Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-11-16

tienGe of the two captains wore out,
and they set to work taking in fish
ing nets along shore, surprising that
the whale had escaped them.
There she isW suddenly one
cried few minutes after the nets
had been reached.
The whale had reappeared only a
quarter of mile distant. More
carefully than before the Edwards
boat was rowed within two fathOm's
reach of the whale. Charley Ed
wards stood in the bow and hurled
the harpoon into the whales side,
but the bow was not strong enough,
and the weapon was torn out as the
whale started OFF. Quick as thought
/ Charley snatched his second harpOon
and hurled it. 1t sank deep, and
had it struck little farther forward
it would have made a fatal wound.
/ The whale started as though it had
/ been stung, and dragged the boat
for mile and a half at full speed
/ that seemed, as the whalesman de-
/ scribed il afterward, mile min
ute. The water seemed to rise and
/ boil six inches above the boats gun
vale. Suddenly with a below the
whale dove down, but in ten min
utes the black, shiny back again
appeared, the fiukes lashing foam.
/ Then Capt. Josh gave up the helm,
and took his carefully-grOund lance
from its case. Going to the bow,
while the men padded as near the
furious animal as they dared, he
leaned far over the boats gunwale,
and with both hands thrust in the
lance behind the shoulder and
worked it backward and forward
three times. Immediately a fan
like, blOOd-red mist spouted three
times from the whale. More furi-
ously he dashed blindly about him
with his flukes. Once the boat mar
r0wly escaped being struck, but the
experienced seamen kept out O
reach.
Suddenly the huge head rose foul
feet clear out of the water. Their
the lifeless body relaxed and sank
beneath the waves. 1t remained
near the surface, however, and {
rope was passed around the tluke'
and fastened. Rowing tandem, the
boats lowed the whale to shore
Here a new difficulty arose. The
surf rolled heavily. The whale:
tail was made fast to the beach, bur
the undertOw kept sweeping the
body out to sea. Capt. Edwards
then cut hole in the whales lowe
lip with a spade, and a cable wa:
fastened to it. The other end of the
cable was carried ashore, and will
"Heave, Obs" the men pulled the
head up and fastened it.. But thu
I'sea swell was so heavy that thu
strain on the three-inch cable brOkt
} it. Again it was fastened anC
pulled in, and again it was snapped
like Irvine. For tWenty-fOur hour
the victors worked thus to secur
their prize, and at last a new ant
larger cable was obtained that helC
fast.
1t was a right whale, black ,smoOtl
and shining. 1t measured about 4
feet in length. Captain Edward
called it ''yOungster." Across it
mouth were whalebones which
served as a sieve to retain its food
taken with water into its mouth
while the water escaped through
the meshes of the whalebone. Tn
!, fiukes made CARLOAD, and were
/, / feet across. After stripping off tn
blubber, cutting off the head, ant
carrying the jaws to land, the carcas
was released. For a day it tiOate,
} around the wreck of the Catherine
sunk on the rocks % years ago, an,
vet holding aloft her ribs intact, ant
then caught in a ''lea pOusse," o
swift current setting away from
) land, it was carried out to sea. TIL
, whaleboneaIOne paid for the trouble
and every man got two barrels {
whale oil.