 All aboard for the transcribed premiere production, The Cruise of the Paul Parrot. This exciting, thrilling story of the sea and the adventurous days of whaling. Well, Johnny Robbins and Sue Grange are now definitely going to sail on this whaling cruise. But there is still plenty of mystery surrounding it. Sue's brother, Ezra, the owner of this ship, changed his mind about letting Johnny come along after he looked at a map with Johnny's father's signature on it. Then, too, there's a peculiar chopping sound down in the hold. And I'll test he may still be hiding aboard. In our last adventure, Captain Dalton and his mate George Wainwright went down in the hold to find where the chopping sound came from. And today, we'll hear what they discovered. It is now the next morning. The captain is talking to his crew. Most of you have shipped on whalers before. And those who haven't are wise enough and brave enough to learn the ropes after a few days run. From now on, we set our course direct for the whaling grounds off South America. We should raise our first whale in about a month. In that time, we'll have daily drills in manning the whale boats and practice with the irons and lamps to make you good whalemen all. But this I want you to understand, men. Abort the pal parrot you'll be treated as you would aboard a merchantman. There'll be no slave driving by me or my officers. And each one of you will be expected to work as hardest. You're all set on your honor and your reputation as first class seamen. And we know you'll work with us accordingly. This is to be a fairly short cruise, not last in over a year and a half. And if we work as well together as we can, we'll cut in so many whales and stow so many casks of oil below that we can laugh at all the old whalers who think that whalemen have to be driven with a baleen pin and a ropes in. Well said, Roy. With you to a man after that bit of wind. Gee, Captain, that was wonderful. Your men couldn't help liking you now. Fast, Johnny, let's hope so. With the strange things going on aboard this bark, I'll need the men with me every night of the way. Good morning, Captain. Good morning, Mr. Wainwright. Hello, Johnny. Good morning, Miss Sue. Oh, I are charming little passengers on deck. And looking prettier than a spring morning in the South Sea. Hello, Sue. Gee, you should have just heard the fine speech, Captain Dalton gave his men. Tell me, Captain. I never did find out if you discovered anything in the hold yesterday. You blow me down. There was nary a trace of a stowaway. We searched every square inch of the hold, and there wasn't so much as a shipworm in the hull. Did you hear the chopping sound, Captain? I heard it when I was Mr. Grange as Captain. But the moment we went below, there wasn't a sound. It looks funny to me, Captain. It looks funny to all of us. But what are we to do about it? That's the question. Well, Johnny Ladd, you're now our cabin boy, remember? Dickens not on duty now. He's off watch. Search him out and have him tell you whatever you want to know about anything aboard the Pahl parrot. Mr. Wainwright and I will be getting busy with the men in trying to handle the whale boats. Hi, hi, Captain. I'll find Dicken right away. I'll come along, too, if you don't mind, Johnny. Of course. I want you to, Sue. Let's look near the bows. We should find them near the focusle. Johnny, what do you think of that map my brother Ezra has with your father's name on it? Well, I don't know what to think, Sue. You see, my father was a seaman for many years. He used to tell me all kinds of wonderful yarns. But something happened to him once. I don't know just what it was that he said made him lose all faith in the life of a seaman, and he left the sea forever. That's why he settled on a farm inland from New Bedford. And that's why I never would let me go to sea. He said he didn't want me to suffer the same kind of disappointment he did. You know, I had to run away from home to go to sea because father wouldn't let me go willingly. I could ask brother Ezra about the name on that map, but, you see, he doesn't know I saw it. Oh, no, Sue. I did not say anything about it to him. Captain Dalton thinks there's a great deal of mystery about this cruise, doesn't he? Do you blame him? At first, there was this man, Altesi, doing all those strange things before we sailed. And then Mr. Grange acting so clearly about my name. And then that chopping in the hold. Oh, there's been lots of other things, too. Johnny, let's you and me be partners. Well, sure, Sue, but what do you mean? Well, I like Captain Dalton. Let's try to find out what all this mystery's about. You bet. All right, Sue. We'll try to find what lays behind it all. Fine. Oh, look, Johnny, there's old Dickon sitting on the foreheads with his parent. Sure enough. Oh, Dickon, strike my jibs. It's the youngins. Ahoy there! Come over and join an old seaman. What's that nothing to do but listen to an empty-edit parent speaking? Ah, speak for yourself, matey! Speak for yourself! I like Paul, Parrot. He sure can say a lot of words. Ah, he's a clever bird, and you can lay to that. He's seen more of whaling in storms that see that many a hand aboard this bark has. We wanted to ask you something about whaling, Dickon. And then I wanted you to tell me what I'm supposed to do as cabin board. Well, lad, there's little you have to worry about with the bayon orders. Take your order some Captain Dalton and Mr. Wainwright and the other officers. And don't worry about the men. You're lucky in having the Captain as your friend. Abide to what he says and you'll not go wrong. He's a fine man. I think so, too, Dickon. Gaff, you lovely stoid! Johnny, lad, do you know the parts of the ship? Oh, the names of the sails and the ropes and the decks and the beams of the old. My father taught me most of that, Dickon. Of course, I don't know so much about a whaler. My father always shipped on a merchantman. Oh, that's good, matey. Then there's much you've already learned. Now about whaler. How many men are on a whaler, Dickon? Well, the Paul Parrot's a good example of a first-class whaler as any. So just cast a look at her. There's the Captain and four mates, each one of them in charge of a whale boat. As you know, this ship carries four whale boats. Our four mates, which are the only men on board to give you orders, are Mr. Wainwright First, Mr. Jowat Second, Mr. Baskara Third, and Mr. Nicholson Fourth. And Mr. Nicholson is usually the helmsman, too. Then there are four boat steers, too. What to each whale boat? The boat steers are the men who throw the harpoons. Look, how can they steer the boats and throw the harpoons at the same time? As they're, I'll come to that later. Then there's 16 hands, four for each boat, ordinary seamen, and four extra men who stay on the ship when all the rest of the crew is out chasing whales. Besides these, there's the Cooper, who takes care of the casks, we fill with oil, and also acts as the carpenter for the ship. Then there's the cook and the steward is helper, who also acts as the ship's doctor, and the new is the cabin boy and me. Ah, you're my lady, that man! Shiver me, timbers! I almost forgot our mascot here, Paul Barrett himself. Tell us, Dickon, how do you catch a whale? Well, Miss Sue, they keep a mate in a boat steer at the four-mast head at all times, and two seamen at the main-mast head to keep a lookout. When the whales are running close, they even kept up at night. Then when a whale is sighted, the lookout calls out... Ah, earn off the starboard, Mao! Where is he going? And that's just what they call out. This one took the very words right out of me, Mao. And then do they lower the boats? That's right, lad, they lower away it is. They lower one boat for each whale, and as he's a big one, then they lower two. The crew of four rows it, with the mate in the stern, with the steer and oar. And the boat steer up, and the bow hold in the iron. That's what we call the harpoons, irons. Well, why do they call the harpooner the boat steer if the mate steer? They buy a bit, Miss Sue. I'm coming to that. When they reach the whale, creeping up on him soft like. So he don't notice. The boat steer strikes him with the iron, and then the fun begins. Gee, doesn't the whale try to get away? That's just it, lad. The whale either sounds at his dives under, or strikes out straight away, or mills. That means goes around in circles. But no matter what he does, the whale both got to hang on. When the strike is made, the mate and the boat steer jump to change places. Then the boat steer really steers, and he has a worrisome trick to keep the little craft on an even keel, while the mate stands on the bow at the lance, and plays in the rope that's attached to the iron, stuck into the whale. Boy, that sounds exciting. And finally, the blue man whales bound to tire out. Sometimes he's towed the whale boat miles and miles from the ship. And there's always a chance that he might turn on the boat and smash it to splinters with his big flukes. I've heard that whales sometimes get as big as 50 feet or so. Lad, I've seen him over a hundred. That's a lot of animals that get angry at you. Gee, I should think so. Well, mates, finally the whale tires out, borrow no mishap, and comes to rest. Then the boat sneaks upon him again, and the mate shoves the lance in him and kills him. Oh, my. That all sounds terribly dangerous. Aye, aye, it is that. Now do you see what you'll let yourselves in for, mates? Johnny, promise me you won't try to go out and help them catch a whale. Oh, I'm not afraid to. But I don't suppose I'll have to unless they ask me. I'd like to learn. Well, lad, it'd be some time before they'd trouble you with chasing the whales, is my guess. But when you'll have to work, it's after the whale boat tows the whale right up to the ship. Then they starts the cutting in. The blubber is boiled to all the oils out of it and put in the casks and sealed and cooled and then sent below and stalled in the hole. In a few words, lad, that's whaling. But if it took a fleet of books, I couldn't begin to tell you anything. Well, batten down my hat. His old dickens free and nurse me to a couple of blooming pots. Who's that? Blow me down. That's one hand on the screws that'll cause trouble. Red Mulhooly. And he's a mean snake in junk of Bilskum, if I've ever seen one. I've asked. He's coming this way. Well, so here's the bloody kids this whaler's got to ship, man. A pretty thing whaling's coming to when we've got to have a nursery of board and a pretty landlubber that's such an east cabin downstairs and calls himself an owner. What's he doing aboard the Bloomin' Shark? You can't talk that way about my brother. Well, the little breaks carrying guns, eh? What do you mean, you little spitfire? I'll say what I wanted. You'd better not be the one to try and stop me. Wait a minute. Don't talk to her like that. What are you going to do about it? Your little purpose? You Bloomin' Swab. Why don't you lay off the youngins? Believe someone you're size. It's going. You're a top. You can outbundable lengthen off your top rail. And you, you're the captain's pet, eh? But you can't talk back to me. I'm not the captain's pet. I'll show you. Oh, kick me in the shins, will you? I'll teach you a lesson you'll never forget, you little hip. I'll take these ropes in. Watch out, Johnny. Oh, Captain, don't move. He'll pull at the youngins with you. Take that. Good. You were dead in time. Captain, don't move. And there's more in the play if you try that again, you whore frat. Come along, mates. He'll not follow you again. You'll pay for that yellow back-swab. They'll be looking for a new captain before the end of a fortnight. You can lay to that. Here's more trouble ahead. Captain Dalton has made a dangerous enemy by striking red. Will this seaman carry out his threat to have revenge on the captain? And we still haven't solved the riddle of the map with Johnny's father's signature on it or the noise and the hold. We'll find out more about these things as we follow the adventures of Johnny and Sue with Captain Dalton and Dickon and all the rest of the crew on the crews of the Paul Parrot. Your Paul Parrot announcer is Dave Ward.