Part IX -- The Whaling The clock outside across the park struck out clearly eleven times, and the spirit paused, and then resumed, after marking the eleven chimes. "The sky was speckled full of lights as we set sail with the midnight out onto the restless, throbbing green, leaving that island beyond sight." "Drugged, I slept till afternoon when the captain came to me to say, in his wisdom to keep occupied, 'Are you going to sleep all day?!'" "And I sprang forth to fix the meal that my fellows had need to eat. And captain spoke to all the crew about what tomorrow we would meet." "Next morn, the preparations began for in mere hours we would rendevous with the factory ship we'd departed from for the repairs that had long been due." "The radio marked them an hour ahead, but before we met the fleet, the look-out helicopter appeared and proclaimed to us an earlier feat." "He came and circled about our ship and then headed off toward the west, and we tailed him, all hands frenzied, in anticipation of the test." "Captain sent me aloft the mast head and no sooner was I up than, lo, there appeared a herd of fifty of more, and I shouted out, 'Thar she blows!'" "We were on them and then amidst them, the gun fired out its harpoon the size of a man with its four barbs at the first sea monster at high noon." "It found its mark, and the whale turned and let out a grievous cry and writhed and twisted in its pain and anguish and sent a stream of blood into the sky." "Then there came a muffled blast as the time fuse blew the grenade at the harpoon's head buried in the beast -- it heaved to its side and in stillness laid." "We marked it with a flag spear, then set off for our next pursuit; another shot, another hit, and we went on our way to pick our fruit." "Another catching ship joined soon and in four hours we'd laid waste to all the herd we could, then set to gather the inflated carcasses with haste." Part X -- Sea Gulls at Sea "The stench of blubber filled the air about the factory ship, and we set out in search of another kill that was not far off from us to be." "Another day and we had vanguished eighteen like fish in a barrel, and whetted, went back out for more without Ahab's old-time peril." "Eight catchers ferried back and forth, to and fro across the sea in pairs harvesting the leviathans with production line efficiency." "A squall blew up on the third day and we laid low against the storm, a hundred miles from the mother ship, then returned the calm and warm." "That afternoon, the copter returned and led us next to the southeast, so by dusk we'd gathered thirty more, I cooked up a sailor's feast." "There is stench rises frm killing and a madness that quickly spreads, and there is a powerful awe that comes from striking the grand leviathan dead." "We towed them back to th factory ship and set out again with the next morn in search of greater triumph yet, smelling success and savouring the scorn." "It would be two days yet we ventured toward a port to refuel and rest. You sometimes forget what land is like and remembering, that's sometimes best." "Now the copters prowled the distance, then turned back to give us lead, and I thought of trees but not of women -- what seems to be a sailor's greed." "Thus we sailed this day to the north as the copter led us to the playful giants he had spotted that the battle be joined once more anew." "On the horizon we saw the spouting of a hundred whales or more and heard them bellowing that carried across the waves -- it seemed a grand furor." "Miles from any bit of island and hundreds from any continent, we drew our breath, showered by spouting, as we turned and into battle went." "The salt sea spray showered the ships as we pounded them with all at hand, and the sea ran red, but I turned to ponder a thousand gulls about, and the scent of land." Continue