The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1885-08-20
A TALE FOR THE MARINES
The Yarn that a Guileless Old
Sea Captain Spins.
How Big Whale Towed Boats Grew
Many Miles to Land.

"A HoB Will PciPohuiSuioi pho Va
red and white floats over the roof Of
large building in town, says Nam
tucket (Mass.) letter to the New
York Sun The building is the Gus
tom House. so called through tradition,
for no vessel ever enters this port from
foreign lands now, and there can be
no customs to collect. 1t is conducted
by number of surerannuated old
sea captains, who smoke all day and
weave tremendous sea yarns for the
benefit of any city man who may
chance along. One weatherbeatel old
salt told prize story lately, and now
the others are racking their brains for
something to surpass him. He said:
81 left Nantucket on May Is, 1871,
as second mate Of the snug bark Anna
Snowdon, Capt. Keziah Coffin, bound
for the Pacific Ocean. I'm not going
to tell you of our trip around the
Horn, although that was rather lively
and we did lose two men overheard,
but will get right down to the bottom
facts of what l started in to tell. We
had already killed two big whales, and
were poking around about four hun
dred miles north of the Sandwic Is
lands, when we sighted big fellow
a-blowing not mile away. The first
mate and myself put off in two boats,
but l had the likeliest crew, and
struck the whale irst-struck him
hard, too, because he was spouting
blood in five minutes. Just then we
saw another whale and the first mate
put out after that one. The bark
tried to beat up in our direction, but a
squall came on and we lost sight of
her The waves were so big that we
should have been capsized if we had
not kept to the leeward of the whale,
which we had killed before the squall
struck us. Its big carcass formed a
sort of breakwater. Besides that the
oil that oozed from its wounds seemed
to quiet the waves. We were afraid
some big waves would throw the
whale on top of us, but by keeping the
oars going we managed to stay at a
safe distance.
"When the storm passed over not a
sign of the bark was to be seen. There
We were anchored to a whale out in the
middle of the Pacific Ocean, with not
more than two days rations of bread
and water for the seven men in that
little boat. We waited all that day in
hopes of seeing the ship, and at night
we burned some blubber on the back
of the whale, but no help came. When
morning came and no sail could be
seen, we knew that there was no hope
Of finding our vessel again, and there
was nothing to do but to pull away
in the direction of the Sandwich Is.
lands, trusting to reach them before 6
violent storm should overwhelm US
We cut our harpOons out of the whale
because We didn't know when We
might need them. There is one Of
them in the corner there now. Guid
ing the boat with compass which
always carried with me, we pulled
away for the Sandwich Islands. w,
made forty miles that day, and th'
men were terribly tired We slept by
watches, off and on, and by pulling
now and then perhaps gained ter
miles during the night. The mex
day the men were worn out, and tn,
sun was so hot that they could no
work their oars. Our chances o
reaching land seemed very poor
Toward noon l was standing on tn
bow of the boat looking around il
hopes of seeing Il sail, when saw
fin-back whale come to the surface no
more than 200 yards away. 1t was NJ
use to us now. but the whalemaI
instinct was too strong within me t.
be resisted
"'Giye way l cried. There sh
blows.
81 picked up a harpoon, and as tn
PROV Of the boat almost touched tn
whale / drove the point deep into it
side. 1t failed to reach vital point
and away the big fellow went III
line ran out so fast at first that it mad
the rail smoke, and raised the hatche
ready to cut it, for feared the whal
would draw us under But the strai
slackened after a little until there wa
only moderate pull, and giving Tn
end twist around rowlock let tn
whale tow us along.
"'This is better nor rowing sai
one.
eyes, and he's going in the righ
direction said another
"They were quite right. The whal
was taking us in the right directio
we wished to go at the rate of full
twenty miles an hour. We bowie
along merrily all that afternoon. an
, about o'clock we heard a hail, an
saw, not far away, the mates boat.
"Hold ON they cried.
awe can't. Throw us line,' r,
piled.
1--WE caught their line as we sweI
by, and then the Nha e had two boat
: in tow. The men IN the other boz
were worse off than we had been, &
: they had pulled longer They ha
given up hope when we came along
side. You may not believe it, br
, that yyhai Eept STRAIGHT ohaad ell tn.