d the condition of the
family finances, and shipped on a whaler sailing out of New London. From
"'foremast hand with hayseed in his hair," he became boatsteerer; then
followed rapid promotion from fourth to second officer's berth, and at
the age of five-and-twenty he was as competent a navigator and as good
a seaman and boatheader as ever trod a whaleship's deck. For like many a
country-bred boy he had the sea instinct in his bones, inherited perhaps
from his progenitors, who were of a seafaring stock in old Devonshire,
in that town made for ever famous by Kingsley in "Westward Ho!"

When Frewen joined the _Casilda_, Keller had taken a great fancy to
the young man, whom he soon discovered was a very able officer, and who
proved his ability as a good whaleman so amply during the first twelve
months of the cruise by never losing a whale once he got fast, that
Keller, who was as mean as he was brutal to his crew, relaxed his
"hazing" propensities considerably. The _Casilda_ was always known as
a "hard" ship and Keller as a "hazer"; but, on the other hand, she was
also a lucky ship, and Lopes, the chief mate, who had sailed in her for
many years, was a sterling good man, though a strict disciplinarian, and
did much for the men to compensate them for Keller's outbursts of savage
fury when anything went wrong. So Lopez, Frewen, and his fellow-officers
"worked" together, and the crew "worked" with them, and the _Casilda_
became a fairly happy ship, as well as a lucky one, for Keller, after
long years, began to realise that it was bad policy to ill-treat a
willing crew who would give him a "full" ship in another six months
instead of deserting one by one or in batches at every island touched at
in the South Seas.

And Frewen was a mascotte, and his half-caste boat-steerer was another,
for whenever a pod of whales were sighted the second mate's boat was
invariably the first to get fast, and on one glorious day off Sunday
Island Frewen's boat killed three sperms--a bull and two cows--and the
four other boats each got one or two, so that for over a week, in a calm
sea, and under a cloudless sky of blue by day and night, "cutting in"
and "trying-out" went on merrily, and the cooper and his mates toiled
like Trojans, setting-up fresh barrels; and the smoke and glare of the
try-works from the deck of the _Casilda_ lit up the placid ocean for
many a mile, whilst hordes of blue sharks rived and tore and ripped off
the rich blubber fro