I was soon dressed; and,
as I went up the cabin-ladder, the movement on deck denoted the nature
of the excitement that now prevailed generally, in the ship. Just as
I reached the quarter-deck, the main-yard swung round, and the sails
were brought aback. The whole crew was in commotion, and it was some
little time before I could learn the cause.
The morning was misty, and the view round the ship, until within a few
minutes, had been confined to a circle of less than a mile in
diameter. As the sun rose, however, the mist broke away gradually, and
then the watch caught a view of the whale-boat mentioned by
Neb. Instead of being floating about on the ocean, with the remains of
its unfortunate crew lying in its bottom, as I had expected to see it,
when I caught the first glimpse of the unlooked-for object, it was not
a mile distant, pulling briskly for us, and containing not only a
full, but a strong and an animated crew.
Just at that instant, some one cried out "Sail-ho!" and sure enough, a
ship was seen some four or five miles to leeward, a whaler evidently,
turning to windward, under easy canvass, in order to rejoin her boat,
from which she had lately been separated by the night and the
fog. This, then, was no more than a whaler and her boat; and, on
sweeping the horizon with a glass, Talcott soon discovered, a mile to
windward of the boat, a dead whale, with another boat lying by it, in
waiting for the approach of the ship, which promised to fetch as far
to windward, on its next tack.
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