Hearts rose joyfully at the prospect of comfort to
be gained by thoughtfulness on the part of the commander; nor
from that time forward did any sign of weariness of the ship or
voyage show itself among us, either on deck or below.
The news soon spread among us that, in consequence of the various
losses of boats and gear, the captain deemed it necessary to make
for Honolulu, where fresh supplies could readily be obtained. We
had heard many glowing accounts from visitors, when "gamming," of
the delights of this well-known port of call for whalers, and
under our new commander we had little doubt that we should be
allowed considerable liberty during our stay. So we were quite
impatient to get along fretting considerably at the persistent
fogs which prevented our making much progress while in the
vicinity of the Kuriles. But we saw no more bowheads, for which
none of us forward were at all sorry. We had got very tired of
the stink of their blubber, and the never-ending worry connected
with the preservation of the baleen; besides, we had not yet
accumulated any fund of enthusiasm about getting a full ship,
except as a reason for shortening the voyage, and we quite
understood that what black oil we had got would be landed at
Hawaii, so that our visit to the Okhotsk Sea, with its resultant
store of oil, had not really brought our return home any nearer,
as we at first hoped it would.
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