Air Wonder Stories, May 1930 — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Captain Baker, a rouhd-bodied, round-faced man, welcomed: me with enthusiasm. He had been in charge of the former expedition of the - Marasion; and he expressed the greatest confidence- that we -wottld be able to find and capture one of the monster whales, “The Thompson Chemical Company delivered your preserv- ing alcohol-and a lot of other stuff,” Capt. Baker said. “There is a large bottle marked ‘Acid.’ You must be going to start a drug store somewhere,” “I only intended to order three pints of the acid; perhaps they have made-a mistake, I will look at my carbon copy of the order.” So saying I fished out-the order and ran my eye down the items, “Yes, here it is, hydrochloric acid.” But-to my consternation instead of three pints it was written three gallons. > “Well, anyway, it is stowed: under tweiity-five tons of other junk now,” said the Captain, “so we had better let it ride,” My co-worker, the other representative of the -museum, Officially designated as-my assistant, soon arrived ;-a red-headed, agreeably-mannered young man, fresh from college. “Tbrought along quite a large box of books,” he announced apologetically. “I hope you won't mind my taking them along, if we can find room for them. You see, I intend to bone up on the sciences; I might get to be a hatttalist, or something,” “T guess we can find room for them in the glory hole,” said the Captain; “but I warn you that they will smell of whale blubber to all eternity.” HE mate: proved to be a giant Norwegian. His hands were the largest“human hands I had-ever seen, And his jovial yoice, even in ordinary conversation bellowed and rever- berated-with such force: that he always seemed more like some fabled giant of mystical lore than a real person. The ship was equipped with three whale boats, One was quite a large launch, equipped with a powerful marine engine anda very modern harpoon gun. The other two were very small boats, scarcely larger than a rowboat, equipped with very: light motors. The ship itself was one of the most modern in the whaling industry, having an. electric light plant and the most modern of whale-handliig machinery. -There was no ceremony about our departure, when every- body was aboard, we simply shoved off from the little quay and- steamed: out: to-sea, The first few days out were quite uneventful, My -assistant, Willard, became deathly seasick; and it fell to my lot, there being: no: doctor or stewards .on fear t0 act in the capacity of both. After perhaps a fortnight we abrived on the outskirts of the-feeding groitnd of the whales; but as. there were no: whales in sight, we kept on; always-traveling in a northerly direction, In order to save coal we now hoisted sail and continued: our northward journey in long zigzag tracks, Not long after this we sighted our first whale; and Willard and I were treated: to our first sight of a whaling crew in action, The mate taking command of the motor boat and directing the-attack, The scene proved to be a very exciting one for us; and the whale was finally successfully harpooned and captured, He: was only a-small fellow; and soon-the valuable parts: of his caré¢ass were stored in our hold and we were again on our way to the-north, During: the “working up” of the whale, Willard and I were much interested in ‘searching ott and examining the vestigial bones which are the last remains of the whale's hind legs. They are the survivals of the time when it was a land animal and walked about the swamps and marshes, foraging for tender reeds or tall rushes, and having no thought of the time when the land should rise so high as to dissipate the: swamps and deposit the glaciers of an ice age in their place and leave the AIR WONDER STORIES poor whale-no alternative but to take to the water or petish. We were also much interested in the food substances taken from the great stomach. All the whalebone whales, and this was one of that description—live entirely on plankton, which they fint: floating in vast fields on or near the surface of the sea. ‘Plankton is: made itn of pegetahle matter, such as diatoms, - together with.biue-green algae, with a liberal mixture of minute animals, mostly protozoa, and a seasoning of fish eggs and many: kinds. of larvae. These the whale scoops up-in his great mouth, together with mutch sea water. Upon closing his mouth, the water is strained through the fine whalebone fibres and the plankton. retained, while the water is discarded. CHAPTER II A Killing HE biggest whales live the farthest north, the Captain assured us. They like cold water; the colder the better. So: we kept on, day after day, till we were far within the Arctic circle, At length the Captain announced that we were passing through the waters where the great whales were” captured on the former voyage, But the days passed ct no whales were sighted, “They must be still farther north,” said Captain Baker; and so we continued poleward. We now commenced to encounter large quantities of floating ice, and the weather grew bitterly cold. At last, just as we were about to turn back, two whales were sighted in the distance and the ship gave chase. | The animals were traveling in a northerly direction, and except once when they stopped ‘to feed on floating plankton, they were forging right along. But we gained on them quite steadily and were within less than a mile of them when, to our great disgust, the point of an ice floe drifted between us and them, We were. therefore obliged to change our course and steam out atound the end of the moving mass, The whales had in the meantime traveled several miles on their course. They: kept to the open water, however, and by dint of-liberal stoking we were-soon near enough to make the attack by motor : boat. Willard was eager to take to the boat with the crew, but the Captain objected; saying that a little boat, which the slightest mishap might capsize, was no place for-a land lubber, In breathless suspense we watched the boat approach. the largest of the whales, = Tt was a sight long to be remembered. The giant mate stood at the harpoon gun, directing the management of the boat, in a voice that. came booming back to us over the crests of the ocean swells, The swells lifted the boat high in air and then sent it careening down the side of a deep trough, only to hesitate a moment before being lifted again to another crest, It didnot seem possible that one could aim or fire a gun accurately from stich an unstable craft especially in a sea of such great power, T times the great bodies of the whales were completely submerged; then again a portion ofa long back with a small fin. would’ protrude above the surface amid a swirl of foam, Ora trough between the: waves would reveal a vast ex- panse’of a bluish grey, gliding body. Or maybe a great baci would hump up:\in a ponderous curye; ‘then the long’ posterior . portion of the-great length would flows—flow is-the only word for it—in-a sounding maneuver, the unseen head perhaps search- ing the depths for some special-plankton. 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