an hour through the water, far away from
the iceberg. Before, however, she had run out of sight of that floating
island, its glittering summits were seen to lean forward, and, with a
sound which could be heard at that distance, to fall prostrate in the
water, while the waves created by its submersion reached so far as
perceptibly to lift the ship as they passed. Thus was I, with my
companions, preserved from the most awful and perilous position in which
I was ever placed.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

The vessel on board which we so happily found ourselves was called _The
Shetland Maid_,--her master, Captain John Rendall. She measured three
hundred and fifty tons, was barque-rigged, and perfectly fitted as a
whaler, being also strengthened by every means which science could
devise, to enable her to resist the pressure of the ice to which such
vessels must inevitably be exposed in their progress through the arctic
seas. She had forty-two souls on board, including officers, being some
few short of her complement, as two fell sick in Orkney before leaving,
and two were unhappily lost overboard in a furious gale she encountered
soon after sailing.

Andrew, Terence, and I remained two days below under the doctor's care,
and by the third had completely recovered our usual strength. Tom
Stokes, who had suffered most, and was not naturally so strong, took a
week before he came round.

As soon as we appeared on deck, the captain called us aft, and desired
to know our adventures. Andrew was the spokesman, and the captain
expressed himself much pleased with our messmate's mode of narrating
them.

"Well, my men," he said, "I have lost some of my crew, and I suppose
you'll have no objection to entering regularly for the voyage in their
place. You'll share with the other able seamen eighteenpence for each
tun of oil, you know, besides monthly wages."

We told him that we should be glad to enter, and would sign articles
when he pleased; and that we would answer for Tom Stokes, that he would
do the same.

Behold me at last, then, as I have styled myself, PETER THE WHALER. We
were now standing to the northward, and rapidly approaching the ice.
Before, however, I proceed with an account of my adventures, I will
describe the ship, her officers and crew, and the peculiar arrangements
made to fit her for the service in which she was employed.

Captain Rendall was a well-educated, intelligent, brave, and, I feel
sure, a trul