He then donned his waistcoat, and taking up a piece of hard soap on the wash-stand center table, dipped it into water and commenced lathering <\/a>his face. I was watching to see where he kept his razor, when lo and behold, he takes the harpoon from the bed corner, slips out the long wooden stock.\u00a0These reflections just here are occasioned by the circumstance that after we were all seated at the table.\u00a0And I was preparing to hear some good stories about whaling to my no small surprise, nearly every man maintained a profound silence. And not only that, but they looked embarrassed. Yes, here were a set of sea-dogs, many of whom without the slightest bashfulness<\/a> had boarded great whales on the high seas entire strangers to them and duelled them dead without winking;<\/p>\n The rest of his toilet was soon achieved, and he proudly marched out of the room, wrapped up in his great pilot monkey jacket, and sporting his harpoon like a marshal’s baton.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n And yet, here they sat at a social breakfast table all of the same calling, all of kindred tastes looking round as sheepishly<\/a> at each other as though they had never been out of sight of some sheepfold among the Green Mountains<\/em><\/strong>. A curious sight these bashful bears whalemen.\u00a0So that overawed by the rumors and portents concerning him, not a few of the fishermen recalled, in reference to Moby Dick<\/em><\/strong>, the earlier days of the Sperm Whale fishery, when it was oftentimes hard to induce long practised Right Whalemen<\/strong><\/em> to embark in the perils<\/a> of this new and daring warfare. Such men protesting that although other leviathans might be hopefully pursued, yet to chase and point lance at such an apparition as the Sperm Whale was not for mortal man. That to attempt it, would be inevitably to be torn into a quick eternity.\u00a0These reflections just here are occasioned by the circumstance that after we were all seated at the table, and I was preparing to hear some good stories about whaling to my no small surprise. Nearly every man maintained a profound silence. And not only that, but they looked embarrassed.<\/p>\n [separator size=“small“ center=“false“]<\/p>\n\n