34
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
Heavy showers the next day interfered with boiling, but they retrieved the other damaged boat and managed to lower two when two sperm whales appeared close by. But a heavy squall of rain hid the escaping whales. Boiling was over on Friday, December 13, as the ship passed west of Clarence Island. The Captain recorded the encounter that ensued with nine native canoes which he allowed to come alongside, while denying per mission to the 50 or so men and boys to come aboard. "They were fine looking natives," he noted, "and appeared very civil & honest. They brought for trade mats, shells, coconut bowls & many other native curiosities. We gave in exchange Iron hoops, old files, scraps, fish hooks, knives, etc. At noon we dismissed them all & sent them on shore. They told us there were three white men on shore. The above Island is low & wooded but divided into several small Islands connected by rocks or low land covered partly by water. The Islands form a lagoon from appearances. The natives could not be very numerous." On December 15 the Susan tacked South to avoid running on Quivas Island. On the 17th she approached the Navigator Islands (Samoa), sighted Savoy (Savaii), the most western of those islands. The ship was "dull" with a foul bottom, and the chron ometer on December 21 seemed about 38 miles too far East. Christmas brought squalls "hanging all around the horizon." On New Year's Day, 1845, the log noted that "we are now near the spot where Vasques Island is layed down on the chart but it does not exist, as many ships have passed over the ground without seeing it." On January 2 came a gam with the Rodman, Newcomb, New Bedford, 16 mos., 700 bbls sperm. At 6 A.M. the next morning "we were visited with dispensations of Providence in taking from us one of our crew, a native of the Cape de Verdes, a lad about 19 years of age. He had been up turning a reef from the main topsail, descending . . . missed his hold . . . fell & struck his head foremost on the main hatches & expired instantaneously without a struggle or groan . . . thus in the midst of life we are in death . . . At 6 P.M.," the Captain continued, "we committed the body of George de Borge to the deep. ... I read part of the funeral service from the Episcopal Prayer Book taken from the 15th Chapter of Corinthinians & a corresponding prayer from the same book. The service was performed with great solemnity & some were much affected, even to tears." The Susan at 25 degrees, 55 minutes south latitude and 175 degrees, 5 minutes west longitude continued her cruise, and ap proached Sunday Island (Raoul), off New Zealand. END PART IX
(to be continued)
