第35章 OUR FIRST CALLING-PLACE(6)

But on this strange voyage I was quite as much in the dark concerning our approximate position as any of the chaps who had never seen salt water before they viewed it from the bad eminence of the CACHALOT's deck.Of course, it was evident that we were bound eastward, but whether to the Indian seas or to the South Pacific, none knew but the skipper, and perhaps the mate.I say "perhaps" advisedly.In any well-regulated merchant ship there is an invariable routine of observations performed by both captain and chief officer, except in very big vessels, where the second mate is appointed navigating officer.The two men work out their reckoning independently of each other, and compare the result, so that an excellent check upon the accuracy of the positions found is thereby afforded.Here, however, there might not have been, as far as appearances went, a navigator in the ship except the captain, if it be not a misuse of terms to call him a navigator.If the test be ability to take a ship round the world, poking into every undescribed, out-of-the-way corner you can think of, and return home again without damage to the ship of any kind except by the unavoidable perils of the sea, then doubtless he WAS a navigator, and a ripe, good one.But anything cruder than the "rule-of-thumb" way in which he found his positions, or more out of date than his "hog-yoke," or quadrant, I have never seen.I suppose we carried a chronometer, though Inever saw it or heard the cry of "stop," which usually accompanies a.m.or p.m."sights" taken for longitude.He used sometimes to make a deliberate sort of haste below after taking a sight, when he may have been looking at a chronometer perhaps.

What I do know about his procedure is, that he always used a very rough method of equal altitudes, which would make a mathematician stare and gasp; that his nautical almanac was a ten-cent one published by some speculative optician is New York; that he never worked up a "dead reckoning;" and that the extreme limit of time that he took to work out his observations was ten minutes.In fact, all our operations in seamanship or navigation were run on the same happy-go-lucky principle.If it was required to "tack"ship, there was no formal parade and preparation for the manoeuvre, not even as much as would be made in a Goole billy-boy.Without any previous intimation, the helm would be put down, and round she would come, the yards being trimmed by whoever happened to be nearest to the braces.The old tub seemed to like it that way, for she never missed stays or exhibited any of that unwillingness to do what she was required that is such a frequent characteristic of merchantmen.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 Iwent 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.However, the "old man" evidently knew what he was about, as we were not now cruising, but making a direct passage for some definite place.

At last we sighted land, which, from the course which we had been steering, might have been somewhere on the east coast of Africa, but for the fact that it was right ahead, while we were pointing at the time about N.N.W.By-and-by I came to the conclusion that it must be the southern extremity of Madagascar, Cape St.Mary, and, by dint of the closest, attention to every word I heard uttered while at the wheel by the officers, found that my surmise was correct.We skirted this point pretty closely, heading to the westward, and, when well clear of it, bore up to the northward, again for the Mozambique Channel.Another surprise.

The very idea of WHALING in the Mozambique Channel seemed too ridiculous to mention; yet here we were, guided by a commander who, whatever his faults, was certainly most keen in his attention to business, and the unlikeliest man imaginable to take the ship anywhere unless he anticipated a profitable return for his visit.