The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-10-23
WHALES FIGHTING An sEi.
An old Whaier Explains Why Merchant
Vessel Mny Run Into Anything.

AN old Whefer Explains Why Merchant
| Vessel Nay Run Snto Anything.
| 2othe E'ditorofthe Net1 YORK Sin-SIR:
On board Of all merchant vessels (as the
| bark Columbia would be called in nau-
sical parlanoe), there Ia no lookout kept,
either from the vessels dock or mast.
head, and ifany strange objee. il seen on
the ocean by any OF the crew Of mer.
chairman, It 10 more by accident than de-
sign. That Is the reason 80 many ship.
| wrecked mariners who survive the disas-
ter have always incidents TO relate Of veJ-
sele passing near them and not coming to
| their rescue. " a. Il st
ALI merchant vesseis take al few men
"a possible TO manage them from port to
port, for tho purpose of reducing expen-
| ees, There are no extra men provided
| against cases of sickness or death: If O
man is OF duty the others of his "watch"
| on deck are Obliged to perform his part of
the work. AS everybody knows, ;t Is the
| rule OF the sea for tho vesoel's esCety, to
alRays have ono.half of its crew on deck
when she 10 upon the mighty deep. But
you can easily comprehend that if the
crew OF merchantmen is small in pro-
portion to her tonnage, one-half of her
crew. has constant employment during
the day, in fine and fair weather TO keep
the vegsel clean and in sailing condition.
The rigging of O vessel Is worse than the
| rigging OF woman. You get woman
we'll rugged aud che will keep herself SO
for a while; but the rigging OF o vessel
is always out Of order. OF course I am
referring TO sailing" vessels only. 4.
have merely stated these facts to show
you that the watches on deck during the
day have all their tune and attention ta.
ken up "in board" in keeping the vessel
in order, and that they rarely cast their
eyes "sea board" without they expect
something to cross their vision. I will
mention an incident which. occurred to
me in the Indian Ocean, O hundred
miles 70 The eastward OF tho Esiaui OF St,
Paul's. Our lookout at mast head, one
day, discovered q sail two points OFF our
lee bow, apparently standing the same
way as ourselves on an eaat northeast
course. sthe day drew along we gradu-
| ally cyerhsuled che stranger, who sp.
peared to be o; ;full-rigged. ship, with ey.
erytring she could set, from her royals
down, standing, as we were, close hauled
on the port tack. When we raised her
hull from our deck We sent The stars and
stripes glancing to the peak, brought. our
| glasses to bear On her, and expected 10
get response. We held our spy.
glasses to our eyes for some time,
but We could get nc. responsive signal
from her. We were now curious Onr
ensign was of an unusual size and might
have been easily seen by the naked. eye
from this slow sailer oft our lee bow.
We gave them o better y,tw W of our flag
| BY approaching nearsr. We swung our
ship OF, hauled up, our. fore and main
sails, and ran before the wind toward
the strange vessel, which was now but
two points forward of our lee beam. We
kept watch of her mfzzen peak, expecting
every moment to see the signal 60 up in
response to ours. Nearer and nearer we
drew, but although our man at the mast
| move about on her deck, ahe failed to
| show her colors. We then resolved to
run down across her stern, and sec Il she
had any name, and learn, five could who
| and what she was. To briefly conclude,
we ran down across her stern and hailed
her, and we got to leeward Of her, hauled
again on the Wiud, and had. lowered .oHS
of our quarter boate before she got the
Dutch flag to hsr peak. AS We were
strong handed, I lswered the quarter
boat and, selecting two Dntchman from
our crew, pulled along side Of this Dutch
East Indiaman and boarded her. OF
| course, after the 6rHt salutation that one
master OF . y565ei gives 20 another on
like occasions, inquired tho reason why
they had not responded to our signal and
shown their. colors before they did.
Would you believe it, they never saw our
ship until weWere down almost on top
of them and created a constsrnation
among their crew o.; dccki SO you sec
how easily merchant vessel may knock
the end of of an iceberg.
There have been two veasels-vhalers
sunk by whales, h;s.e.y records. Both
were sunk in the South Pacific Ocean,
and both were annk by sperm whales
(bullsls These vezsela had hntk el.ael,s;a.
the whales frat In boats, which were
stove by the infuriated monsters. The
captains in each case then attacked the
whales with their ships, and in doing 30
were in return attacked by the whales
and sunk. The whale Is the most do
cile fiah that ewims, and those two cases are
the only ones, beliava. known in. che
history Of th whale fishery. I do not
believe O whale attacked The bark Column
bia. IF 9 whale sunk that bark it was
by accident. Two incidents in my expe.
rience ofThales strengthens my opinion.
Sperm whales (the bulls onlyl hava
dreadful battles with each otker at sea,
and when fighting those battles are OBJ.
livious TO everything around them. Two
hundred mil } northwest Of the Western
Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, in 1852, I
was an eye witneas of one of those fear
fol combats between these leviathans of
the deep. We had just begun our cruise,
and were not ready to catch or lower
for whales, so we ran our ship down
close to them, and even ran on top of
them, without being discovered. Tho
sea eli around .hs- was colofed with
blood, and in and out of the water they
fought like demons. Again, in the Cele-
bes, IN 1866 witnessed another conflict.
Then We were prepared to take fish.
We lowered our four hoats and came
upon them 80 unawares that We fastened
to each whale and killed them with our
lances at once. Here, again, was th sea
all bloody, and when We hauled hem
alongaide of the ship long, deep slges
Wuro fUuna piougned III the sides of the
whales, and the Jaws of each were torn
and bleeding. We slowed down 1873 bar.
rels Of Bperm oil out of the two.
If o vessel as old 90 Sae bark Columbig
should strike one Of these sperm whales,
the vessel going at the rate of elk or
eight knots, it would start her planking
and spring her seams at the stem and if
the Captain or crew did not know enough
TO 1eAvA the vessel To- draw n aaiI urdar'