First Whale

Rowing toward the beast, his first one, he shudders with fear but keeps at his oar while the third mate screams at them to pull. Coming up beside the whale, his nose and mouth fill with the stench of rotten fish as the harpooner lets his iron fly.

Suddenly, with the sounds of breaking planks, he is thrown, landing on the whale's slippery back. In his final memory, he is home, convincing his mother that sixteen is old enough to sail on a whaler and promising to return home to her. He then slips beneath the sea, surrounded by darkness.