I say three years, but I am pretty sure it was more than that.
Here are three instances, then, which I personally know the truth of;
but I have heard of many other instances from persons whose veracity
in the matter there is no good ground to impeach.
Secondly: It is well known in the Sperm Whale Fishery, however ignorant
the world ashore may be of it, that there have been several
memorable historical instances where a particular whale in the ocean
has been at distant times and places popularly cognisable.
Why such a whale became thus marked was not altogether and originally
owing to his bodily peculiarities as distinguished from other whales;
for however peculiar in that respect any chance whale may be,
they soon put an end to his peculiarities by killing him, and boiling
him down into a peculiarly valuable oil. No: the reason was this:
that from the fatal experiences of the fishery there hung
a terrible prestige of perilousness about such a whale as there
did about Rinaldo Rinaldini, insomuch that most fishermen were
content to recognise him by merely touching their tarpaulins
when he would be discovered lounging by them on the sea,
without seeking to cultivate a more intimate acquaintance.
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