Then the advice so often given him by the old captain, never to get discouraged, not even under the most adverse circumstances, and that the brightest day was sure to follow the darkest night, would cheer him up.
When the whale had been taken aboard, the ship, under her new commander, Mr.Higgins, stood away into the North Pacific, where she cruised along the land, in the direction of Behring's Straits, for several weeks.

The prospect not seeming to brighten much, Mr.Higgins thought he would try an experiment in what he called "high latitudes," and to that end headed the ship for the Auckland Islands.

Now the crew had but little respect for their new commander, and no confidence whatever in his skill as a navigator.
After proceeding in this direction for ten days, one morning about four o'clock the lookout called the attention of the officer of the watch to strange sounds heard close ahead.

It resembled the dull, sluggish sound of breakers on shore during a calm.

The sounds became louder and seemed to be approaching the ship, but as her reckoning gave no land anywhere near, the cause of the sounds began to excite great alarm.