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

An old whaler Explains Why Merchant
Vessel May Run Into Anything.
Totle Editor ofthe Ntw York Sun-SIR
On board of all merchant vessels las the
bark Columbia would be called in nau-
tical parlance), there is no lookout kept,
either from the vessels deck or mast
head, and if any strange object is seen on
the ocean by any of the crew of mer-
chairman, it is more by accident than de-
sign. That is the reason so many ship
wrecked mariners who survive the disas-
ter have always incidents to relate of ves-
sells passing near them and not coming to
their rescue.
All merchant vessels take as few men
as possible to manage them from port to
port, for the purpose of reducing expen.
ses. There are no extra men provided
agsinst cases of sickness or death: IF a
man is off duty the others of his "watch"
on deck are obliged to perform his part of
the work. As everybody knows, it is the
rule of the sea for the vessels safety to
always have one.half of its crew on deck
when she is 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 vessel clean and in sailing condition.
The rigging of a vessel is worse than the
rigging of woman. You get a woman
we'll rugged and she will keep herself 80
for while; but the rigging of vessel
is always out Of order. OF course I am
referring to sailing" vessels only.
I have merely stated these facts to show
you that the watches on deck during the
day have all their time and attention ia.
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, :. a hundred
miles to the eastward ofthe Island of st.
Paul's. Our lookout at mast head, one
day, discovered sail two points off our
lee bow, apparently standing the same
way as ourselves on an east northeast
course. Asthe day drew along we gradu-
ally overhauled the stranger, who ap-
peared to be a full-rigged ship, with ey-
erything 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 to
get q response. We held our spy.
glasses to our eyes for some time,
but we could get no responsive signal
from her. We were now curious. Our
ensign was of an unusual size and might
have been easily seen by the naked, eye
from this slow sailer off our lee bow.
We gave them better view of our flag
by approaching nearer. 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 mizzen 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
head had for some time seen the crew
move about on her deck, she failed to
show her colors. We then resolved to
run down across her stern, and see If she
had any name, and learn, if we 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 wind, and had lowered one
of our quarter boats before she got the
Dutch flag to her peak. As We were
strong handed, I lowered the quarter
boat and, selecting two Dutchman from
our crew, pulled along side of this Dutch
East Indiaman and boarded her. Of
course, after the first salutation that one
master of a vessel gives to another on
like occasions, 1 inquired the 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 we were down almost on top
of them and created CONSERVATION
among their crew on deck So you see
how easily a merchant vessel may knock
the end off of an iceberg.
There have been two vessels-whalers
sunk by whales, history records. Both
we're sunk in the South Pacific Ocean,
and both were sunk by sperm whales
(bulls). These vessels had both attacked
the whales first in boats, which were
stove by the infuriated monsters. The
captains in each case then attacked the
whales with their ships, and in doing 80
u,ano - rotnrr otto oirad h1 fbo uh q 1er
and sunk. The whale is the most do
cile fish that swims, and those two cases are
the only ones, I believe, known in the
history of the whale fishery. 1 do not
believe whale attacked the bark Colum.
bia. Ifa whale sunk that bark it was
by accident. Two incidents in my expe-
rience ofwhales strengthens my opinion.
Sperm whales (the bulls only have
dreadful battles with each other at sea,
and when fighting those battles are OBJ.
livious to everything around them. Two
hundred miles northwest of the Western
Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, in 1852, l
was an eye witness of one of those fear
full combats between these leviathans of
the deep. We had just begun our cruise,
and we're 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. The
sea all around them was colored with
blood, and in and out of the water they
fought like demons. Again, in the Cele-
bes, in 1856 witnessed another conflict.
Then we were prepared to take fish.
We lowered our four boats and came
upon them so unawares that we fastened
to each whale and killed them with our
lances at once. Here, again, was the sea
all bloody, and when we hauled them
alongside of the ship long, deep ridges
were found ploughed in the sides of the
whales, and the jaws of each were torn
and bleeding. We slowed down 1873 bar
rels of sperm oil out Of the two.
If vessel as old as the bark Columbia
should strike one of these sperm whales,
the vessel going at the rate of six or
eight knots, it would start her planking
and spring her seams at the stem; and il
the Captain or crew did not know enough
70 baova fbo uoroa1 to drou aai1 undpr