have, and buying supplies. If your arithmetic isn’t good, you can easily get cheated in the ports where you land and end up short of supplies.

Every day, lookouts were posted near the tops of the masts. They stood on little platforms above the yardarms and held tightly to the masts. From there they scanned the ocean for whales or ships. They had to stay alert, for if they dozed off, they could fall to the deck or into the ocean.

Whenever Adam was free, we practiced climbing the lines up to the lookout platforms near the tops of the foremast and mainmast. At first I was scared, but as I got used to it I soon overcame my fear. We sat on one of the platforms, feet dangling over the edge and huddled together. One day when the breeze was cool, Adam put his arm around me and hugged me. My heart did a flip, and I felt a warm glow inside me which I couldn’t truly explain. But I liked it. From that day on, we sat with our arms around each other’s shoulders.

Once, as we sat side by side on the platform, lazily swinging our feet back and forth, I gazed into Adam’s green eyes, thinking I could see into his soul. Adam looked closely into my eyes and said they were a beautiful deep blue. Then he pulled me to him and kissed me… on the lips! My first reaction was that I liked it. It was exciting and I felt a warmth in my groin as I leaned into him.

My second reaction was horror. Pushing him away, I said, “Boys don’t kiss boys.”

With a disappointed frown, he asked, “But did you not like it?” I had to admit that I did, and I told him so, although I cautioned that we should not do it again. He nodded but looked sad.

About a week out, we heard a cry from the top of the foremast that there were blackfish ahead. Some people call blackfish pilot whales. They really are small whales, whose oil is very fine. It is used to oil fine watches.

Three whaleboats were lowered and soon one boat had harpooned a blackfish. Before the harpooner and the mate could change places, the harpooner struck another one. The two small whales were pulling in opposite directions. The men had to haul on the line of one of them to get close enough for the mate to lance it. Then, they had to haul in the other one. Soon they were towing both blackfish back to the ship. The other boats had each fastened on to one. The four pilot whales made a fairly small amount of oil, but it was both valuable and our first capture.

Sometimes the ocean grew rough, although the experienced sailors told Adam, Jessica, and me that this was very gentle compared to what we would soon experience. Occasionally, Mother was seasick, usually huddling over the rail and emptying her stomach, but she quickly recovered, and it never stopped her from conducting our lessons.

On we sailed. The only sounds were the men talking and working, the natural creaking of the ship, and occasionally the sails flapping in the wind or the lines slapping the masts. The horizon around us formed one huge circle where the sky seemed to meet the water. There was no land in sight, and we seldom saw a ship.

A few days later one of the lookouts called, “Land ho!” and soon the Azores began to come into sight. Father headed into a port in Flores, one of the islands, to replenish our water and fresh food, and to take on additional crew members. To bring water to the ship, the crew lashed together many casks forming a raft which was towed to the nearest source of water. Sometimes, water had to be carried from a distance on land to the raft. The work was difficult and took a long time.

Meanwhile, Father, Adam, and I went into the town to see about buying food. Father always took items with him which he thought the local people might want in trade. He was able to hire a harpooner named Francisco and two more men. As we walked in the town, I saw women in the doorways spinning flax by hand with simple spindles. The cloth they made from this thread was very fine and was usually blue or white. Father purchased potatoes and a few more chickens and pigs to replace the ones we had eaten.

From the Azores we sailed south to the Cape Verde Islands, off the coast of Africa, where Father purchased two boatloads of tropical fruits as there had not been much fruit available in the Azores.

Finally, we headed west and south towards South America, where we would go into a port for a bit before heading south around Cape Horn and into the Pacific Ocean.

At first we made good time. For some reason Francisco, the new harpooner, befriended me and Adam. He seemed to be in his early twenties, and perhaps he was missing his brothers at home. Although he could not speak English and we could not speak Portuguese, we managed to communicate quite well. He decided to teach us the knots a sailor needed to know on a whaling ship. Since many of the crew did not know these knots, we would soon be ahead of them.

We began with the knot used to attach a line to a harpoon. When we had mastered that, we moved on to other knots for working in the rigging, tying the ship to a dock, or a whale to the ship. It took several days, but we were in no hurry.

Just before we passed the equator, we were told that there would be a line-crossing ceremony for any man or boy who had not passed the Equator before. Those who had crossed the line were called ‘Sons of Neptune’, while those of us who had not were called ‘Pollywogs’.

The morning we crossed the line, all of the Pollywogs were locked in steerage without breakfast. When the Sons of Neptune were ready for us, we were called to the deck one at a time, so while the others were going through the ceremony, the rest of us stayed below wondering what our fate would be. Adam was called, but I, as the youngest, was saved for last. I could hear a great deal of laughter and an occasional yell.

When I was called, I climbed, trembling, onto the deck. There the rest of the crew was gathered, some of them in costume. The most important man was clearly ‘King Neptune’, whom I recognized as Chips, our carpenter. He was dressed in some sort of cloth which he wore as a robe. He had hair and a beard made of seaweed. First, Neptune read from a paper that told what a terrible person and poor sailor I had been, but when he asked the crew if I should go through the ceremony, they all agreed.

For the first part of the ceremony, I was told to get on all fours on the deck. Something was smacked on my head which stank terribly. Rotten eggs! They ran all down my face and neck. Phew! Then I had to put my head in a large bucket of seawater to wash off the eggs. I was not allowed to raise my head from the water for a full minute. After that I had to crawl along the deck and crew members, including Adam, ‘beat’ me with the ends of lines. Although most of them were quite gentle, Mr. Trumble, the third mate, was the exception. I think he hit me as hard as he could. Somehow, I had gotten on his wrong side and he took every chance he had to show his dislike of me. After the beating, I had to drink a ‘magic’ potion. I don’t know what was in it, except the main ingredient was very hot peppers, which the crew had probably picked up in the Azores or Cape Verde. My mouth, my throat, and my stomach were burning. Finally, I was given fresh water to wash away the fire. Then I was presented with a certificate that declared I was now a Son of Neptune and all the crew cheered.

The day after we crossed the equator, the ship stopped moving. The sea became very flat and there was no wind at all. Father said that we were in the doldrums, explaining that the doldrums were an area of the ocean very near the equator. Sometimes there would be storms, but sometimes there might be no wind at all. A ship could be trapped for days or even weeks.

When it became clear that the ship would not be moving for a while, Father gave permission for the men who could swim to go over the side and enjoy a dip. Most of us took soap with us, so we could also clean ourselves, which we had not been able to do since the last time it had rained. Certainly, we never used the ship’s precious supply of fresh water for bathing or even washing.

Adam and I, who could both swim, stripped to our shorts and dove over the side. Meanwhile, the men who could not swim kept a careful watch out for sharks. After we finished washing, we amused ourselves splashing each other and having races around the ship. When we returned aboard, we basked in the sun to dry.

The ship did not move for over two weeks. And each day, we again leaped into the water to bathe and enjoy ourselves. Perhaps those on watch grew less careful, as no sharks had been seen since the ship had stopped moving. But suddenly one afternoon as I lay back in the water relaxing, I heard a frantic scream.

“Sharks!” one of the lookouts shouted and we all quickly made our way toward the rope ladder to climb aboard. But the screams continued. “Help me! Help me!” I turned and saw Adam flailing in the water, which was growing red around him. Francisco and I swam toward him as he continued to scream.

I got to Adam before Francisco. He grabbed me so tightly I was afraid we would both drown if we didn’t get eaten by the sharks first. Francisco took hold of him from behind with one arm around his waist, and together Francisco and I swam with him toward the ship. Someone on board thought to lower the gamming chair. We put Adam in it and then quickly scrambled aboard fearing another shark attack.

Adam lay on the deck. His screams had quietened to moans, and he was nearly unconscious. His leg had been terribly bitten by the shark and was torn and bleeding. Father quickly fixed a strap around Adam’s leg up near his hip and then used a piece of dowel to twist the strap tight. Slowly the bleeding stopped, but clearly the pain continued.

With the help of Chips and Mr. Dwight, the first mate, Father put Adam on a piece of sail cloth and carried him below to steerage, where they placed him on the table. I went down with them, but Father told me to leave. As I went on deck, I heard Father say something to Adam. Perhaps he was trying to comfort him.

Jessica came from our cabin and asked what happened. As I told her she began to cry. It was then that I realized she was fond of Adam and considered him almost another brother.

On the deck we waited silently with the crew. Sometimes screams or groans came from below. Finally, Chips and Father climbed wearily to the deck.

“Where’s Mother?” Jessica asked.

“She’s with Adam,” Father answered. “She’ll help nurse him.”

“You had to cut off his leg, didn’t you?” I asked.

Father nodded. “It couldn’t be saved,” he said. “It was too torn and damaged.”

“Will he be all right?” I asked.

“We will not know for a while,” he replied. “Right now, he’s suffering from shock. If he lives through that, then the question will be whether or not the wound gets infected. We will treat it with alcohol for a few days. If it doesn’t become infected, he should be all right in time. If it does, there isn’t much we can do for him.”

Adam had been moved to his cabin and no one was allowed to visit except Mother, Father, and Chips. The groans coming from his cabin were like torture to me, so I stayed on the main deck. That evening during supper we could still hear Adam’s cries, so Mother suggested that we all pray for him, which we did. I prayed silently for a long time while the others waited for me to finish before beginning the meal.

Father treated Adam’s leg with alcohol every four hours, using some of the ship’s supply of rum. While I knew it was necessary, I cringed each time I heard Adam scream. I wondered if Father also gave Adam some of the rum to deaden his pain.

The next morning, after visiting Adam and changing the dressing on his leg, Father said there was no sign yet of any infection and Adam seemed to be recovering from the shock. I waited all day to hear more, but there wasn’t much anybody could do but watch and wait and treat his wound.

The following day, Father returned from visiting Adam and said I could see him, but not for more than ten minutes. Quickly, I made my way to his cabin.

At first I thought Adam was asleep, but when he heard me, his eyes opened a bit and he gave me a weak smile. “Thank you for rescuing me,” he said. “That was brave of you to stay with me when you knew there was a shark there.”

“I just did what anyone would have done,” I said. “Actually, Francisco helped you as much as I did.”

Adam closed his eyes then and didn’t speak again. Slowly, tears began to flow from his eyes, and I wondered if he was thinking of what he would never be able to do again, like row in a whaleboat. All too soon my ten minutes passed, but I told him I’d be back later, and he nodded silently. From then on, I visited him several times a day.

Two days later, a little breeze came up and the ship began to move. We sailed slowly out of the doldrums and headed toward Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, where Father said we might find a doctor to look over Adam’s wound, for he thought it was a good idea to have a doctor’s opinion.

As the days passed, either Jessica or I sat with Adam and read to him. He was feeling better and anxious to get off his bunk and go on deck, but Father insisted that he stay in his cabin, even though there was no sign of infection.

Sometimes Adam and I talked about his destroyed dream of going whaling. I tried to tell him he could still be a captain, but I knew that what he wanted to do was actually catch the whales. I told Father about our conversations, and he said that when it became possible, he would begin to include Adam in our navigation lessons.

One morning when I was on deck, I heard the call from the top mast, “There she blows!” When Father asked, “Where away?” he was told the whales were off the starboard bow. Father hesitated briefly because he wanted to get Adam to Rio as soon as possible, but then he quickly ordered three whaleboats lowered. “After all,” he said later, “a whale is a whale, and we haven’t had much luck so far.” Soon we could see the sperm whales’ spouts from the deck. There appeared to be five or six of them. The boats chased the whales for several hours, trying to get close to them when the whales were at the surface and then sitting and waiting when the whales dove. Sperm whales go to the very bottom of the ocean to get giant squid, their food. Sometimes they stay down for as long as an hour.

Finally, Francisco was able to harpoon a whale. The injured whale towed his whaleboat around in a huge circle. Two hours later, the men got the boat near enough so that Mr. Allen, the second mate, could lance it. When the whale died, the mate attached a line to its flukes and the crew started towing it slowly back to the Angela.

As soon as the one whale had been harpooned, the other whales sped away. The remaining two whaleboats returned to the ship and the crew began preparing to try out the whale.

The whale was attached to the side of the ship and a cutting stage was placed on the rail, so it extended out over the whale. Skillfully, the men stood on the stage and cut the blubber, or thick layer of fat, off the whale in the same way you would peel an apple or orange in one continuous strip. This strip, called a blanket piece, was lifted onto the deck, cut into sections, and lowered into the hold, where it was cut into smaller pieces. When all the blubber had been removed, the First and Second Mates climbed down onto the head of the whale. They used buckets to scoop the white waxy spermaceti out of a cavity in the whale’s head. Spermaceti is a valuable oil which is used for lubricants and to make smokeless candles like the ones we had on our dining table at home.

Meanwhile, the fires had been started under the huge trypots. Pieces of blubber were placed in the bubbling pots to boil out the oily fat. This was called ‘trying out’ the blubber. When the pieces had been boiled enough, they were scooped out of the trypots and put in the fires under the pots as fuel while more pieces were thrown into the pots. The trying out continued all night and through much of the next day. The smoke smelled terrible, but in a way, that was the smell of money, so nobody ever complained except Jessica, who was soon forbidden by Mother to complain any more.

I had stayed on deck to watch the cutting in and the beginning of trying out before I went down to Adam to tell him what was happening. We talked for a bit, and before I left, I leaned over and gently kissed him on the lips, telling him that I was glad he was getting better.

Adam grinned and said, “Boys do not kiss boys.”

I laughed, and answered, “Now they do.”

Once the cutting in was finished, the remains of the whale were cut loose from the ship. We had gotten 57 barrels of oil. We headed once again towards Rio de Janeiro. A week later, we entered the harbor and anchored. Father went ashore to find a doctor, while some of the men made a raft to go after fresh water. I remained on board with Adam to keep him company and inform him of what was happening.

When Father returned, he said that an English doctor would come aboard the next day.

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