05 Whale Adventure

05 Whale Adventure Read Free

Book: 05 Whale Adventure Read Free
Author: Willard Price
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home; Them as desert now lose everything they’ve earned. D’ye wonder a man thinks twice before he deserts? No, there are only two things we can do. One is to be patient-like till we get home.’
    Hal waited for him to go on. When he did not, Hal prompted:
    ‘And what’s the other thing you can do?’
    Durkins cast a look round at the empty bunks. ‘Walls have ears,’ he said. ‘And you have ears, and how do I know I can trust ‘em? What’s the other thing we can do? Use your imagination. No harm in that - but remember I didn’t say anything.’
    Mutiny. The word stood out as plainly as if he had shouted it at the top of his lungs. Not for nothing had the boys read innumerable stories of mutiny on the high seas. Here conditions were prime for mutiny. The captain, without a first officer to back him up, stood alone against a disgruntled crew. If he were put out of the way they might sail the ship to some smugglers’ lair, sell the whale oil and the ship itself and divide the proceeds.
    But could such a thing happen in this day and age? The boys knew it could happen and did happen. Even during their own brief voyaging of the Pacific, from San Francisco to Japan and back through the South Seas, several mutinies had been reported.
    The Pacific, they knew, is a still unconquered ocean. It is bigger than the whole land surface of the globe. It is sprinkled with more than twenty-five thousand islands,
    half of them uninhabited.
    It is the paradise of both honest men and rascals. So much of it is so far from police stations and law-courts that men do as they please or as they must. And men who choose to disappear may hide in its vast distances more effectively than in the thickest jungles of Africa.
    Hal reflected that this voyage might turn out to be even more of an adventure than he had expected.
    ‘Now I’ll show you topside,’ said the mate, and they climbed to the deck. The clean fresh air seemed like a tonic after the hot stink of the fo’c’sle.
    ‘You’ve got to know the names of things,’ said the mate, ‘so when you’re told to man the downhaul you won’t lay hold of a halyard, and all like that. Now then, you know the three masts - the foremast, mainmast, and mizenmast. The horizontal spars the sails hang from are the yards. When you roll up the sails that’s reefing ‘em, and you tie them tight with those little strings called gaskets -‘
    He went on to point out and describe all the complicated gear of the most complicated of sailing ships -lifts, clews, bunts, braces, tacks, sheets, shrouds, ratlines, rings, crosstrees, foot-ropes, buoy-ropes, wheel-ropes, belaying pins, catheads, forestays, backstays, booms, sprits, davits, and so on and on, concluding with twenty different sails, each with its own particular name.
    As he talked he kept glancing at them with a sly grin. He was having a good time at their expense. He thought they didn’t know what he was talking about. Finally he said:
    ‘There, I’ll bet you can’t remember half of what I’ve told you. What’s that sail?’
    ‘Spanker.’ The boys spoke together.
    ‘And that one?’
    ‘Gaff-topsyl.’
    ‘What’s the difference between a martingale boom and a whisker boom?’
    He got the right answer.
    He went on with a complete cross-examination. The boys made some mistakes, but thanks to their keen interest in sailing, their schooner experience, and much reading, their percentage of error was small.
    ‘Not bad,’ Durkins had to admit. Then, as if fearing that the boys might be too pleased with themselves, he went on:
    ‘But it’s one thing to name ‘em and another thing to use ‘em. Wait till you try reefing sails in a storm a hundred feet above deck - or rowing one of those little boats out and tackling a whale that can smash your craft to smithereens with one flick of his tail. Then you’ll find out what it takes to be a whaler.’

Chapter 3
Captain Grindle amuses himself
    Roger floated above the clouds.
    They seemed like

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