But then he gripped his dignity again and sat down, giving commands in
his ordinary tone. Old Tom stood up to glance about the sea-scape: "And
now where's that thundering old hooker?" he demanded. "We'll have a fine
time pulling this baby to her."

But that is what we had to do. We had had our "fun;" now we settled
down to doggedly pulling the heavy oars, being divided into two watches,
and saw the light of the Scarboro's trying-out works at midnight! The
Captain and Mr. Rudd had both got small whales and one had been laid
aboard each side of the bark. The crew were working like gnomes in a
pantomime when we rowed sadly to the bark with our huge tow. How we
worked! I never had been so tired in my life, and at the end of the
second day when the oil from the three whales had been run into the
tanks and the decks cleared up again, I could have fallen into my
hammock and slept the clock around. But one never catches up one's sleep
on a successful whaler, and the Scarboro certainly was proving good her
name as a "lucky" craft.

Between Tom Anderly and Ben Gibson I learned a lot about whaling
statistics--famous voyages, wonderful accidents to whaling crews "lucky
strikes," and the like. And these facts, both curious and exciting, I
stowed away in my mind for future reference. Despite the fact that steam
vessels and the gun and explosive bullet have almost supplanted the
old-fashioned manner of killing whales, the luck and pluck of half a
century, or more, ago, counted for enough to offset these new methods.

The most extraordinary good-luck voyage ever made by an American whaler
was that of the bark Envoy, belonging to the Brownells of New Bedford.
She was built in 1826 and in the year 1847 she returned to her then home
port in such a condition that the underwriters refused to insure her for
another voyage. But Captain William C. Brownell and Captain W. T. Walker
agreed to take a chance in the old hulk and she put to sea from New
Bedford under Captain Walker on July 12, 1848. As fitted for sea the
Envoy, for repairs, supplies and all, stood the two owners in the sum of
$8,000, whereas a vessel that could be insured might have cost from
$40,000 to $60,000.

She got around the Horn without falling apart and took on a cargo of oil
at Wytootackie which her captain had previously purchased from a wrecked
whaler and stored there. This oil she hobbled into Manila with and
shipped it to London at a profit of $9,000. From Manil