Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1881-09-08
Nantucket Stories.

Pollard, master, was cruising for whales
in the equatorial regions Of the Pacific
ocean west of South America. One day
the vessel encountered one or two
whales, or whale with her Young one.
A large animal STAYED in two of the
boats. The other boats, distance of,
saw the men struggling in the water.
Captain Pollard sailed his vessel to res
cue them. The whale retreated to the
distance of half a mile and then came
with great velocity for the vessel, strik-
ing her amidships with his head and
starting leak instantly. The infuriated
animal, acting. evidently with $ malice
aforethought," retreated twice and re-
peated the blows. The third time it
crushed in the whole side of the sel,
which sank instantly. The men went
into two boats, They parted in mid
ocean, In the Pacific, near the equator.
One was never heard Of again; the
other, with Captain Pollard on board,
headed for South America They were
] eighty days in this open boat.
While in this forlOrn condition, watch
ing every day and hour for sail, they
were struck one day by bill fish, a
variety OF the sword-fsh. The blow
started plank near the keel of the boat.
They took off their jackets, stuffed
them into the hole to stop the leak, and
began to bale out the boat. They had
an ak, and managed to find two or three
nails. With these they set to work to
repair the place, but whenever they
went to drive a nail the plank would
spring they could not drive it from
the inside OF the boat, and had no awl
or gimlet with which to make hole by
which it might enter the planking. A
man named Nixon said "The only
way this job can be fixed is to hold the
ak on the outside and hammer the nail
from the inside, SO as to clinch it. z
Eyes, said Captain Pollard, " that's all
right, Nixon, if we only had somebody
under the bottom of the boat to hold
the AK" Said Nixon: "I'm the man
that's going to do that He jumped
overheard, took the ak, and held it
under water against the boat until they
hammered in the nails. Then he was
lifted on board, almost unconscious, but
he revived. They then kept on their
course as well as they could, but at
length ran out of provisions. Finally,
after enduring untold horrors, they
were compelled to resort to the sailors
last expedient, and drew lots to see who
should die and furnish food for his
companions. Either one or Two of the
crew lost their lives in this way. It is
said that the second lot fell upon
slender young man, In delicate health
whose life the captain could not bring
himself to take, but said, /" Take me-"
They concluded to try the lot again,
when it fell upon the same person.
Scarcely had the shot been fired which |
put an end to his life, when vessel
hove in sight, which rescued them.
| Captain Pollard could often be seen
afterward by summer visitors to Nan |
tucket--a broken down, shattered old
man. From being one of the boldest
captains that sailed from the island, he |
was such wreck that if he saw two or
three people gathered together in the
street, or If any one took up news
paper in his presence, he hurried away
instantly, for fear Of hearing something
about shipwreck. He died four or five
years ago. There is now but one sur
vivor of that boats crew, and that is
Nixon, the man that held the ak under
the water.
Walter j., the only son of a widow
of Nantucket, set sail when twelve years
old with the captain Of whaler. One
dark and rainy night when they were
sailing on the China seas, it began to
blow very hard, and all hands were
ordered aloft to shorten sail. In the
darkness and rain the boy fell from the
mast. Had he fallen upon the deck he \
would in all probability have been
killed; but he struck the back -stay-a
rope drawn tight like the string of a
yiolin-and rebounded into the water.
Soon the cry came, 1" Aman overheard"
The captain felt very sad when he
learned it was Walter J.. He put
ship about and tackled back and forth,
but nothing could be seen of the boy.
Before giving up the search, however,
he called the men aft and asked them
whether anything else could be done,
for / don't want you to 60 back to
Nantucket and say that if something
else had been done Walter j could |
have been saved" No man, however,
offered a suggestion, and although the
time had been long-perhaps half an
hour since the lad had fallen over
board, the captain made few turns
more and called on the men for
q final decision whether any
thing more could be done. He
finally concluded to hold on his course,
when one Of the men said that he heard
cry. They listened and soon heard
call, Keep her away or you'll run over
me-" Half dozen ropes were thrown
out by as many different persons, when
the boy said: Make bow line, I'm
| too weak to hold on" A bow line is
rope with large loop firmly tied in it,
It was thrown out, the lad put it over
one leg, held on by his hands and was
drawn on board. He had fallen into the
water with suit of clothes, tarpaulin,
overalls and shoes on. He was drawn
out naked as when first appeared insthe
world, having managed, in spite of the
great exertion Of swimming to divest
himself of all his clothes in order that
they might not impede his movements
When asked how he had been able So
endure SO long he answered that he was
on the point Of giving up from fatigue
and letting his feet go down, prepar-
atory to sinking, when he thought Of
his mother and kept on. He is still
living in Nantucket. -Lippinoot's Mag
dzine.