Even getting under way
or coming to an anchor was unattended by any of the fuss and
bother from which those important evolutions ordinarily appear
inseparable.
To my great relief we saw no more whales of the kind we were
after during our passage round the Cape. The weather we were
having was splendid for making a passage, but to be dodging about
among those immense rollers, or towed athwart them by a wounded
whale in so small a craft as one of our whale-boats, did not have
any attractions for me. There was little doubt in any of our
minds that, if whales were seen, off we must go while daylight
lasted, let the weather be what it might. So when one morning I
went to the wheel, to find the course N.N.E. instead of E. by N.,
it may be taken for granted that the change was a considerable
relief to me. It was now manifest that we were bound up into the
Indian Ocean, although of course I knew nothing of the position
of the districts where whales were to be looked for. Gradually
we crept northward, the weather improving every day as we left
the "roaring forties" astern. While thus making northing we had
several fine catches of porpoises, and saw many rorquals, but
sperm whales appeared to have left the locality.
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