 What happened to the Whale?
There was never anything wrong with the Whale till right at the end and even then I doubt if it was the ship itself that fouled things up. Walking, talking natives on a blue sky planet with 1.1 g gravity and a twenty per cent oxygen atmosphere at fifteen p.s.i. "Two, they brew a near-beer that's a lot nearer than the canned stuff we had aboard the Whale . Of course it's a screwy situation, playing chess with something that grows its own fur coat, has yellow eyes an inch and a half long and long white whiskers. What must have happened is that the suit ran out of oxygen, and I lost consciousness due to anoxia.
 The Whale came out of its star-jump in the wrong position. It then crashed into the Pacific.
 Charlie sabotaged the deuterium fusion drive. The drive shut down, and the Whale crashed into the Pacific.  The ion rockets on the Whale exploded. It then crashed into the Pacific.  The Cazamian laser exploded, causing the Whale to crash down into the Pacific.  The Whale came out of its star-jump in the wrong position. It then crashed into the Pacific.