Hawaii - James Michener [131]
"Oh, yes! Good enough so that our share will permit several of us to get married."
"Including you?" Whipple asked.
"Yes."
"Congratulations, Captain Hoxworth. Abner!" and he called his sallow-faced companion, who was already arguing salvation and temperance with some of the crew. "Abner! Captain Hoxworth's going to get married when he gets home."
The scrawny little missionary with the pale stringy hair looked up at the rugged whaler and said, "And after four years of doing whatever he wanted to in Honolulu, he now hopes to get back into Christian ways, and asks our assistance."
The big captain tensed his right fist and pressed his foot strongly into the railing, but kept his temper. To himself he muttered, "By God! These missionaries are all alike. All over the world. You try to meet them halfway . . ." And John Whipple thought: "Why can't Abner just accept the day's events as they transpire? If a whaler heading home desires a Sabbath service, why can't we simply have the service?"
Then Whipple heard Captain Hoxworth's booming voice break into laughter. "Yes, Reverend . . . What was the name? Hale? Yes, Reverend Hale, you're right. Us whalers hang our conscience on Cape Horn when we head west, and then pick 'em up three years later when we come back home. We'd kind of like to have you ready us up for the job of catching 'em as we glide past."
"Do you glide past Cape Horn?" Abner asked in some confusion.
"Certainly." "How long did it take you to double Cape Horn coming out? Abner continued.
"What was it?" Hoxworth asked one of the men, a scowling, evil-looking rascal with a long scar across his cheek. "Oh, you weren't with us. We picked that one up in Honolulu when our cooper jumped ship. You, Anderson! How long did it take us to double the Cape coming out?"
"Three days."
Abner gasped. "You mean you got around Cape Horn in three days?"
"It was like glass," Captain Hoxworth boomed. "And it'll like glass for us when we go home. We run a lucky ship."
"That's the truth!" Anderson laughed. "If there's whales, we get 'em."
Abner stood perplexed in the sunlight, trying to rationalize the fact that an obscene whaler--for he was convinced that this was a hell ship--could double the Cape in three days whereas it had taken a group of missionaries almost eight weeks, and he concluded to himself, "The mysterious ways of the Lord with His appointed are beyond understanding."
"We'll pray aft," Captain Hoxworth announced, leading his men and the missionaries to an afterdeck that seemed as spacious as a village common compared to the cramped Thetis.
Abner whispered to Whipple, "You lead the singing and the prayers, and I'll give the sermon I gave on the other whaler," but just as the crew began singing, "Another six days' work is done," the lookout bellowed, "Thar she blows!” and the assembly disintegrated, some rushing for the whaleboats, some for glasses and some up the lower rigging.
Captain Hoxworth's deep-set eyes glistened as he spotted the blowing whales off beyond the Thetis, and he strode past the missionaries. "Get those boats away swiftly!" he boomed.
"Captain! Captain!" Abner protested. "We're having hymns!"
"Hymns hell!" Hoxworth shouted. "Them's whales!" Grabbing a horn, he shouted directions that sent the whaleboats far out to sea and watched with his glass as they closed in upon the mammoth sperm whales that were moving along in a colony of gigantic forms.
At this point John Whipple faced a major decision. He knew, for he was a missionary like Abner, that since this was the Sabbath he was bound not to participate in this desecration of catching whales; but he also knew as a scientist that he might never again have a chance of watching a crew fight a great sperm whale, so after a moment's indecision he handed Abner his tall hat and said, "I'm going up into the rigging." Abner protested, but in vain, and during the ensuing seven exciting hours, he stood glumly aft and refused steadfastly to look at the whaling operations.
Brother Whipple from his vantage