Captain , an experienced whaler, would leave nothing to chance. The capture of a jubarte is a difficult thing. No precaution ought to be neglected. None was in this case.  
And, first of all, Captain Hull sailed so as to come up to the whale on the , so that no noise might disclose the boat's approach.
 
Howik then the whale-boat, following the rather curve of that reddish shoal, in the midst of which floated the jubarte. They would thus turn the curve.
 
The boatswain, set over this work, was a of great coolness, who inspired Captain Hull with every confidence. He had not to fear either or from Howik.
 
"Attention to the , Howik," said Captain Hull. "We are going to try to surprise the jubarte. We will only show ourselves when we are near enough to it."
 
"That is understood, sir," replied the boatswain.
 
"I am going to follow the contour of these reddish waters, so as to keep to the leeward."
 
"Good!" said Captain Hull. "Boys, as little noise as possible in rowing."
 
The , carefully with straw, worked silently. The boat, steered by the boatswain, had reached the large shoal of . The starboard oars still sank in the green and water, while those to larboard, raising the reddish liquid, seemed to rain drops of blood.
 
"Wine and water!" said one of the sailors.
 
"Yes," replied Captain Hull, "but water that we cannot drink, and wine that we cannot swallow. Come, boys, let us not speak any more, and heave closer!"
 
The whale-boat, steered by the boatswain, noiselessly on the surface of those half-greased waters, as if it were floating on a bed of oil.
 
The jubarte did not , and did not seem to have yet perceived the boat, which described a circle around it.
 
Captain Hull, in making the circuit, necessarily went farther than the "Pilgrim," which gradually grew smaller in the distance. This rapidity with which objects diminish at sea has always an odd effect. It seems as if we look at them shortened through the large end of a telescope. This optical illusion evidently takes place because there are no points of comparison on these large spaces. It was thus with the "Pilgrim," which decreased to the eye and seemed already much more distant than she really was.
 
Half an hour after leaving her, Captain Hull and his companions found themselves exactly to the leeward of the whale, so that the latter occupied an intermediate point between the ship and the boat.
 
So the moment had come to approach, while making as little noise as possible. It was not impossible for them to get beside the animal and harpoon it at good range, before its attention would be attracted.
 
"Row more slowly, boys," said Captain Hull, in a low voice.
 
"It seems to me," replied Howik, "that the gudgeon suspects something.
It breathes less violently than it did just now!"
"Silence! silence!" repeated Captain Hull.
 
Five minutes later the whale-boat was at a cable's length from the jubarte. A cable's length, a measure to the sea, comprises a length of one hundred and twenty , that is to say, two hundred meters.
 
The boatswain, aft, steered in such a manner as to approach the left side of the mammal, but avoiding, with the greatest care, passing within reach of the formidable tail, a single blow of which would be enough to crush the boat.
 
At the Captain Hull, his legs a little apart to maintain his , held the weapon with which he was going to give the first blow. They could count on his skill to fix that harpoon in the thick mass which emerged from the waters.
 
Near the captain, in a pail, was coiled the first of the five lines, firmly fastened to the harpoon, and to which they would successively join the other four if the whale to great depths.
 
"Are we ready, boys?" murmured Captain Hull.
 
"Yes," replied Howik, grasping his firmly in his large hands.
 
"Alongside! alongside!"
 
The boatswain obeyed the order, and the whale-boat came within less than ten feet of the animal.
 
The latter no longer moved, and seemed asleep.
 
Whales thus surprised while asleep offer an easier prize, and it often happens that the first blow which is given wounds them mortally.
 
"This immovableness is quite astonishing!" thought Captain Hull. "The ought not to be asleep, and nevertheless——there is something there!"
 
The boatswain thought the same, and he tried to see the opposite side of the animal.
 
But it was not the moment to reflect, but to attack.
 
Captain Hull, holding his harpoon by the middle of the handle, balanced it several times, to make sure of good aim, while he examined the jubarte's side. Then he threw it with all the strength of his arm.
 
"Back, back!" cried he at once.
 
And the sailors, pulling together, made the boat rapidly, with the intention of putting it in safety from the blows of the cetacean's tail.
 
But at that moment a cry from the boatswain made them understand why the whale was so motionless for so long a time on the surface of the sea.
 
"A young whale!" said he.
 
In fact, the jubarte, after having been struck by the harpoon, was almost overturned on the side, thus discovering a young whale, which she was in process of suckling.
 
This circumstance, as Captain Hull well knew, would render the capture of the jubarte much more difficult. The mother was evidently going to defend herself with greater fury, as much for herself as to protect her "little one "—if, indeed, we can apply that to an animal which did not measure less than twenty feet.
 
Meanwhile, the jubarte did not rush at the boat, as there was reason to fear, and there was no necessity, before taking flight, to quickly cut the line which connected the boat with the harpoon. On the contrary, and as generally happens, the whale, followed by the young one, dived, at first in a very line; then rising again with an immense bound, she commenced to the waters with extreme rapidity.
 
But before she had made her first , Captain Hull and the boatswain, both standing, had had time to see her, and consequently to estimate her at her true value.
 
This jubarte was, in reality, a whale of the largest size. From the head to the tail, she measured at least eighty feet. Her skin, of a yellowish brown, was much with numerous spots of a darker brown.
 
It would indeed be a pity, after an attack so happily begun, to be under the necessity of abandoning so rich a .
 
The pursuit, or rather the towing, had commenced. The whale-boat, whose oars had been raised, like an arrow while swinging on the tops of the waves.
 
Howik kept it steady, notwithstanding those rapid and oscillations. Captain Hull, his eye on his prey, did not cease making his eternal refrain:
 
"Be , Howik, be watchful!"
 
And they could be sure that the boatswain's vigilance would not be at fault for an instant.
 
Meanwhile, as the whale-boat did not fly nearly as fast as the whale, the line of the harpoon out with such rapidity that it was to be feared that it would take fire in rubbing against the edge of the whale-boat. So Captain Hull took care to keep it damp, by filling with water the pail at the bottom of which the line was coiled.
 
All this time the jubarte did not seem inclined to stop her flight, nor willing to moderate it. The second line was then to the end of the first, and it was not long before it was played out with the same .
 
At the end of five minutes it was necessary to join on the third line, which ran off under the water.
 
The jubarte did not stop. The harpoon had evidently not into any vital part of the body. They could even observe, by the increased of the line, that the animal, instead of returning to the surface, was sinking into lower depths.
 
"The devil!" cried Captain Hull, "but that rascal will use up our five ............