Sharp County record., 1880-12-02
0ld.Time Whaling.

VAu- AhiS W
A harpOon was not toasting-fork to
throw in the days when men oftener
threw the iron by muscle instead of
powder. 1t is " Shad," with heavy
wooden pole five or six feet in length
fastened into the socket of the iron barb.
This, with the line attached, makes a
weight requiring for the cast the use
of both arms, and strong arms at that.
A man would Lot care to carry a har-
poon more than mile il hot day. Its
own weight, as much as the impelling
Jrce, is depended on to bury itself in
the floating mound of seemingly pol
ished India-rubber which constitutes a
whale above water. And when it first
buries itself, there Is, for few seconds,
some vicious splashing and ugly flirting
of fluke or fin A whales tail is an in
strument of offense of about one hundred
horse power and well adapted to cut
ting through a boat as table knife
goes through an egg shell. The two
fins suggest members between paddles
and rudimentary arms. 1t is also a
member very capable of striking out
from the right or left shoulder, and
striking very hard. When half-dozen
men are within six feet of these weap-
ons, controlled by an enormous black
sunken mass, eighty or one hundred
feet long, they are apt to look trllie
wild andtheir eyes have a tendency to
bulqs1~1here are stories among whale
.af6HOf boat-steererS who have had all
6,fhe grit permanently taken out OF them
Y by the pepils and cataStrophes OF that
moment. A New Londoner once had
the cap swept from his head by the
sweep of the whales tail over it, and
he was too nervous for boat service ever
afterward. 1t is no skulking fight like
shooting lions and tigers from the
shelter of trees or rocks. It's q
fair stand-up combat between half a
dozen men in an eggshell of boat
on the open sea, and sometimes on
heavy ocean pillows, and five hundred
tons of flesh, bone and muscles, which,
if only animated by a few more grains
Of sense, could ram the whaleShip her
self as eifectually as an ironclad. Half
Il century ago mad whale in this way
sent Nantucket ship to the bottom
As a murderous spectacle the capture
and killing of a whale, as seen even by
a sea-cook from the galley window, is
something ultra-exciting. 1t makes
ones hairs stand upon both ends
There is the whaleboat, the men sit
ting motionless in their seats, the long
bars apeak, shooting through the water
towed bV the whale unseen underneath
the surface. Sometimes two or three
boats hitch on, for the more the whale
has to drag the sooner he becomes ex-
hausted Now they haul in on him and
carefully coil the wet line in the tubs.
Closer and closer they near him, the
passage of the great mass under water
being marked by swlrls and eddies on
the surface. Our herculean king,
vi" Black Jake" is at the bow the round,
razor-edged long handled lance lying
by him, his back to the crew, his eye on
the eddies, his great bare black arms,
now the right, now the left-moving
first in one direction, then another, as
thus he signals to the steersman the di-
,recton in which to keep the boats
head; for although we are being towed
as tug would tow skitf, we must be
kept as near as possible in line with
the submerged motive power, and then
wal, %sSSr I SIX feet aheasHGa sHGaHt5anJAS Ht5,aJAyS t9&Fe&y,
anaybe forty feet of that great black
mass! 1t is astonishing how much there
lis of him. And he is down and under,
with his great gulp of air, in less time
than it takes to write or even speak
these last twenty words, but not before
the lance is out of Jake's hands, driven
three feet into his side, and hauled
aboard again by the light, strong line
attached: Suddenly the whale line
slacks. The boat ceases its rush through
the water The eddy and swirl ahead
cease. Now look outfor squalls. This
is one of Mrs. Grayback's peculiar
tricks. She is ambushed somewhere
below. She designs coming up under
the boats bottom, and constituting
herself into a submarine island OF
tlesh, bobbing like a released cork, She
is resolving herself into a submarine
earthquake, and proposes to send that
boat and crew ten feet into the air, or
capsizing them off her India-rubber
back. One hundred or five hundred
tons of wicked intelligence is thus
cropping about in the unseen depths for
the purpose of attaining the proper
position, and, as it We're, exploding
herself like an animated torpedo. Every
seat in the boat is an anxious seat.
There is no talking, but great deal Of
unpleasant anticipation. Those who
have seen the thing done before, await
in dread suspense the shock and upset
It's very much like being over powder
magazine about to explode. To keep
up the interest let us leave this partlcu-
aar Doat and situation in StatN quo.
Your Imagination may complete the
catastrophe or not, as you choose. Final
consummations are not desirable in a
thrilling tale, and this tale is meant to
be thrilling. Therefore, if you've got
a thrill in you, please thrill.
From the schooners deck, a mile and
half away, Captain, cook and cooper
the head tail and midritf of the ships
company-now perceive that the white
puff of spray from the whales blow
holes has changed to a darker color.
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