They
surrounded us until the sea surface was like a plain of snow, and
their discordant cries were deafening. With the exception of one
peculiar-looking bird, which has received from whalemen the
inelegant name of "stinker," none of them attempted to alight
upon the body of the dead monster. This bird, however, somewhat
like a small albatross, but of dirty-grey colour, and with a
peculiar excrescence on his beak, boldly took his precarious
place upon the carcase, and at once began to dig into the
blubber. He did not seem to make much impression, but he
certainly tried hard.
It was dark before we got our prize secured by the fluke-chain,
so that we could not commence operations before morning. That
night it blew hard, and we got an idea of the strain these
vessels are sometimes subjected to. Sometimes the ship rolled
one way and the whale another, being divided by a big sea, the
wrench at the fluke-chain, as the two masses fell apart down
different hollows, making the vessel quiver from truck to keelson
as if she was being torn asunder. Then we would come together
again with a crash and a shock that almost threw everybody out of
their bunks. Many an earnest prayer did I breathe that the chain
would prove staunch, for what sort of a job it would be to go
after that whale during the night, should he break loose, I could
only faintly imagine.
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