The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-12-14
Fish Yarns.
breaking i'm Observation-Disclosures Ex-
citing Ride ON a Whale.
New York SUM-

See that man%' said the captain of a
cod fisherman at the Fulton market slip,
pointing to round-shouldered, long-limbed
sailor who was busy scraping down the
mainmast with piece of window pane;
"wall, he's rid what amt a-goin' to be rid
again. No, he didn't ride out no gale O.
wind, nor no sea sarpint, nor no Dayy
Jones' COW. What he buckled to was reg
lar out and outer of boss mackerel. |
seen him do it," added the skipper, ham
mering the rail with a Delaying pin; 'sand he
rid him well, too. Hi, Amos, drop down
minute, will ye2"
Amos slackened away the halyard that
had suspended him in mid air and lowered
away, and coming forward, wrenched the
reporters arm with New England cordiali-
ty.
II amt much on pipin' my own horn"
he said; "but as Capt Lish has made the af-
fidavy, I'm bound to stick it. 1t came"
he continued, seating himself on the rail,
"somethin' like this. / was second mate
of the mackerelman Weepin' Susan. That
wasn't her registered name, but she was SO
master damp when close hauled that we gev
her the handle sort of off-hand, and it stuck
to her like burs to a curly dog. We gener-
ally lay on and by between Biddeford and
Mnhiggan. and in a stress of weather put
into the first hole we could ketch. One ev-
enin' it came on to blow, and the hull feet
got inside of Fort Popham and laid it out,
snortin' nor easter. After she blowed out
it came on dead calm and the boys got on
what they call a racket. There was over
300 sail of mackerelmen packed into little
harbor, so you could almost jump aboard of
'em, one from another, and on each was a
crew of from ten to fifteen men, making
probably 1900 men In all. Wall, about noon,
somebody sounds fog-horn, and in min
ute more over 1900 of them fog horns was a.
tootin' like they'd gone crazy, and the other
hands what hadn't horns was a-lammin' on
tin pans they'd yanked out of the galley
and everybody was a-yellin'. l tell We it
made noise that made the fish shed their
scales all through the bay. pll swan We
could hear the howlin' and roarin' five
miles.
Wall. the hull gang was a-goin' it when
our skipper noticed big school of what we
took to be mackerel right across the bay in
shore. You kin bet we dropped them horns
and jumped for the boats, and in minute
was under way. A half dozen of the hers
see what was up, and put after us, but we
got there first, hev over the net, and was
round the school in short commons. In
haulin' in the net we worked into shoal wa
ter, and was standin' for ard and holdin'
the seine, when there came jerk and a
splash, and big fish riz right in front of
me and the first thing [ knew I was on top
of boss mackerel twelve feet long. fell
right astride of it, and in tryin' to fend off
the critter grabbed it by the gills, and,
Lord bless vel in a second l was rushin'
along on that ere critters back like steam
engine. was so took back that i hung on
for all was worth, the lads a-screamiR' an
yellin' SO It thought my time had come.
Down went the big cuss, but he couldn't
sink me on account of the shoal water. Then
he turned up the beach, leadin', as luck
would have it, right along one of these ERE
fences or fish weirs, and goin' like lightnin',
the spray a-fyin', and l a-bracin' back like
/ was leadin' charge. In minute or SO
we reached the fence, and the critter gev
sharp turn and dashed up along to'ards the
boats again, stretch of 200 yards. By this
time the higgins of the hull fleet was black
with the lads a-screamin' and hurrahin'. /
don't know how it come, but before the crit
ter reached the boat it slowed, and off I
went, but hangin' on like grim death, his
gills cutiin' into my hands like knives. But
i was pound 10 nang on or Dust, and hang
on did. My slidin' to le'ward headed the
big critter in, and he rushed clean on to the
fiat. rid him clean ashore, and if you can
beat that for ridin' 1 want to see the boss"
"Speakin' about ridin' fish, said Capt
Lish, "when was a yonker my first voyage
was made OUT of New Bedford in whaler,
and was SO green that the skipper ulster
say it was just like havin' a hull fower-gar-
den aboard. Well, soft happened that /
went along in the first boat when we sighted
the first whale, and it happened as how we
got smashed. The harpooner jammed in
his iron, and the whale sounded and come
up three minutes later just like rocket,
strikin' us in the bow, and turnin' the boat
ever and over in the air. We fell out. and
when we crawled in the boat and got clear,
we see the whale a-rushin' off along the sur
face with Bob Cairns, the mate, a standin'
on him, holdin' on 90 the harpoon. recko
they was goin' a mile a minute, and it
warn't long afore they was close on to the
ship. Bob, declinin' further passage, lept
off, and boat put off and picked him up
He was nigh choked with flynn spray, but
outside O. that he said it was all agreeable
The old whales back was covered with bar
nacles, and that's what made it easy for
him fo afioL on -