Griffiths's boat, but we
hoped that he would be equally successful. We made tack after tack till
we got up to the whale, which two boats were towing towards us. We
burned a blue light to show the first mate our position, but looked in
vain for an answering signal. At last the captain, being anxious at his
non-appearance, and fearing that some accident must have happened,
ordered the second mate to hang on to the whale while he beat the ship
up in the direction Mr Griffiths's boat had taken. The hours went by
and the wind increased and the sea got up.

"Never mind," said the captain; "Harvey will hang on under the lee of
the whale even if it does come on to blow harder, and he'll be safe
enough."

At last, at about half-an-hour to midnight, we made out a faint light
dead to windward. It took us some time to get up to it, for, though we
were sure it must come from the mate's boat, it didn't approach us.

As we got near we could distinguish the people hanging to the bottom of
the boat, one of them sitting astride of her and holding up a lantern.
We immediately hove-to, and lowered a boat to take them on board. It
then appeared that the boat had been stove in by a whale, when the mate
and his men clung on to her, the whale fortunately not molesting them.

The boat's lantern is always headed up tight in a keg, together with a
tinder-box and candles, and having providentially secured the keg, they
managed to open it, get out the lantern, and strike a light. We might
otherwise have passed them in the dark, and they would all probably have
perished, as we should have run back to pick up Mr Harvey's boat and
the whale we had killed. We now did so at once, and a hard night's work
we had of it, as we had to secure the whale alongside, and get ready for
cutting-in as soon as it was day.

Soon after this, while I was aloft, I saw Jim, who had just been
relieved at the wheel, go to the side, and, throwing off his clothes,
jump overboard. It was what we often did, always taking care to leave a
rope overboard to get up by, to get rid of the soot and grease, besides
which, as we were close under the line, the weather was very hot, and a
bath refreshing.

Jim swam some way ahead of the ship, when the cook, to play him a trick,
hauled up his rope, which I didn't perceive, as I was looking at Jim.
Just then I caught sight of the fin of a shark at no great distance off.
I shouted to Jim to come back, and he, knowing that I s