The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1871-01-12


man pause in astonishment. 1t was a
groan, or rather hoarse, heavy,
smothered kind of moan, which seemed
to be borne to them from across the wa
ters but whether from near at hand or
far away they could not tell.
The men stood up in their boat and
listened. The night was cloudy and
dark; but the line between sea and sky
was sufficiently distinct to show to their
practised vision the form of their own
vessel, which was only three miles
away; but no sail was visible on that
part of the horizon from whence the
sounds appeared to come. Thinking 1t
| possible, however, that some shipwreck-
ed boats crew might be in their neigh
borhood, they Joined together in shout,
but there was no response audible. All
at once, however, some flashes of light
cleaned across the distant darkness, and
a blush glare shone out for q minute or
two, hickered, and disappeared. At the
same moment a distant, piercing cry,
followed by meanings similar to the
first they had heard, rose on the night
air. In all their experience, whether on
sea or land, they had never heard sounds
like these, and, amazed and startled,
and with all the superstitious fears ex-
cited to which sailors are prone, the
men i'll the boat whispered their con-
lectures to each other.
"There's nothing as know OF that
swims the sea or flies in the air could
make those sounds" said one. "If
there was any craft anywhere within
miles, we could see her sails plain
enough; we are too far out at sea for
any coasters carrying cattle. Beside,
there's no such trade on this coast, and
we're eight hundred miles from it."
IF it's from boat, what kind OF a
crew must she have? That's what l
want to know" said a second. "1know
what it is to be adrift and perishing. I
was one time on raft with twenty more
for two-and-thirty days, and whole lot
of 'em went mad and died raging, from
drinking the salt water, and yelled and
fought and throttled each other till
they were pitched overheard but, then,
these here sounds aren't human like"
Couldn't be whale, Bill, that made
that moanin' noise!" asked another of
the boat-steerers, who was a veteran
salt, having followed his calling as a
sealer and whaler in all parts of the
world.
"Well, it might be-that noise might /;
though 'twarn't exactly like it, neither.
I've heard 'em too often not to know
them. Sperm whale don't roar much f;
but right black, or Greenland species,
common all over the world, you can
hear, at times, miles away. l remember
once, when was in New Zealand-we
was a Bay whaling near Hoklanga-we
killed a COW whale and her calf and
towed 'em into the bay. Well, the old
bull, he came in from sea at nightfall,
and KEEP up such a moanin' and roarin'
it was pitiful to hear him. He knowed
his missus had gone in there, you see,
and he was calm on her to come out /;
and for .ligh-hand on to week, every
night, he'd tack about in the offing until
daylight, waitin' and calm her.
'Twarn't till we stripped the blubber off
her, and towed the carcass out to sea,
that he gave in and left"
For some time the men listened, but
nothing further was heard or seen.
They also rowed for some distance in the
direction of the sounds, and again shout
ed, but got no reply; and an hour after
wards they were picked up and taken on
board. The captain, when he heard
their story, swept the horizon with his
night-glass; but detecting no sail, he
concluded that the vessel from which
the light had proceeded (if they really
had seen it, had passed out of sight in
the interval; and as for the sounds
which had startled them, he made light
of them.
"You heard grampus grunting, or
some seals snorting, or maybe some pen
gums trumpeting," he said. "You were
all knocked up and half asleep. Turn
in, the whole lot of you, and take q
snooze till daylight, for we must finish
stripping and trying out this fish. A
set of lubbers You were to lose that other
whale"
The men did as they were ordered
but were perfectly convinced that the
sounds they had heard were not caused
by any such agencies as their command
er had mentioned. The light, strange
as it was, certainly might have proceed
ed from a passing ship, although in that
case it was odd they could not see it.
Each of the noises separately also might
be thus accounted for, perhaps; but the
whole occurring together, and proceed
ing from one quarter, was to them mex
plicable.
They had been asleep some hours, and
day was about to break. The breeze
had slightly freshened but the ship, af-
ter having picked up the boats, had
been hove to, and consequently had re-
mained nearly stationary during the
night, the carcass of the whale having
been placed alongside, secured by tack
les, preparatory to stripping the blub-
ber, or T" blanketpiece," as it is technic-
ally called. Some of this had already
been taken off, hoisted on deck, cut up
and placed in the huge coppers used in
the sperm whale fishery for boiling (ol
"trying out" as it is termed) the oil
these coppers being imbedded in brick.
work, on the upper or open deck. The
fires beneath them being laid ready fol
lighting, the mate was busy with his
preparations, when the captain, who
had been in bed, turned out and came
on deck.
"Do you know" said he, "that
really think that there was no mistake
in what the hands said? There's some
thing out of the way going on, or afoa'
near US. My cabin window was open
the head of my bunk is close to it-anC
as 1 lay there Iheard something-I can
make out what. Did you not hear any
thing?"
mo; we've been busy knocking abou
, the decks. What was it hkes"
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