Our triumph was complete. Loud shouts rent the
air. '* Hurra, my lads, hurra! we've killed our
first fish well," shouted the excited chief mate, who
had likewise had the honour of being the first to
strike the first fish. ** She's above eleven feet if
she's an inch (speaking of the length of the longest
lamina of whale-bone) ; she'll prove a good prize, that
she will." He was right. I believe that one fish
filled forty-seven butts with blubber— enough, in
days of yore, I have heard, to have repaid the whole
expense of the voyage.
Our ship was some way to leeward; and as the
wind was light, she could not work up to us, so we
had to tow the prize down to her. Our first opera-
tion was to free it from the lines. This was done
by first lashing the tail, by means of holes cut
through it, to the bows of a boat, and then two
boats swept round it, each with the end of a line,
the centre of which was allowed to sink under the
fish. As the lines hung down perpendicularly, they
were thus brought up and cut as close as possible
down to the harpoons, which were left sticking in the
back of the fish. Meantime the men of the otlier
boats were engaged in lashing the fins together
across the belly of the whale. This being done, we
all formed in line, towing the fish by the tail; and
never have I heard or given a more joyous shout
than ours, as we pulled cheerily away, at the rate of
a mile an hour, towards the ship with our first fish.
