Part 2 (1/2)
Once again a whale-s.h.i.+p prepared to sail from the port of Grayton, and once again Mrs. Bright and Isobel stood on the pier to see her depart.
Isobel was about thirteen now, and as pretty a girl, according to Buzzby, as you could meet with in any part of Britain. Her eyes were blue and her hair nut-brown, and her charms of face and figure were enhanced immeasurably by an air of modesty and earnestness that went straight home to your heart, and caused you to adore her at once. Buzzby doated on her as if she were his only child, and felt a secret pride in being in some indefinable way her protector. Buzzby philosophized about her, too, after a strange fas.h.i.+on. ”You see,” he would say to Fred, ”it's not that her figurehead is cut altogether after a parfect pattern--by no means, for I've seen pictur's and statues that wos better--but she carries her head a little down, d'ye see, Master Fred?
and there's where it is; that's the way I gauges the worth o' young women, jist accordin' as they carry their chins up or down. If their brows come well for'ard, and they seems to be lookin' at the ground they walk on, I knows their brains is firm stuff, and in good workin' order; but when I sees them carryin' their noses high out o' the water, as if they wos afeard o' catchin' sight o' their own feet, and their chins elewated, so that a little boy standin' in front o' them couldn't see their faces nohow, I make pretty sure that t'other end is filled with a sort o' _mush_ that's fit only to think o' dress and dancing.”
On the present occasion Isobel's eyes were red and swollen, and by no means improved by weeping. Mrs. Bright, too, although three years had done little to alter her character, seemed to be less demonstrative and much more sincere than usual in her grief at parting from Fred.
In a few minutes all was ready. Young Singleton and Buzzby having hastily but earnestly bade Mrs. Bright and her daughter farewell, leaped on board. Fred lingered for a moment.
”Once more, dear aunt,” said he, ”farewell. With G.o.d's blessing we shall come back soon.--Write to me, darling Isobel, won't you? to Upernavik, on the coast of Greenland. If none of our s.h.i.+ps are bound in that direction, write by way of Denmark. Old Mr. Singleton will tell you how to address your letter; and see that it be a long one.”
”Now then, youngster, jump aboard,” shouted the captain; ”look sharp!”
”Ay, ay,” returned Fred, and in another moment he was on the quarter-deck, by the side of his friend Tom.
The s.h.i.+p, loosed from her moorings, spread her canvas, and plunged forward on her adventurous voyage.
But this time she does not grow smaller as she advances before the freshening breeze, for you and I, reader, have embarked in her, and the land now fades in the distance, until it sinks from view on the distant horizon, while nothing meets our gaze but the vault of the bright blue sky above, and the plane of the dark blue sea below.
CHAPTER III.
_The voyage--The ”Dolphin” and her crew--Ice ahead--Polar scenes--Masthead observations--The first whale--Great excitement_.
And now we have fairly got into blue water--the sailor's delight, the landsman's dread,--
”The sea! the sea! the open sea; The blue, the fresh, the ever free.”
”It's my opinion,” remarked Buzzby to Singleton one day, as they stood at the weather gangway watching the foam that spread from the vessel's bow as she breasted the waves of the Atlantic gallantly--it's my opinion that our skipper is made o' the right stuff. He's entered quite into the spirit of the thing, and I heard him say to the first mate yesterday he'd made up his mind to run right up into Baffin's Bay and make inquiries for Captain Ellice first, before goin' to his usual whalin'-ground. Now that's wot I call doin' the right thing; for, ye see, he runs no small risk o' getting beset in the ice, and losing the fis.h.i.+n' altogether by so doin'.”
”He's a fine fellow,” said Singleton; ”I like him better every day, and I feel convinced he will do his utmost to discover the whereabouts of our missing friend; but I fear much that our chances are small, for, although we know the spot which Captain Ellice intended to visit, we cannot tell to what part of the frozen ocean ice and currents may have carried him.”
”True,” replied Buzzby, giving to his left eye and cheek just that peculiar amount of screw which indicated intense sagacity and penetration; ”but I've a notion that, if they are to be found, Captain Guy is the man to find 'em.”
”I hope it may turn out as you say. Have you ever been in these seas before, Buzzby?”
”No, sir--never; but I've got a half-brother wot has bin in the Greenland whale-fishery, and I've bin in the South Sea line myself.”
”What line was that, Buzzby?” inquired David Summers, a st.u.r.dy boy of about fifteen, who acted as a.s.sistant steward, and was, in fact, a nautical maid-of-all-work. ”Was it a log-line, or a bow-line, or a cod-line, or a bit of the equator, eh?”
The old salt deigned no reply to this pa.s.sing sally, but continued his converse with Singleton.
”I could give ye many a long yarn about the South Seas,” said Buzzby, gazing abstractedly down into the deep. ”One time when I was about fifty miles to the sou'-west o' Cape Horn, I--”
”Dinner's ready, sir,” said a thin, tall, active man, stepping smartly up to Singleton, and touching his cap.
”We must talk over that some other time, Buzzby. The captain loves punctuality.” So saying, the young surgeon sprang down the companion ladder, leaving the old salt to smoke his pipe in solitude.
And here we may pause a few seconds to describe our s.h.i.+p and her crew.
The _Dolphin_ was a tight, new, barque-rigged vessel of about three hundred tons burden, built expressly for the northern whale-fishery, and carried a crew of forty-five men. s.h.i.+ps that have to battle with the ice require to be much more powerfully built than those that sail in unenc.u.mbered seas. The _Dolphin_ united strength with capacity and buoyancy. The under part of her hull and sides were strengthened with double timbers, and fortified externally with plates of iron, while, internally, stanchions and crossbeams were so arranged as to cause pressure on any part to be supported by the whole structure; and on her bows, where shocks from the ice might be expected to be most frequent and severe, extra planking, of immense strength and thickness, was secured. In other respects, the vessel was fitted up much in the same manner as ordinary merchantmen. The only other peculiarity about her worthy of notice was the crow's-nest, a sort of barrel-shaped structure fastened to the fore-mast-head, in which, when at the whaling-ground, a man is stationed to look out for whales. The chief men in the s.h.i.+p were Captain Guy, a vigorous, earnest, practical American; Mr. Bolton, the first mate, a stout, burly, off-hand Englishman; and Mr. Saunders, the second mate, a sedate, broad-shouldered, raw-boned Scot, whose opinion of himself was unbounded, whose power of argument was extraordinary, not to say exasperating, and who stood six feet three in his stockings.