It is long voyage in itself re-reading this leviathan of a book, but here is a curious thing. On page 131 of my edition (the old Penguin edition with the amazing pictures of whaling scenes and the supporting notes and commentary which are more difficult to understand than the book itself), we find this chilling line:
Yes, there is death in this business of whaling - a speechlessly quick chaotic bundling of a man into Eternity.
And then the very same day as reading this, I am at the British Library in the Newsroom and spot this grim account in the St Vincent Witness of 2 May 1878:
Grenada [Chronicle, n.d.]: Boat Accident: On Monday last, whilst the boats attached to Mr Tardieu’s whaling establishment (at present under the direction of Mr J. B. St Louis) were in a chase of a whale a few miles distance from the Bay, an accident occurred to the foremost boat, which we regret to say resulted in the loss of a man. It appears that after the whale was struck, the securing of the line was so clumsily effected that the boat heeled over, and it got entangled with other ropes. The boat, as a matter of course, was hauled under water, and the crew thrown overboard. After, however, a few minutes had elapsed the whale rose to the surface, and with it the boat which was fortunately cut adrift, and taken in charge by the men. The capsizing of the boat has been a great drawback to the enterprising owner for added to the loss of one of his men and a patent gun harpoon, lances, and paraphernalia are missing. The whale which caused all the damage was of an average size, and would have yielded about forty to fifty barrels of oil. The body of the lost whaler has not been recovered.
It begs the question of whether I was subconsciously looking for this, or if it was just simple coincidence - if there are such things. Either way, the two things - one pithy and poetic, the other dry and factual - paint a picture alright of a terrifying business.
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