midnight
As speedily as possible off came four boats from the shore stations , and hooked on to two of our fish , while we were busy with the third . The wind being off shore , what there was of it , no time was to be lost , in view of the well-known untrustworthiness of the weather ; so we started to cut-in at once , while the shore people worked like giants to tow the other two in . Considering the weakness of their forces , they made marvellous progress ; but seeing how terribly exhausting the toil was , one could not help wishing them one of the small London tugs , familiarly known as `` jackals , '' which would have snaked those monsters along at three or four knots an hour . However , all went well ; the usual gale did blow but not till we had got the last piece aboard and a good `` slant '' to run in , arriving at our previous moorings at midnight . In the morning the skipper went down in his boat to visit the stations , and see how they had fared . Old hand as he was , I think he was astonished to see what progress those fellows had made with the fish . They did not reach the stations till after midnight , but already they had the whales half flenched , and , by the way they were working , it looked as if they would be through with their task as soon as we were with ours .