Father had planned to have the decks caulked and the hull painted down to the waterline while we were on Oahu. Since we would be there some time, Adam and I had a chance to explore the town of Honolulu and some of the rest of the island.
There was a wharf, or dock, for landing, and the main road went from the wharf up into the town. As we walked along the street, we first saw some concrete government buildings. Beyond them were wood or stone houses and shops. On the side streets the houses were made of bamboo and thatch. Farther up the street, we saw some large, well-built homes which, we were told, were the houses of missionaries.
Honolulu is in a fairly dry zone, so we didn’t see many luxuriant trees and flowers. The trees we did see bore fruit or coconuts, and we could simply pick a piece of fruit and eat it as we strolled along.
Father, Mother, Jessica, and Daniel moved into the home of one of the missionaries, while Adam and I chose to continue living on the Angela with the rest of the crew.
Outside the town was a large plain, and beyond the plain was Diamond Head, a volcanic formation and the most visible landmark on the island. Adam and I decided to hire horses for a day. At first it was difficult for Adam to mount his horse, but he soon figured it out. Some days we amused ourselves by riding the horses out to Diamond Head, where we picnicked and soaked up the warm sun before riding back.
Everyone who lived on the island could swim, for the children were taught to swim at the same time they were taught to walk. In the harbor, even as the Angela was being worked on, men, women, and children swam out to the ship, climbed aboard, scrambled up the rigging and dove off. Sometimes they swam right under the ship.
While there was fruit on the island, the islanders’ main food was poi, which was a paste made from the root of the taro plant. The root is starchy like a potato, and after being cooked it is peeled and mashed. Families sat around large bowls of poi and dipped their fingers in, then brought their fingers to their mouths and ate. There was one finger, two finger, and three finger poi depending on how many fingers were needed to bring it to the mouth. I never saw a fork or spoon while we were on Oahu except at the missionaries’ homes.
Father and Mother had decided that Mother, Jessica, and Daniel would remain in Honolulu when the Angela set sail for the Sea of Japan, which could be rough and sometimes dangerous.
As the crew came aboard for our departure, Father learned that three of them had very high fevers and would not be able to sail. At such short notice he was only able to replace two of them. He paid the ailing crew members what they were owed to that point.
Off we sailed, heading north towards the coast of Asia. To the far north the coast was called Siberia and belonged to Russia.
At dinner one night, Father invited Adam to eat with us. We chatted about what we might see in the Sea of Japan. Then, near the end of the meal, Father looked at me and said, “Well, Jeremiah, we seem to be one oarsman short, so it looks like you’ll finally get your wish to chase a whale.”
“Do you mean it? Row in a whaleboat?” I asked, joyfully.
“How else would you chase a whale? Of course, it should really be Adam’s turn, but he’s not able to row.”
I glanced at Adam who looked sad. At that point I was torn between sympathy for him and joy for having the chance to row. When we had finished eating, I thanked Father, and Adam and I went on deck. Standing by the rail, I said, “Adam, I’m so sorry that you can’t row. You know I’d give up my place for you in a minute if you could.”
Adam nodded, saying nothing. He simply gazed down at the ocean. At last he looked at me and said, “Jeremiah, if anybody has to replace me in a whaleboat I’m glad it is you.” I put my arm on his shoulder and we stood in friendly silence. From that evening on I waited anxiously for our first sighting of whales.
One day as we sailed north, the ship became blanketed in fog. We could hear sperm whales all about us, but we could not see them. It was as if they were toying with us. They splashed and spouted very near the ship. Finally, when the fog lifted, the whales had completely disappeared.
In the Sea of Japan, we sometimes saw Japanese boats near us. We never spoke them and they never spoke us. At that time Japan was a ‘closed’ country and had no contact with foreigners.
The whaling gear had to be changed, for we would be hunting right whales, which have much thicker blubber than sperm whales. We needed longer lances and harpoons.
Right whales do not eat giant squid from the bottom of the sea as sperm whales do. They eat plankton, tiny little animals and plants that rise to the surface of the ocean. The right whale swims through huge clouds of this food with its mouth open, scooping up the food and the water as it moves. Then it closes its mouth and pushes the water out through its baleen or whalebone. Baleen is made of large sheets of material something like our fingernails hanging from the roof of the whale’s mouth. On the inner edges of the sheets are fringes with thousands of hairs. When the whale forces out the sea water with its tongue, the little hairs catch the plankton, which the whale swallows.
As we sailed on, lookouts at the mastheads were constantly watching for whales. At last one day we heard the cry of, “She blows,” and we quickly lowered our boats. I had been assigned to the third boat, Mr. Shaw’s. Sliding down the lines into the boat, I was so excited I could feel my heart beating. But I was also a little afraid that I would make a mistake and cause us to lose a whale. I soon showed that I was able to row in rhythm with the rest of the men without catching a crab. Of course, we were rowing with our backs to the whales we were chasing, so only Mr. Shaw could see them. He urged us on as we stroked our oars and the boat flew through the water.
My first clue that we were near a whale was when we heard it spout. Suddenly, there we were, right beside a huge black whale. I had heard that right whales were as big as or bigger than sperm whales, but I suddenly understood that fact in a whole new way. It loomed above us. Pulling in our oars, we floated towards the whale until I could have reached out and touched it!
At Mr. Shaw’s command, the harpooner stood and threw two harpoons into the whale. The angry beast began to race through the water, the lines from the harpoons speeding out of the boat. Mr. Shaw and the harpooner quickly changed places. Soon the whale slowed and came to rest. It had not gone nearly as far as harpooned sperm whales do. Slowly we pulled in the line, moving us closer all the time to the whale. When we were near enough, Mr. Shaw stood, thrust his lance a couple of times, hitting the whale’s heart on the second try. Something happened then that I had not thought possible. The whale sank and Mr. Shaw quickly cut the line. We never saw it again.
I had heard that right whales were the ‘right’ whales to catch because they never sank. Well I can tell you that’s not always true, and we lost several right whales during our time in the Sea of Japan.
On we sailed. Another day, we harpooned a whale only to have our line part. Finally, we struck a whale which stayed afloat when Mr. Shaw killed it. Slowly, we rowed it back to the ship. The ship-keepers tried to bring the ship as close to us as they could, but it was still a long haul.
All hands were cheerful as the cutting in began and the work went well. In addition, they harvested the whalebone, which was used for corset stays and buggy whips. The next day another boat caught a whale and from the two we made a total of about 250 barrels of oil.
As we sat on Adam’s bed in our cabin that night, Adam asked me to tell him all about my adventure. When I finished, he pulled me towards him and kissed me hard on my lips. I could feel his tongue on my mouth and instinctively I opened up to him. Soon our tongues were exploring each other’s mouths, around and around, up and down, in and out. Adam stood and removed his nightgown, so I followed his example, my heart beating so hard I was sure he could hear it. There we were, the two of us, stark naked. We began to caress each other’s chests and backs, enjoying both the feeling of touching our friend and the rising feeling of excitement in our loins. By then we couldn’t be any harder. We reached down for each other’s cocks and began the slow, familiar motions which brought such pleasure. We’d never done it standing up before. Soon we felt that exquisite rush and exploded, shooting gob after gob of baby juice. When we finished, we held each other, snuggling together as we came down off our highs. When at last we broke our hugs, Adam wiped us both off. As usual now, I kissed him goodnight and climbed into my bunk, where it took me a long time to fall asleep.
One morning we spoke another whale ship, the Mary Lee, but we were too busy chasing whales to have a gam or get together. The captains exchanged a bit of information from a distance, and we learned that the Mary Lee had about 700 barrels of oil, while we were nearing 1000 barrels.
During the time we were in the Sea of Japan, we were quite successful catching whales, although all the boats lost their share due to lines parting, missed harpoons, and the occasional whale sinking.
One afternoon, as we were chasing a whale, the fog began to close in. Aboard the Angela, Father had the signal raised for us to return to the ship, but we were so close to the whale that Mr. Shaw decided to catch the whale first.
It seemed that every time we neared the whale, it gave a little burst of speed and raced ahead of us. At last it slowed and Mr. Shaw was able to put us beside it. The harpooner, with a mighty thrust, not only attached to the whale but killed it. It was only then that we looked about us and discovered that we had been totally swallowed by the fog. It was so thick we had difficulty seeing from one end of the boat to the other.
When the whale was secured to the boat, Mr. Shaw turned us toward the direction where he believed the ship was. There was no ship in sight.
The Angela had a small cannon on board which could be fired to let a lost boat know where the ship was. We heard the cannon, but it was difficult to figure out the direction, for the ‘boom’ seemed to be sucked up by the fog. Again Mr. Shaw turned, and again the cannon’s boom appeared to come from a different direction.
To make matters worse, night was coming on. Later we were told that all through the night torches were put atop the Angela’s masts to guide us, and others were mounted in two of the whaleboats.
While we continued to hear the cannon, we remained unable to discern its direction. Finally, Mr. Shaw decided that the best thing to do was to wait until morning in the hopes that the fog would lift.
Each whaleboat carried emergency food and water along with other equipment, so we knew we would be safe until morning unless a storm came up. But it was cold and damp there on the fogbound water, and soon we were shivering. Previously we had not noticed the cold because we had been rowing hard, but now our sweat seemed to freeze on our skins, and we had nothing to put on to keep us warm. We lay in the bottom of the boat to protect us from the breeze and share body heat, but it was a long, cold, sleepless night.
At last we could make out through the fog some early morning light, but it was not until about 10 o’clock that the fog lifted enough that we could make out the Angela, far to the north of us.
When the lookouts on the Angela spotted us, the ship began to move towards us, but we still had hours of hard rowing before we pulled up to the side of the ship.
We brought the whale alongside the ship at last and wearily climbed aboard, where Adam rushed to me and hugged me, saying he had been terribly worried.
The whale was huge, longer than the ship. Cutting in began immediately and occupied us for a day and a half. As always, the smell was terrible and the decks were slippery with oil. I had become used to that. I barely noticed except when I slipped once, falling to the deck and getting back up covered with stinking oil. I had to wash down with salt water which left me feeling salty instead of oily. It was not much of an improvement. When we finished, we had nearly 200 more barrels of oil.
That night I told Adam of my adventure, and again we kissed, our tongues twisting around each other. We rubbed our hard shafts and brought each other to the point of shooting. It felt so good I trembled. Holding Adam, I realized that he too was trembling. We shot almost simultaneously and hugged each other close for a long time, simply enjoying the feeling of such closeness.
When we broke the hug, we kissed each other passionately again. I began whimpering and I realized that Adam was as well. Soon we felt that wonderful sensation rising again in our groins. We shot our baby juice and I wanted to shout with joy, but I did not, for I knew I would be heard, and someone would come to see if there was a problem. That was the first time we did it twice in a night. I kissed him goodnight, climbed to my bunk and fell in. I think I was asleep before I landed.
As the weather became colder, Father decided it was time to return to Oahu, so we headed south. Meanwhile, the harpooners refitted their boats for sperm whales.
There was fine weather for the first few days, but then a sudden storm arose, seemingly from nowhere. We brought the whaleboats on deck and lashed them down. Meanwhile we furled most of the sails, leaving only enough to keep us moving south.
Never before had I heard of a storm where the winds came from one direction and the swells from the opposite, but that’s what happened. The winds were from the northeast and the swells were from the southwest. That made for very choppy sailing, and often the end of a yardarm was nearly underwater as the ship lurched, first to starboard and then to larboard.
Three days later we emerged from the storm, exhausted. We replaced the whaleboats on their davits and resupplied them, but we saw no sperm whales before we reached Oahu.
We rowed to the wharf, and Jessica came running to meet us. Mother, carrying Daniel, was not far behind. I was bursting with the news of my rowing adventures, but first I hugged Mother and Jessica. Then I reached for my new brother. It seemed as if he had grown much more than one would expect in the few weeks we were gone. He certainly had become heavier.
Mother listened to my tales of rowing a whaleboat. I’m not sure that she was happy with Father for letting me row, for it put me in some danger, but when he explained why it had happened and praised my work in the boat, she smiled at me and quietly said, “Congratulations. You’re certainly growing up, Jeremiah. And I’m very thankful that you’re back safe and sound.”