Spirit of the Whale

By Leon Taylor

Kaimana and his father, Slim, are sailing their cargo hauler from Lahaina, Maui to Honolulu when they are attacked by a humpback whale that holes their boat, causing water to pour into their small ship..  Frantically, Slim and Kaimana make emergency repairs to save their vessel from sinking and taking them down with her.  Once temporary repairs are made and they save their ship, they return to Lahaina for permanent repairs. 

 

While in Lahaina repairing their ship, Kaimana feels the spirit of the whale calling him.  This is 1828, and it has been reported that the whale has a harpoon in her side, an unsuccessful attempt by whalers to take her.  Kaimana knows he must go to her, even though she is the whale who had attacked them.  His father consents, even though he fears for his son's safety, and when their ship is repaired they sail to where the whale had first attacked them. 

 

There, Kaimana, the powerful son of his English father and Polynesian mother, sets out in their ship's dinghy to await the whale.  He waits for days and nights before the whale comes to him for help, but not before he dreams of being a whale himself.  One harpooned when coming to the water's surface for the precious air he needed to survive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Leon Taylor
• Release date: Apr 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223678441

Leon Taylor

Leon Taylor is a college graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Science and Humanities and a veteran of military intelligence.  He has lived and worked in many different venues that have contributed to a vast array of experiences, all lending their credence to the stories he writes.

Book preview

Chapter One

It was a brilliantly sunny and warm day on the ocean’s water.  Slim and his son, Kaimana, sailed their cargo-hauling schooner hard into the northeast trade winds, making their way from Maui back home to Oahu.  Mists of water sprayed aboard Island Lady , their fifty-seven-foot sailing ship, as they beat into the wind and seas.  They were returning to Honolulu and were anxious to get there.

It was 1828, and James Johnson, who went by Slim was an English sailor who had long ago jumped ship, never to return to England, now carried cargo from Honolulu to the outer islands of Hawaii aboard Island Lady.  The larger ships brought goods from all over the world to Honolulu, and Slim, with Kaimana, carried these goods to the outer island merchants.  Taking after his mother’s side of the family, Kaimana was a huge and towering young man at eighteen years of age.  Leilani, his mother, was a full-blooded Hawaiian, the third daughter of a giant of a Polynesian man, Ailani.  Because of his size, Slim nicknamed his son Tiny as an English sailor would do, but his mother insisted upon calling him by his Hawaiian name, Kaimana, which meant power of the sea.  A fitting name, given the trade he pursued with his father.

Tiny! Slim called down into the cabin of Island Lady from the ship’s helm.  Come up above.

Kaimana put away the chart he was looking at and came up on deck to the helm where his father stood steering Island Lady.  The sails were full and Island Lady pushed hard through the ocean’s swells.  They had left the port of Lahaina on the island of Maui only hours earlier, their last stop in the outer islands before returning home to Oahu.

What’s going on? Kaimana questioned.

Whales, Slim answered.  They were near the waters where the humpback whales returned every winter to bear their young and breed.

Where? Kaimana asked as he squinted against the sun to look in the direction that his father was pointing.

Two or three not far over there, Slim answered, as he pointed toward where he first saw the whales.

Must be some of the early arrivals returning for the winter, Kaimana stated as he placed his large hand on the helm to take over for his father.  At over six and a half feet tall, Kaimana resembled his grandfather, Ailani, who stood nearly seven feet tall.  His mother, Leilani, also, stood very tall, towering over his father who was barely six feet tall.

Ya, Slim replied.  He knew that soon there would be many more whales returning from their summer feeding grounds to the Hawaiian Islands.  Hope the whalers don’t take too many this winter, he stated.  He was talking about the whalers who frequented the port of Lahaina to provision, and who hunted in the waters around Hawaii.

And that was when it happened.  A loud and sharp cracking sound off of Island Lady’s port bow shuttered through her hull.  Kaimana grabbed the wheel tightly as Island Lady lurched off course.

What was that? Kaimana shouted as he anxiously looked to his father for an answer.

I don’t know, Slim shouted back.  He was looking towards Island Lady’s bow.

Father and son froze in anticipation, the wind was blowing hard and Island Lady was sailing fast through the rough seas.  If they had hit a log or something else, they could have broken a hole in Island Lady’s hull.  Leaping out of those thoughts, Slim bolted through the companionway doors and down the ladder into the cabin below.  Frantically, he grabbed the floorboard hatches and lifted them to see if there was any water coming into the bilge of the boat.

Whale off the port bow, Kaimana called down to his father.  He had seen the back and tail flukes of the humpback as it dove.

Water! Slim called back to his son anxiously.  We’re taking on water!  This was the ever-present fear of every sailor.

Oh, oh, Kaimana said out