All aboard for the transcribed premiere production, the crews of the Paul Parrot and the thrilling
adventures of whaling days.
The trim whaling ship, the Paul Parrot, has set sail from New Bedford in the spring of
1858 with a fine crew and the most unusual company of people aboard.
Although she sailed with the announced purpose of hunting whales and collecting a cargo of
whale oil, the true reason for the crews of the Paul Parrot is to seek a valuable mineral
treasure on an unknown island.
Captain Dalton, his best friend and first mate George Wainwright, the one-legged sailor
Dickon, the cabin boy Johnny Robbins, and little Sue Grange, sister of the ship's owner,
have succeeded in uncovering the secret which was known only to the owner of the ship, Ezra
Grange.
He is also on the voyage, supposedly as a passenger, but really to find the treasure
he seeks.
After a bold attempt by a Spaniard named Altesti and his partner in crime, Red Mulhollay, to
get control of the ship and secure the treasure for themselves has been foiled by the bravery
and quick thinking of our friends, the troublemakers have been thrown in irons down in the holes.
Since Johnny Robbins' father was one of the original discoverers of the rich mineral deposit
on the secret island, Ezra Grange has promised him half the treasure when it's found.
Just at this point, with the villain safely disposed of and the ship well on its way to
the island, a cry comes from the masthead.
The ship blows.
Blow me down, Mr. Grange, a whale sighted and so soon out.
But with a new purpose in mind, the seeking for treasure, perhaps we might as well not
waste time whaling.
Oh, no, Captain Dalton, even though we are first on the mission of this map, Grange and
sons are still in the whale oil business, you know.
We'll not pass up such a chance when it's right before us.
Aye, aye, sir, right you are.
We'll make short work of this lover in no time at all.
Wainwright, you and Dick can go on deck.
Give orders to make ready for the catch.
Aye, aye, sir.
Oh, Johnny, we'll see our first whale called.
Yeah, I wish I could go along.
Stand by.
All hands on deck, man the whale boats.
Mr. Biscara, make ready for the catch.
Mr. Jowett, make ready to lure away.
There she blows off the starboard bow.
Vast, it's a mammoth one for fair, a giant blue whale.
He'll be hard to take, but worth the effort.
I'll lay you to that.
Whilst ready, sir, Mr. Jowett's boat will make the catch with Mr. Biscara's boat standing
by if assistance is needed.
He'll likely need it from that whale size.
Drop anchor.
Sheave her, too.
She's up, too, Captain.
There she blows.
She's the biggest lover I've laid my peepers on.
Look, here comes old Dickon with our mascot Polly on his shoulder.
He looks terribly excited, Johnny.
Captain, Captain, Captain Dalton, shiver me.
Tim is Captain.
He's Tim.
He's too, Dickon.
What are you bawling about?
Oh, Captain, to me die on day I'd know him.
It's the very one, the very one, Captain.
Vabst, Dickon, what's all this blabbing about?
Speak up, man.
Well, that whale, Roril, out there, is the same blue whale that caught me legs on 15 years
ago.
I've seen him since many a day, and he's a monster to make fast to.
But it's the same one, Captain, you may lay to that.
But Dickon, how could you be sure that that's the same whale when he's so far from the ship?
Oh, lass, I could never mistake that whale.
Never tell me die on day.
Captain, I want to go out after that whale.
I almost swore we met again.
It would be him or me, sir.
Blow me down, Dickon.
You want to go in one of the boats?
Aye, aye, I do, sir.
I'm still as good a harpoon arm as ever.
Lash me to a yard arm if I don't sink the aisle deep into its carcass.
Dickon, mate, I know how close this is to your heart.
I'm willing to give you a chance, but if harm befall you, I'd never forgive myself.
Oh, Captain, I'll take the risk.
Please let me go, sir.
I'll do it.
Mr. Jowett, Dickon will go with you as boat steerer.
Aye, aye, sir.
Good luck, Dickon.
Oh, but do be careful.
Oh, heaven bless you.
I'll not fail.
Avast, mates.
Avast, mate.
I'm cabin.
We'll reach and blow until about, but we'll get him.
Swing the maniard.
Float away.
Good luck, men.
Follow closer stern, Buscara.
Aye, aye, Captain.
Jowett's boat may have to weather heavy swells near that monster.
There they go.
I hope Dickon catches his whale.
Aye, lad, there they go.
Poor old Dickon has waited many a year for this moment.
He can't fail.
Batten down the hatch, but my heart is pumping as if I were out there with him.
Look at that boat came over the water.
You know, it seems funny, Captain Dalton.
You said Dickon would take the place of the boat steerer, and yet he's not steering.
He's standing up in the bow of the boat with the harpoon.
That's right, the second mate, Mr. Jowett, is steering.
But after Dickon makes his strike and makes fast to the whale,
then he and Jowett will change places, and he'll truly be the boat steerer.
It seems to be a strange custom, I know,
but it's always been so in wailing as far back as any man can remember.
They're creeping up on the whale.
Gee, he's really a big one, all right.
He surely is.
I never dreamed anything could be so big.
They can make no more noise than they must, youngins.
Because you see, a whale's eyes are poor, but his ears are keen.
And if he hears the slightest noise that's irregular, he'll sound.
Sound?
Yes, sound. Dive under.
And once he's under, there's no telling where he'll go.
He may breach miles away.
Breach? What's that, Captain Dalton?
By breach, I mean, he comes up to the surface again.
Oh, look, they're almost to him.
Dickon is standing up with the harpoon in his hand.
Yes, he's about to cast the iron.
May the gods of the sea smile on him and bring him luck.
Look, the whale's turning about.
Low me down, he sees him.
Oh, my, he's going for the boat.
There goes Dickon's arm.
He's cast. He's struck.
Dickon got him all right, but now there'll be the dickens to pay any me later that.
But the whale's turning around.
He can't bite anything with his back turned.
Aye, but there's the danger.
A blue whale, though he's the biggest of all, has no teeth.
His mouth is full of baleen.
Baleen? What in the world is that?
Baleen is really the name for whale bone.
It grows in plates in the whale's mouth from two to twelve feet in length.
Well, if they're not teeth, why are they in the whale's mouth?
To collect food and keep it in his mouth.
But it's not his mouth I'm worrying about.
It's the flukes of his tail, the most dangerous things in all the seven seas.
Flukes are the points of the tail, aren't they, Captain Dalton?
That's right, Johnny. Those enormous points, those are the flukes.
The whale is raising his tail out of the water.
He's bringing it down on the boat.
Oh, shh.
Suffer and whitefish.
Both the boats are matchwood, and the men are all out in the sea.
Wainwright, make my boat ready and lower away.
Aye, aye, Captain. But, by the host of it, I'm going along.
Well, very well, George. In my boat.
That's it, mate. Swing the man yard. Lower away.
Oh, do be careful, Captain.
Leave Mr. Wainwright. Don't let anything happen to him.
We'll be careful, Sue. We...
Johnny, what are you doing in this boat?
I had to go along, Captain. I'm small and quick. I can help.
Well, blow me down, Roy. We're lowered now. There's no time to put the ladder board.
Oh, Johnny, you shouldn't have done this. But it's too late to do anything now.
Keep blowing out of the way. Ready, men.
Here, men. I'll take the iron. You take a place at the stork oar.
I've got to make this like myself. On, men, on.
James, look. The men out there in the sea are almost drowning.
That whale's turning up the water so.
There's Dickon. He's swimming for dear life.
Easy, men, easy. We're almost on it.
Wainwright, I'm going to catch the iron. Get ready to change places with me.
Aye, aye, sir.
Avast. There he freaks us right ahead.
Boil me as blubbery. He looks like a man of war.
And still see Dickon's iron in him.
It was a good strike. But this must be a better or we're all lost.
We're on him, Roy. Give it to him.
Here it is, you monster.
Hit!
James, George, James, take the line.
Here's the steering oar.
He'll rope you alive, but keep fast to him.
Stay out of the way of his fluke.
He's raising his tail again.
The board man is going to hit himself on it.
Look, the boat's handful of water.
The boat won't be able to sail afloat. He missed us.
Don't let her catch the iron. He's shredded.
He's going to ram us. The front men's be alive.
James, help me.
Blow me down. He's turning again.
Give him another iron, Wainwright. Aye, aye, sir.
There. That's it. He's overrun. He's overrun.
Hold on, hold on. Keep it locked.
We're closing in on him.
Make ready to give him the lance, George.
Look, look, there's Dickens.
He's alongside the whale. He's hanging on to his fluke.
Dickens, Dickens, don't be a fool. You'll be killed by those flukes.
He's climbing up on the whale's back.
What has he got in his hand?
Stratten down by a hatch, he's got a lance.
He's crawling over to one side of the whale.
If that monster sounds now, old Dickens is lost.
There goes Dickens' arm. He's sinking the lance.
Watch out, man, the whale's sounding.
Roar, roar, roar.
It's all over, man.
He's done it. Old Dickens' done it.
That flow of the lance finished him.
Good old Dickens. He got his way.
Get out, get out. It's all over.
There the monster rolls over on his back.
Gee, gee, I was never so excited in all my life.
Come on, man, we've got to pick up the men.
We've got to get the gill up side of the water out of the boat.
We've almost been swamped. Captain, there's Dickens.
Dickens, Dickens, are you safe?
Let the handmaids look right there.
Help those hands to stop it.
I got it, Captain.
Spin out, I got it.
Help him up, man. Easy there.
Are you sound, Dickens? Are you all right?
I saw as a boy a clam, Captain, but I done it. I done it.
Nobody can say I ain't even up to score.
Here, Dickens, sit over here.
Get them men aboard.
Look, Captain, Mr. Nicholson on board is sending us signals
with the colors and the gallons.
He's sending out another boat to wait us and pick it up the men.
Good. Look lively, Mr. Wainwright.
There's Buscara and his boat steerer support.
And there's Jowett. Pick him up.
Here comes Nicholson's extra boat.
I think all hands are accounted for, sir.
A vast let's see. Jowett and Buscara, three hands here.
Two making for Nicholson's boat.
Five still overboard there.
Four. Our boat will still hold a few more hands.
Help those men astern over the gommel.
Easy there. Easy.
Well, Dickens, it was a hard battle, but you've a stout heart.
Man and boy, I've sailed the sea many years,
and I've never met with a braver seaman, and you may later that.
Thank you, Captain.
You don't know what this day has meant to me.
I've evened up the Blomans' score.
That great blue whale's floats broke me legs on 15 years' back.
And that's how I come to Loser, General.
And now there the beast rolls, dead as a scutterbutt.
And it was your thrust with the lance when you were on the whale's back
that did it, Dickens.
Aye, lad. It's more than a fair exchange as I see it.
I'm content now.
Look, Captain, there's some more signals up at the main, miss.
Oh, they are. It's...
Bloomy-dulmy sighted land.
Land, sir, in these seas?
I know no land here about.
A vast. The signals say land three points off the well above.
I can understand raisin land in this...
Look, can you sight something there?
Why, it looks like smoke.
Smoke? Aye, lad, you're right.
But it's a lot of smoke for a fire.
Well, shiver me timber, sir, if I may speak me mind.
It looks like smoke from a volcano to me.
A volcano?
Why, the secret island we're sailing to has a volcano on it.
Ahoy, lad, that's the ticket. That's it. You may later that.
They've sighted our treasure island.
Our cruise has reached its mark.
Land, the secret island that bears the wealth of minerals
that the Marines has been heading for.
Dickon has realized his life's ambition
by killing the giant whale that once cost him his leg.
But what lies ahead on this mysterious island?
Will our friends have trouble ashore?
Are the two troublemakers imprisoned in the hold
of the Paul Parrot likely to start any more villainy?
Only the further transcribed adventures
of the crews of the Paul Parrot will tell.
Be sure to follow Captain Dalton, Sue, Johnny, and their friends
on the crews of the Paul Parrot.
Your Paul Parrot announcer is Dave Ward.