The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1843-05-16

""o '"oso Poor CiihuIen oIpndnS! one walks ABOUT
the room unable to compose herself sufficiently to sit
down; eagerly she is looking out of the window and
down the street. She with hurried steps
turn the corner, and little boy has hold of his hand.
Yes, it is he. And her little has gone down to
the boat and found his father. Or perhaps, instead
of this she two of her neghbors returning slowly
and sadly, and directing their steps her door. The
blood flows back upon her heart. They rap at the
door. 1t is the knell Of her husbands death. And
she falls senseess to the floor, they tell her that
her husband has long been entombed in the fnthom.
less ocean.
This is not mere fiction. These not extreme
cases which the imagination creates. They facts
OF continual occurrence-facts which awaken
tons to which no pen can do justice. A few weeks
ago, ship returned to this island, bringing the news
Of another shi p, tina: she nearly filled with oil
that all board well and that she might be ex-
pected in neighboring port in such month. The
wife of the captain resided at Nantucket and early in
the month, with heart throbbing with expectation
and hope, she went to greet her husband on his
turn. At length the ship appeared, dropped her
Choir in the harbor, and the friends of the lady
10 the ship to escort the husband to the wife from
whom he had been long separated. Soon they
been seized with the coast fever, upon the island of
Madagascar, and when about a week out, on his re-
turn home, he died, and was committed to his ocean
burial A few days after, called the weeping
widow and little daughter, in their desolate home of
bereavement and anguish.
few months ago, boats crew of six men were
lost under the following circumstances. boat had
been lowered to take whale. They had plunged
the harpoon into the huge land he had rushed
with them at railroad speed, out of sight of the ship.
Suddenly fog began to rise and envelop the ship,
and to spread over the whole expanse of the ocean.
1t impossible to any object at the distance of
a ships length. And there open whale boat,
with six men in perhaps fifteen miles from the ship,
with food and water for but few hours consumption,
and utterly bewidered in the dense fog. The dark
ness of night came The wind began to rise; the
pillows to SWELL Every effort was made, by firing
guns and showing lights to attract the lost boat. The
long hours of night rolled away, and stormy morn
ing dawned, and still no boat appeared. For several
days they sailed in circles around the spot, but all in
vain. The boat either dashed by the whale, or
swamped by the pillows Of the stormy nght-or,as it
oated day after day, upon the wide expanse Of the
Pacific one after another of the crew, emaciate with
thirst and famine, dropped down and died. And is
not that an afflicted home where the widowed moth
err now sits, with her child in her arms, weeping
the hu sband thus painfully lost.
And still when we take into account the great num-
Der engaged in the whale fishery, and the imminent
pers which the pursuit involves, it is indeed aston
ishing that there more fatal accidents. large
whale with one lash Of his mighty aukes, can shver
a boat to fragments, and sink to fathomless depths
the mangled corpses Of all who in it. He needs
to close his jaws but once, to crush the boat like an
egg shell. Sometimes, punging into the oceans
mysterious profound, he comes rushing perpendicu-
lary up,with inconceivable velocity the bot
tom of the boat with his head, and throws with all
who are in it. fifteen feet into the air, and the bro
ken fragments Of the boat and the wounded men are
scattered over the water he lashes the ocean into
foam with his 1ukes, and is off, leaving his enemies
to perish in the waves, to be picked up by other
boats There are hardly any scenes upon the field
of battle, more repee with danger than those which
are often witnessed in this perilous pursuit Many
lives are lost every year. And yet there appears to
be no difficulty in finding those who are willing, tor
comparatively a small remuneration, 10 face these
dangers. If a man is successful, in the course Of
some twenty years, he lays up moderate eompe-
tence for the rest of his days. And this hope cheers
him through innumerable tras,and hardshPs, dis
appointments, and dangers.