The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1884-12-03
Written for THE RECORD.
"REMINISCENCES OF A VOYAGE TO
THE NORTHERN SEAS.
BY GEO. c. WESTON, N. Y.
No. 5.

adjacent high hill in order to have look
out, and stare about the horizon, to look
for whales upon the distant water. Vari-
GUS gymnastic exercises were engaged in
to keep us warm, and stir up our animal
spirits. We were fortunate in finding
low creeping vines running over the
ground, which bore berry resembling a.
huckleberry. These we gathered and
took them on board with us, where they
were speedily made use OF by our cook,
who made them into pies, &c. The rocks
were covered with an evergreen moss,
which was highly infammable, We used
TO take lot of it, pile it in heap and set
fire to it, thus making bonfire that was
speedily in readiness to impart great
deal of heat.
There were several ''lookouts" station
ed at intervals of several miles apart.
When we had looked in vain from one
point to another, without avail, we usual
ly entered the boats again and raced with
each other, to point where there was
another lookout station, where we would
disembark and repair to the spot in order
to take another observation and scan the
sea for sight of the old signs of a whale
"blowing." This practice was INDUCED
in until the day was nearly ended, when
We returned to the ship once more, in the
expectation of meeting with greater sue
cess in the morning.
II was our good fortune one fine morn
ing, to discover whale blowing" in the
distance. The officers and boatsteerers
rushed rapidly down from their station at
the lookout and hastily embarking in
our boats we put to sea, with the inten-
ton of capturing the whale. There were
four boats ous this day, one of them be-
ing manned by a crew composed entirely
of natives. Before we arrived at the spot
the whale dove; we then scattered in diff
ferent directions and awaited his reap
p earance. The luck was this time to be
awarded to the ''natives." The whale
came once more to the surface, near their
boat and began to elbow" This crew at
once pulled up to him stealthily and har-
pooned him. He instantly went under the
surface. In some way the line became
entangled around a sharp rock. In
short time he succeeded in wearing the
line in two and was once more free. He
then came to the surface close to the
Captain boat. The boatsteerer at once
harpooDed him, the other two boats pull
ed swiftly up, in order to be in at the
death struggle.
The mates boatsteerer was little
Nantucket chap, very nervous. He sez.
ed ''purse gun" "a gun fastened to the
end of pole), made rush to the bow,
his foot struck a "thwart," he fell and
his gun exploding, the lance went through
the bow of the boat. The damage to the
boat was above the water line and there
fore did not interfere with the progress of
the boat through the water A few mo.
ments more and they were up alongside
of the whale, when the first mate seized
his gun, placed it to his shoulder and was
about to fire; but the boat striking the
back of the whale, it careened over to one
side, thus disturbing his aim; the lance
passed to a rock on shore and exploded,
thus not doing any damage to the whale
at all. BY this time the boatsteerer had
reloaded his weapon and discharging it
with better effect than before, the lance
entered the body of the whale and soon
after exploded in the interior of the mon
ster, causing dull, heavy sound. The
second mates boat then came up where
its commander fired another lance into
the whale. The Captain then fred lance
into him, and amid this 4th of July cele-
bration, he turned up his toes and "died
agin."
As our vessel was at anchor inside the
bay and there being no wind, we fastened
ropes to him, and towed him to the side
of the vessel, where he was allowed to lie
until high water. We then towed him to
shore, made several lines fast to his
flukes and hauling him upon shore, fas.
tened the ropes around the rocks lying
about. The tides here rise to great
heights and the whale being made fast on
a shelving beach, where the tide receded
or left the whale considerable distance
from the shore, 1t enabled us to work
about him without any trouble. The
blubber was then cut loose from each
side and allowed to drop over on one side,
leaving, however, all fast in one piece on
the bottom. After we had in this man
ner, stripped him of his fatty covering,
and all being loose from the body of the
whale, except that part upon which it
rested, we then cut off his head, which
contained the whale bone, and hitching
tackle to the top of his body, we gently
rolled it over until it was entirely loose,
when it slid away from the mass of blub
Der, leaving the latter ready for us to
operate upon.
We then waited for high water again,
our blubber once more foated, when it
was an easy matter to tow 1t to the YES
sci. 1t was here put through the same
performance as in the case of our first
victim. The yield of oil and bone was
trihe smaller than our first catch, but re-
paid us for all our trouble.
This was fair sample of our Fall
whaling, the last whale having been
caught just before heavy storm, which
came up while we were trying the blub-
Der, and having gotten everything in
read mess, the oil all stored away, we
hoisted our anchor and with light
thoughts and happy hearts, we turned
the bow of our vessel homeward, turn
ing our vessel from the narrow strait,
where she had been harbored to the sea,
where she was to catch the fortunate
breezes that were to take us back to our
homes and our firesides. Alas all our