CHAPTER VII.
PREPARATIONS.
It will be understood that the sight of this prodigious mammifer was necessary to produce such excitement on board the "Pilgrim." The whale, which floated in the middle of the red waters, appeared enormous.

To capture it, and thus complete the cargo, that was very tempting.

Could fishermen let such an occasion escape them?
However, Mrs.Weldon believed she ought to ask Captain Hull if it was not dangerous for his men and for him to attack a whale under those circumstances.
"No, Mrs.Weldon," replied Captain Hull.

"More than once it has been my lot to hunt the whale with a single boat, and I have always finished by taking possession of it.

I repeat it, there is no danger for us, nor, consequently, for yourself." Mrs.Weldon, reassured, did not persist.
Captain Hull at once made his preparations for capturing the jubarte.
He knew by experience that the pursuit of that baloenopter was not free from difficulties, and he wished to parry all.
What rendered this capture less easy was that the schooner's crew could only work by means of a single boat, while the "Pilgrim" possessed a long-boat, placed on its stocks between the mainmast and the mizzen-mast, besides three whale-boats, of which two were suspended on the larboard and starboard pegs, and the third aft, outside the crown-work.
Generally these three whale-boats were employed simultaneously in the pursuit of cetaceans.