The wind at dawn had weakened and come into the west. There was a strong
swell--indeed there always is in this ocean--but the seas ran small. The
sky looked like marble, with its broad spreadings of high white clouds
and the veins of blue sky between. I wished to make all the northing
that was possible, but there was nothing to be done in that way with the
spritsail alone. Had not the capstan been frozen I should have tried to
get the mainsail upon the ship, but without the aid of machinery I was
helpless. So, with helm amidships, the schooner drove languidly along
with her head due east, lifting as ponderously as a line-of-battle ship
to the floating launches of the high swell, and the albatross hung as
steadfastly in the wake of my lonely ocean path as though it had been
some messenger sent by God to watch me into safety.

CHAPTER XXVII.

I ENCOUNTER A WHALER.

I had been six days and nights at sea, and the morning of the seventh
day had come. With the exception of one day of strong south-westerly
winds, which ran me something to the northwards, the weather had been
fine, bitterly cold indeed, but bright and clear. In this time I had run
a distance of about six hundred and fifty miles to the east, and with no
other cloths upon the schooner than her spritsail.

I confess, as the hours passed away and nothing hove into view, I grew
dispirited and restless; but, on the other hand, I was comforted by the
bright weather and the favourable winds, and particularly by the
vessel's steering herself, which enabled me to get rest, to keep myself
warm with the fire, and to dress my food, yet ever pushing onwards
(however slowly) into the navigated regions of this sea.

On the morning of the seventh day I came on deck, having slept since
four o'clock. The wind was icy keen, pretty brisk, about west by south;
the movement in the sea was from the south, and rolled very grandly;
there was a fog that way, too, that hid the horizon, bringing the
ocean-line to within a league of the schooner; but the other quarters
swept in a dark, clear, blue line against the sky, and there was such a
clarity of atmosphere as made the distances appear infinite.

I went below and lighted the fire and got my breakfast, all very
leisurely, and when I was done I sat down and smoked a pipe. It was so
keen on deck that I had no mind to leave the fire, and, as all was well,
I lounged through the best part of two hours in the cook-house, when,
th