I've seen one that was exactly equal to three hundred fat bulls, and its rate of goin' would take it round the whole world in twenty-three days." "I don't believe you," said I, laughing.
"Don't you ?" cried Tom; "it's a fact notwithstandin', for the captain himself said so, and that's how I came to know it." Just as Tom finished speaking, the man in the crow's-nest roared at the top of his voice, "There she blows!" That was the signal that a whale was in sight, and as it was the first time we had heard it that season, every man in the ship was thrown into a state of tremendous excitement.
"There she blows!" roared the man again.
"Where away ?" shouted the captain.
"About two miles right ahead." In another moment the utmost excitement prevailed on board.

Suddenly, while I was looking over the side, straining my eyes to catch a sight of the whale, which could not yet be seen by the men on deck, I saw a brown object appear in the sea, not twenty yards from the side of the ship; before I had time to ask what it was, a whale's head rose to the surface, and shot up out of the water.

The part of the fish that was visible above water could not have been less then thirty feet in length.

It just looked as if our longboat had jumped out of the sea, and he was so near that I could see his great mouth quite plainly.

I could have tossed a biscuit on his back easily.