Introduction

The bachelor was a nantucket ship which had just wedged in her last cask of oil and bolted down her bursting hatches. The three men at her masthead were long streamers of narrow red bunting at their hats. From the stern, a whale boat was suspended bottom down, and hanging captive from the bows was seen the long lower jaw of the last whale they had slain. Signals, ensigns and jacks of all colors were flying from her rigging on every side, sideways. Last, in each of her three basketed tops, were two barrels of sperm, above which, in her topmast cross trees, you saw slender breakers of the same precious