m, and the other as well, the utterance of the sailor was a shout
of unrestrained joy, accompanied by the action of suddenly springing to
his feet,--so suddenly that the _Catamaran_ was in danger of being
capsized by the abrupt violence of the movement.

He did not give them time to ask for an explanation, but on the moment
of getting himself into an erect attitude he commenced a series of
shouts and exclamations, all uttered in the very highest key of which
his voice was capable.

And among these utterances, and conspicuously intoned, was the
well-known hail, "Ship ahoy!" followed by other nautical phrases,
denoting the recognition of a ship.

"Golly! it am a ship," interposed Snowball, "a ship on de fire!"

"No! no!" impatiently answered the ex-whalesman, "nothing o' the sort.
It's a whaler `tryin'-out' her oil. Don't you see the men yonder,
standin' by the try-works, are throwin' in the `scraps'? Lord o' mercy!
if they should pass us without hearing our hail! Ship ahoy! whaler
ahoy!" And the sailor once more put forth his cries with all the power
that lay in his lungs.

To this was added the stentorian voice of the Coromantee, who, quickly
catching the explanation given by the ex-whalesman, saw the necessity of
making himself heard.

For some moments the deck of the _Catamaran_ rang with the shouts, "Ship
ahoy!"

"Whaler ahoy!" that might have been heard far over the ocean,--much
farther than the distance at which the strange vessel appeared to be;
but, to the consternation of those who gave utterance to those cries, no
answer was returned.

They could now distinctly see the ship, and almost everything aboard of
her; for the two columns of flame rising high in forward of her
foremast, out of the huge double furnace of the "try-works," illuminated
not only the decks of the vessel, but the surface of the sea for miles
around her.

They could see rolling sternward immense volumes of thick smoke,
gleaming yellow under the light of the blazing fires; and the figures of
men looming like giants in the glare of the garish flames,--some
standing in front of the furnace, others moving about, and actively
engaged in some species of industry, that to the eye of any other than a
whalesman might have appeared supernatural.

Notwithstanding the distinctness with which they saw all these things,
and the evident proximity of the ship, those on the raft could not make
themselves heard, shout as loudly as they would.