Whales, he said, had sense and pluck, and were not to be frightened away by such fish as mermaids.

He had his deck cleared, his gear put in order, his boats' crews told off, and officers and men kept practising and made familiar with their duties.

Still not a whale showed his head, or blew a challenge to put their skill in practice.

The bluff old captain began to feel at last that luck had left him.

Morning after morning he would loom up in the companion way before the crew was up, gaze up at the lookout aloft, ask the usual questions concerning the night's sailing, then shake his head despondingly.
"Fifteen months out--sixteen months out--and not a whale killed!" he would say.