Narrative of a Whaling Voyage Round the Globe Chap. 6 - Dangers of the Sperm Fishery by Frederick Debelle Bennett Lyrics
Comparison between the disposition and weapons of the Greenland- whale and Cachalot--Mischievous temper often displayed by the latter whale Its modes of defence and their frequently fatal effects to whalers--Melancholy instances--Fighting whales--Deplorable fate of the American South-Seaman Essex and her crew--Instances of individual Cachalots notoriously dangerous to attack--Accidents to boats, independent of a vicious temper on the part of
the whales they attack--Forbearance of sharks towards wrecked
whalers.
THE amount of hazard incurred in the Greenland
and Sperm Whale Fisheries may be considered as
nearly equal : the difficulties attending upon an inhos-
pitable climate in the one, being in a great measure
counterbalanced by the superior activity and general
powers of the whale pursued, in the other. The True-
Whale of the Arctic and Southern Seas is, as is well
known, a gentle and inoffensive creature, which seldom,
if ever, exhibits a decidedly combative temper, and
whose only defensive organ is the tail ; the Cachalot,
on the other hand, is not only better armed than the
True- Whale, in possessing a formidable weapon at either
extremity of its enormous body, but also more fre-
quently displays a disposition to employ those weapons
offensively, and in a manner at once so artful, bold,
and mischievous, as to lead to its being regarded as the
most dangerous to attack of all the known species of
the whale-tribe.
Although the Cachalot, when first harpooned, strikes
violently with its tail, plunges convulsively, and would
appear to threaten destruction to every object in its
vicinity, yet these actions are unpremeditated and
awkward, and can only be regarded as instinctive ex-
pressions of pain and alarm, which the whaler expects
to observe, and which he is well prepared to meet;
consequently, with ordinary precautions, the boats are
seldom injured at this stage of their proceedings;
although it is commonly believed to be the most
critical and hazardous. But should the animal be
allowed time to rally, it often becomes truly mis-
chievous. Actuated by a feeling of revenge, by anxiety
to escape its pursuers, or goaded to desperation by the
weapons rankling in its body, it then acts with a de-
liberate design to do mischief; and but too frequently
succeeds, either through the inevitable nature of its
attacks, or through the temerity of the whaler.
Some of these whales, when attacked, will retreat
but little from the spot on which they are harpooned ;
but rather lie, and fight with their jaws and tail until
life is extinct. Others, without being themselves in-
jured, will aid an attacked companion, and from the
circumstance of their actions being less watched, often
succeed in doing serious injury to the boats ; whilst
some few individuals make wilful, deliberate, and even
judicious attempts to crush a boat with their jaws, and,
unless avoided or killed, will repeat their efforts until
they succeed in their object.
An " under-clip," or blow received from a whale's
flukes near the surface of the water, may shatter and
overturn a boat, or injure the crew by the force of the
concussion alone ; but human life is chiefly endangered
when the tail of the animal is swept rapidly through
the air, and either descends upon the boat, cutting it
down to the water's edge, or encounters in its trajet
some of the crew standing up, as the headsman, or
harpooner, who are destroyed and carried away by the
blow ; and this last is the most common, as well as
the most sudden and awful calamity recorded in the
fishery.
It was by a melancholy accident of this kind that an
experienced and enterprising whaler, the father of our
commander, lost his life, when in command of the ship
Perseverance, and outward bound on a voyage to the
Pacific Ocean. He was engaged in destroying a
Cachalot, on the Brazil Bank, when a rapid and in-
evitable blow from the flukes of the animal struck him
out of the boat ; his body floated on the water, and
was immediately rescued and conveyed to the ship ;
but, although no external marks of injury were any
where visible, all attempts to restore animation were of
no avail, for life was totally extinct. One of the crew,
pulling an oar in the same boat, was also killed by the
same blow. The whale, after thus dealing destruction
amongst its pursuers, effected an escape ; but there is
reason to suppose, from the clue of marked harpoons
left in its body, that it was subsequently destroyed by
an American whale-ship.
Captain T. Stavers, of the Tuscan, when cruising in
the North Pacific, during the season of 1831, had the
misfortune to lose his chief mate, Mr. Young, under
circumstances very similar to the preceding. On the
morning of the 30th of August, a small party, or " pod,"
of Sperm Whales was noticed from the ship, and the
commander and second-mate lowered their boats in
pursuit, leaving Mr. Young on board, in charge of the
vessel. While engaged in destroying a large whale, the boat of the second-mate was so severely shattered,
that the consort boat was compelled to receive both
the wrecked crew and the harpoon-line. The chief-
mate^ on observing this dilemma, lowered his boat and
came to their assistance. The harpooned whale was
then spouting blood and much exhausted ; while a
loose Cachalot, of equal size, remained in its vicinity,
striking at the boats with his flukes, with the evident
intention of assisting his wounded comrade. The boats
were close together, and Captain Stavers had but just
remarked to his mate, that as the whale was nearly
dead he would leave him to complete its destruction
whilst he harpooned the loose Cachalot, when the tail
of the latter passed, with the rapidity of lightning, over,
and in front of his boat, and simultaneously, Mr. Young,
though a large and strong man, was seen flying through
the air at a considerable height, and to the distance
of nearly forty yards from the boat, ere he fell into the
water, where he remained floating motionless on the
surface for a few moments, then sank, and was seen no
more. There can be no doubt that his death was in-
stantaneous. A native of the Society Islands plunged
into the water immediately the accident occurred, and
endeavoured to save the body of his unfortunate
officer, but it had sunk before he could swim to the
spot where it fell. No injury was sustained by any
other person in the boat ; nor was the boat itself injured,
beyond a portion of the bow being broken off, and the
thigh-board, which was torn from its place and ac-
companied the body of the unfortunate mate, so power-
ful was the impulse it had received. As is customary
in cases of serious accident, the line was cut from the
whale, that the boats might be at liberty to render
every assistance; but when it was found that no
human aid could avail in this instance, the boats re-
newed their attack on the harpooned whale, which was
soon after killed and taken to the ship, whilst the mis-
chievous Cachalot made off, after he had been pierced
with many lance-wounds. The chief mate of the British
South-Seaman Lyra,* when in the cruising ground of
Japan, in 1832, was also swept from his boat and de-
stroyed by a blow from a whale ; and similar casualties
are too numerous, and uniform in their results, to
permit a more particular notice.
Some Sperm Whales appear reluctant to employ
their tail when attacked, but prove active and dangerous
with their jaws. Such individuals often rather seek
than avoid the attacking boats, and, rushing upon them
with open mouth, employ every possible art to crush
them with their teeth, and, if successful, will sometimes
continue in the neighbourhood, biting the wreck and
oars into small fragments. When thus threatening a
boat, the whale usually turns, and swims upon its back,
and will sometimes act in a very sluggish and un-
accountable manner, keeping its formidable lower jaw
suspended for some moments over the boat, in a threat-
ening attitude, but ultimately rolling to one side, and
closing its mouth harmlessly ; nor is it rare to observe
this whale, when pursued and attacked, retain its mouth
in an expanded state for some minutes together. Such
threatening demonstrations of the jaw, as well as some
others with the flukes, occasionally compel a boat's
crew to leap into the water, and support themselves
by swimming or clinging to oars until the danger has
passed.
In the year 1835, the ship Pusie Hall encountered a
fighting whale, which after injuring and driving off her
four boats, pursued them to the ship, and withstood for
some time the lances hurled at it, by the crew, from
the bows of the vessel, before it could be induced to
retire : in this affair a youth in one of the boats was
destroyed by a blow from the whale, and one of the
officers was severely lacerated by coining in contact
with the animaPs jaw.
A highly tragical instance of the power and ferocity
occasionally displayed by the Sperm Whale, is recorded
in the fate of the American South-Seaman Essex, Cap-
tain G. Pollard. This vessel, when cruising in the
Pacific Ocean, in the year 1820, was wrecked by a
whale under the following extraordinary circumstances.
The boats had been lowered in pursuit of a school of
whales, and the ship was attending them to wind-
ward. The master and second-mate were engaged
with whales they had harpooned, in the midst of the
school, and the chief mate had returned on board to
equip a spare boat, in lieu of his own, which had been
broken and rendered unserviceable. While the crew
were thus occupied, the look-out at the mast-head re-
ported that a large whale was coming rapidly down
upon the ship, and the mate hastened his task, in the
hope that he might be ready in time to attack it.
The Cachalot, which was of the largest size, con-
sequently a male, and probably the guardian of the
school, in the meanwhile approached the ship so
closely, that although the helm was put up to avoid the
contact, he struck her a severe blow, which broke off a
portion of her keel. The enraged animal was then observed to retire to some distance, and again rush upon
the ship with extreme velocity. His enormous head
struck the starboard bow, beating in a corresponding
portion of the planks, and the people on board had
barely time to take to their boat, before the ship filled
with water and fell over on her side. She did not sink,
however, for some hours ; and the crew in the boats
continued near the wreck until they had obtained a
small supply of provisions, when they shaped a course
for land ; but here, it is to be regretted, they made
a fatal error. At the time the accident happened they
were cruising on the Equator, in the longitude of about
118 West, with the Marquesan and Society Islands on
their lee, and might have sailed in their boats to either
of those groups in a comparatively short time. Under
an erroneous impression, however, that all those lands
were inhabited by an inhospitable race of people, they
preferred pulling to windward for the coast of Peru,
and in the attempt were exposed for a lengthened
period to extreme privations.
The few of the crew who survived their complicated
disasters first made the land at Elizabeth, or Hender-
son's Island, a small and uninhabited spot in the South
Pacific, and which until then had never been visited by
Europeans. After a short continuance here, part of
the survivors again put to sea in search of inhabited
land, and ultimately reached the coast of South America ;
when an English South-Seaman sailed from Valparaiso,
and rescued those of the sufferers who had been left to
support a precarious existence on Elizabeth Island. By
a strange fatality, Captain Pollard, who was amongst
the number of survivors, had the misfortune to lose the
ship he next commanded, by running her upon a coral
reef (then but little known) in the North Pacific. He returned to the United States, dispirited by his ill
fortune, and, engaging in agricultural pursuits, ceased
to tempt any further the perils of the deep.
A few Cachalots have been noted individually as
animals dangerous to attack. One was thus distin-
guished on the cruising ground off the coast of New
Zealand, and was long known to whalers by the name
of u New Zealand Tom/ 5 He is said to have been of
great size; conspicuously distinguished by a white
hump ; and famous for the havoc he had made amongst
the boats and gear of ships attempting his destruction.
A second example, of similar celebrity, was known to
whalers in the Straits of Timor. He had so often
succeeded in repelling the attacks of his foes as to be
considered invincible, but was at length dispatched by
a whaler, who, forewarned of his combative temper,
adopted the expedient of floating a cask on the sea, to
withdraw his attention from the boats ; but notwith-
standing this ruse, the animal was not destroyed without
much hard fighting, nor until the bow of one of the
boats had been nipped off by his jaws.
By the line becoming entangled, or impacted, when
the harpooned whale is descending rapidly, the boat
may be instantaneously drawn under water, and before
any measures can be used to free it. The axe, provided
for the purpose of cutting the line, is, by some prudent
officers, held in the hand while the line is running;
and under some circumstances, nothing short of such
precaution can save the boat's crew from a watery
grave. Several distressing instances have occurred of
the sudden and total disappearance of a boat, which
had last been seen attached to a whale ; much proba-
bility existing, that its loss was attributable to this
accident.
Some minor mischances with the line endanger in-
dividuals, though not the entire boat's crew. A few
years ago, Mr. Wilson, the third-mate of the Melantho,
met his death in the Eastern Archipelago, by the
harpoon-line getting suddenly displaced andcarryinghim
out of the boat. The line was instantly cut from the
whale, and for some moments the unfortunate man was
seen floating, free from entanglement, at a little distance
beneath the surface of the sea, but, while endeavours
were making to reach him, he sunk. A large shark
which accompanied the boat was observed to follow
him in his descent, and he was not again seen.
The ship Seringapatam, while cruising in Timor
Straits, in the season of 1836, lost a man under the
following circumstances. A boat, occupied in killing a
whale, received a severe blow from the flukes of the
animal, which passed so close to a boy pulling the after-
oar as to graze his breast slightly ; while the man at
the tub-oar was either cast out of the boat by the same
contact or carried away by the harpoon- line. His
body was found entangled in the line, when the latter
was hauled into the boat, but life was extinct. It was
noticed at the time, that the concussion the boat re-
ceived from the whale had cast some coils of line over
the shoulders of the deceased, and it is probable that
he was hurried from the boat when the whale again
took the line ; but his disappearance was so instan-
taneous that, in the confusion of the moment, neither
his absence nor the events connected with it were
immediately noticed by his companions.
A boat may be much injured, and even destroyed, by
a Sperm Whale, as the result of pure accident. This
occurred to the South- Seaman Arabella, when cruising
off the Society Islands, in 1836. A whale " milled," or turned suddenly round, upon receiving the harpoons,
and, in his efforts to escape, struck the boat with his head,
broke it into two portions, and literally swam through
it. The crew escaped any serious injury, but the boat
was shattered beyond repair. In the same manner a
whale, rising suddenly to the surface of the water, may
encounter a boat with its head or hump, and do con-
siderable mischief without any vicious design.
It is a somewhat curious fact, that notwithstanding
the myriads of sharks which assemble during the pur-
suit and cutting in of a Sperm Whale, it but seldom if
ever occurs that whalers receive any personal injury
from their attacks, although their disasters so frequently
plunge them into the sea, and at times when these dan-
gerous fish are not only numerous around them, but
also display a most active and ferocious disposition. It
would almost appear that " a fellow feeling makes them
wondrous kind," and that they possess a distinct per-
ception of the object the whaler has in view, and join
with him in seeking to make a common prey of the per-
secuted Cachalot. That the prospect of a more inviting
food will lead these fish to disregard man, is evinced
in the well known fact, that the negroes of the Bahama
Islands will, when employed in cutting up a stranded
whale, enter the water and work amidst a crowd of
sharks, which, eager to obtain a share of the whale,
will pay no attention to the men, who they would other-
wise attack and devour.
the whales they attack--Forbearance of sharks towards wrecked
whalers.
THE amount of hazard incurred in the Greenland
and Sperm Whale Fisheries may be considered as
nearly equal : the difficulties attending upon an inhos-
pitable climate in the one, being in a great measure
counterbalanced by the superior activity and general
powers of the whale pursued, in the other. The True-
Whale of the Arctic and Southern Seas is, as is well
known, a gentle and inoffensive creature, which seldom,
if ever, exhibits a decidedly combative temper, and
whose only defensive organ is the tail ; the Cachalot,
on the other hand, is not only better armed than the
True- Whale, in possessing a formidable weapon at either
extremity of its enormous body, but also more fre-
quently displays a disposition to employ those weapons
offensively, and in a manner at once so artful, bold,
and mischievous, as to lead to its being regarded as the
most dangerous to attack of all the known species of
the whale-tribe.
Although the Cachalot, when first harpooned, strikes
violently with its tail, plunges convulsively, and would
appear to threaten destruction to every object in its
vicinity, yet these actions are unpremeditated and
awkward, and can only be regarded as instinctive ex-
pressions of pain and alarm, which the whaler expects
to observe, and which he is well prepared to meet;
consequently, with ordinary precautions, the boats are
seldom injured at this stage of their proceedings;
although it is commonly believed to be the most
critical and hazardous. But should the animal be
allowed time to rally, it often becomes truly mis-
chievous. Actuated by a feeling of revenge, by anxiety
to escape its pursuers, or goaded to desperation by the
weapons rankling in its body, it then acts with a de-
liberate design to do mischief; and but too frequently
succeeds, either through the inevitable nature of its
attacks, or through the temerity of the whaler.
Some of these whales, when attacked, will retreat
but little from the spot on which they are harpooned ;
but rather lie, and fight with their jaws and tail until
life is extinct. Others, without being themselves in-
jured, will aid an attacked companion, and from the
circumstance of their actions being less watched, often
succeed in doing serious injury to the boats ; whilst
some few individuals make wilful, deliberate, and even
judicious attempts to crush a boat with their jaws, and,
unless avoided or killed, will repeat their efforts until
they succeed in their object.
An " under-clip," or blow received from a whale's
flukes near the surface of the water, may shatter and
overturn a boat, or injure the crew by the force of the
concussion alone ; but human life is chiefly endangered
when the tail of the animal is swept rapidly through
the air, and either descends upon the boat, cutting it
down to the water's edge, or encounters in its trajet
some of the crew standing up, as the headsman, or
harpooner, who are destroyed and carried away by the
blow ; and this last is the most common, as well as
the most sudden and awful calamity recorded in the
fishery.
It was by a melancholy accident of this kind that an
experienced and enterprising whaler, the father of our
commander, lost his life, when in command of the ship
Perseverance, and outward bound on a voyage to the
Pacific Ocean. He was engaged in destroying a
Cachalot, on the Brazil Bank, when a rapid and in-
evitable blow from the flukes of the animal struck him
out of the boat ; his body floated on the water, and
was immediately rescued and conveyed to the ship ;
but, although no external marks of injury were any
where visible, all attempts to restore animation were of
no avail, for life was totally extinct. One of the crew,
pulling an oar in the same boat, was also killed by the
same blow. The whale, after thus dealing destruction
amongst its pursuers, effected an escape ; but there is
reason to suppose, from the clue of marked harpoons
left in its body, that it was subsequently destroyed by
an American whale-ship.
Captain T. Stavers, of the Tuscan, when cruising in
the North Pacific, during the season of 1831, had the
misfortune to lose his chief mate, Mr. Young, under
circumstances very similar to the preceding. On the
morning of the 30th of August, a small party, or " pod,"
of Sperm Whales was noticed from the ship, and the
commander and second-mate lowered their boats in
pursuit, leaving Mr. Young on board, in charge of the
vessel. While engaged in destroying a large whale, the boat of the second-mate was so severely shattered,
that the consort boat was compelled to receive both
the wrecked crew and the harpoon-line. The chief-
mate^ on observing this dilemma, lowered his boat and
came to their assistance. The harpooned whale was
then spouting blood and much exhausted ; while a
loose Cachalot, of equal size, remained in its vicinity,
striking at the boats with his flukes, with the evident
intention of assisting his wounded comrade. The boats
were close together, and Captain Stavers had but just
remarked to his mate, that as the whale was nearly
dead he would leave him to complete its destruction
whilst he harpooned the loose Cachalot, when the tail
of the latter passed, with the rapidity of lightning, over,
and in front of his boat, and simultaneously, Mr. Young,
though a large and strong man, was seen flying through
the air at a considerable height, and to the distance
of nearly forty yards from the boat, ere he fell into the
water, where he remained floating motionless on the
surface for a few moments, then sank, and was seen no
more. There can be no doubt that his death was in-
stantaneous. A native of the Society Islands plunged
into the water immediately the accident occurred, and
endeavoured to save the body of his unfortunate
officer, but it had sunk before he could swim to the
spot where it fell. No injury was sustained by any
other person in the boat ; nor was the boat itself injured,
beyond a portion of the bow being broken off, and the
thigh-board, which was torn from its place and ac-
companied the body of the unfortunate mate, so power-
ful was the impulse it had received. As is customary
in cases of serious accident, the line was cut from the
whale, that the boats might be at liberty to render
every assistance; but when it was found that no
human aid could avail in this instance, the boats re-
newed their attack on the harpooned whale, which was
soon after killed and taken to the ship, whilst the mis-
chievous Cachalot made off, after he had been pierced
with many lance-wounds. The chief mate of the British
South-Seaman Lyra,* when in the cruising ground of
Japan, in 1832, was also swept from his boat and de-
stroyed by a blow from a whale ; and similar casualties
are too numerous, and uniform in their results, to
permit a more particular notice.
Some Sperm Whales appear reluctant to employ
their tail when attacked, but prove active and dangerous
with their jaws. Such individuals often rather seek
than avoid the attacking boats, and, rushing upon them
with open mouth, employ every possible art to crush
them with their teeth, and, if successful, will sometimes
continue in the neighbourhood, biting the wreck and
oars into small fragments. When thus threatening a
boat, the whale usually turns, and swims upon its back,
and will sometimes act in a very sluggish and un-
accountable manner, keeping its formidable lower jaw
suspended for some moments over the boat, in a threat-
ening attitude, but ultimately rolling to one side, and
closing its mouth harmlessly ; nor is it rare to observe
this whale, when pursued and attacked, retain its mouth
in an expanded state for some minutes together. Such
threatening demonstrations of the jaw, as well as some
others with the flukes, occasionally compel a boat's
crew to leap into the water, and support themselves
by swimming or clinging to oars until the danger has
passed.
In the year 1835, the ship Pusie Hall encountered a
fighting whale, which after injuring and driving off her
four boats, pursued them to the ship, and withstood for
some time the lances hurled at it, by the crew, from
the bows of the vessel, before it could be induced to
retire : in this affair a youth in one of the boats was
destroyed by a blow from the whale, and one of the
officers was severely lacerated by coining in contact
with the animaPs jaw.
A highly tragical instance of the power and ferocity
occasionally displayed by the Sperm Whale, is recorded
in the fate of the American South-Seaman Essex, Cap-
tain G. Pollard. This vessel, when cruising in the
Pacific Ocean, in the year 1820, was wrecked by a
whale under the following extraordinary circumstances.
The boats had been lowered in pursuit of a school of
whales, and the ship was attending them to wind-
ward. The master and second-mate were engaged
with whales they had harpooned, in the midst of the
school, and the chief mate had returned on board to
equip a spare boat, in lieu of his own, which had been
broken and rendered unserviceable. While the crew
were thus occupied, the look-out at the mast-head re-
ported that a large whale was coming rapidly down
upon the ship, and the mate hastened his task, in the
hope that he might be ready in time to attack it.
The Cachalot, which was of the largest size, con-
sequently a male, and probably the guardian of the
school, in the meanwhile approached the ship so
closely, that although the helm was put up to avoid the
contact, he struck her a severe blow, which broke off a
portion of her keel. The enraged animal was then observed to retire to some distance, and again rush upon
the ship with extreme velocity. His enormous head
struck the starboard bow, beating in a corresponding
portion of the planks, and the people on board had
barely time to take to their boat, before the ship filled
with water and fell over on her side. She did not sink,
however, for some hours ; and the crew in the boats
continued near the wreck until they had obtained a
small supply of provisions, when they shaped a course
for land ; but here, it is to be regretted, they made
a fatal error. At the time the accident happened they
were cruising on the Equator, in the longitude of about
118 West, with the Marquesan and Society Islands on
their lee, and might have sailed in their boats to either
of those groups in a comparatively short time. Under
an erroneous impression, however, that all those lands
were inhabited by an inhospitable race of people, they
preferred pulling to windward for the coast of Peru,
and in the attempt were exposed for a lengthened
period to extreme privations.
The few of the crew who survived their complicated
disasters first made the land at Elizabeth, or Hender-
son's Island, a small and uninhabited spot in the South
Pacific, and which until then had never been visited by
Europeans. After a short continuance here, part of
the survivors again put to sea in search of inhabited
land, and ultimately reached the coast of South America ;
when an English South-Seaman sailed from Valparaiso,
and rescued those of the sufferers who had been left to
support a precarious existence on Elizabeth Island. By
a strange fatality, Captain Pollard, who was amongst
the number of survivors, had the misfortune to lose the
ship he next commanded, by running her upon a coral
reef (then but little known) in the North Pacific. He returned to the United States, dispirited by his ill
fortune, and, engaging in agricultural pursuits, ceased
to tempt any further the perils of the deep.
A few Cachalots have been noted individually as
animals dangerous to attack. One was thus distin-
guished on the cruising ground off the coast of New
Zealand, and was long known to whalers by the name
of u New Zealand Tom/ 5 He is said to have been of
great size; conspicuously distinguished by a white
hump ; and famous for the havoc he had made amongst
the boats and gear of ships attempting his destruction.
A second example, of similar celebrity, was known to
whalers in the Straits of Timor. He had so often
succeeded in repelling the attacks of his foes as to be
considered invincible, but was at length dispatched by
a whaler, who, forewarned of his combative temper,
adopted the expedient of floating a cask on the sea, to
withdraw his attention from the boats ; but notwith-
standing this ruse, the animal was not destroyed without
much hard fighting, nor until the bow of one of the
boats had been nipped off by his jaws.
By the line becoming entangled, or impacted, when
the harpooned whale is descending rapidly, the boat
may be instantaneously drawn under water, and before
any measures can be used to free it. The axe, provided
for the purpose of cutting the line, is, by some prudent
officers, held in the hand while the line is running;
and under some circumstances, nothing short of such
precaution can save the boat's crew from a watery
grave. Several distressing instances have occurred of
the sudden and total disappearance of a boat, which
had last been seen attached to a whale ; much proba-
bility existing, that its loss was attributable to this
accident.
Some minor mischances with the line endanger in-
dividuals, though not the entire boat's crew. A few
years ago, Mr. Wilson, the third-mate of the Melantho,
met his death in the Eastern Archipelago, by the
harpoon-line getting suddenly displaced andcarryinghim
out of the boat. The line was instantly cut from the
whale, and for some moments the unfortunate man was
seen floating, free from entanglement, at a little distance
beneath the surface of the sea, but, while endeavours
were making to reach him, he sunk. A large shark
which accompanied the boat was observed to follow
him in his descent, and he was not again seen.
The ship Seringapatam, while cruising in Timor
Straits, in the season of 1836, lost a man under the
following circumstances. A boat, occupied in killing a
whale, received a severe blow from the flukes of the
animal, which passed so close to a boy pulling the after-
oar as to graze his breast slightly ; while the man at
the tub-oar was either cast out of the boat by the same
contact or carried away by the harpoon- line. His
body was found entangled in the line, when the latter
was hauled into the boat, but life was extinct. It was
noticed at the time, that the concussion the boat re-
ceived from the whale had cast some coils of line over
the shoulders of the deceased, and it is probable that
he was hurried from the boat when the whale again
took the line ; but his disappearance was so instan-
taneous that, in the confusion of the moment, neither
his absence nor the events connected with it were
immediately noticed by his companions.
A boat may be much injured, and even destroyed, by
a Sperm Whale, as the result of pure accident. This
occurred to the South- Seaman Arabella, when cruising
off the Society Islands, in 1836. A whale " milled," or turned suddenly round, upon receiving the harpoons,
and, in his efforts to escape, struck the boat with his head,
broke it into two portions, and literally swam through
it. The crew escaped any serious injury, but the boat
was shattered beyond repair. In the same manner a
whale, rising suddenly to the surface of the water, may
encounter a boat with its head or hump, and do con-
siderable mischief without any vicious design.
It is a somewhat curious fact, that notwithstanding
the myriads of sharks which assemble during the pur-
suit and cutting in of a Sperm Whale, it but seldom if
ever occurs that whalers receive any personal injury
from their attacks, although their disasters so frequently
plunge them into the sea, and at times when these dan-
gerous fish are not only numerous around them, but
also display a most active and ferocious disposition. It
would almost appear that " a fellow feeling makes them
wondrous kind," and that they possess a distinct per-
ception of the object the whaler has in view, and join
with him in seeking to make a common prey of the per-
secuted Cachalot. That the prospect of a more inviting
food will lead these fish to disregard man, is evinced
in the well known fact, that the negroes of the Bahama
Islands will, when employed in cutting up a stranded
whale, enter the water and work amidst a crowd of
sharks, which, eager to obtain a share of the whale,
will pay no attention to the men, who they would other-
wise attack and devour.