It proved to be a whale, for some reason that I could only guess at,
threshing the sea with its huge body, and surging about in all
directions, so that it puzzled me to know which way to steer to go
clear. I thought at first, from the rumpus made, that a fight was going
on, such as we had once witnessed from the deck of the _Aquidneck_, not
far from this place. Our course was changed as soon as we could decide
which way to avoid, if possible, all marine disturbers of the peace. We
wished especially to keep away from infuriated swordfish, which I feared
might be darting about, and be apt to give us a blind thrust. Knowing
that they sometimes pierce stout ships through with their formidable
weapons, I began to feel ticklish about the ribs myself, I confess, and
the little watch below, too, got uneasy and sleepless; for one of these
swords, they knew well, would reach through and through our little boat,
from keel to deck. Large ships have occasionally been sent into port
leaky from the stab of a sword, but what I most dreaded was the
possibility of one of us being ourselves pinned in the boat.
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