Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1886-06-26
STRUCK By \ WHALE.
a Little Schooner Gets in the
Way Of a Monster
knd Is Overturned and Dragged Out Of
Sight by the Leviathan.

illnesses to swear to-
In 1879" he continued, after getting
his pipe alight, II owned a small! >choon- |
orcallcd the Fly, and had her in tho she'll !
trade. | used to gather them Oh Santa
Rosa Island, and from thence along the
coast clear around to Cape st. Bias. Ny
crew was composed Of 4 negro who act
ed as mate, and two boys Being wee
bit Of a craft, and lodging among the
islands most of the time, we did rot
need much of crew nor any great
amount Of scamanship. 1t was in August
of the year | have named that one after
noon we were about midway between
Santa Rosa and the cape. and about
fifteen miles off the land We
were headed for the cape and max
ing about three knots an hour, the wind
being light and the weather fine. One
Of the boys was at the wheel, the other
asleep, and the mate was splicing rope
| stood on the port bow hooking at a
broken spar floating few hundred feet
oil. There was no sea on, and the Fly
was on an even keel. Suddenly, and
without a breath Of warning, the
schooner was lifted clear of the water
with a great crash and flung on her beam
ends. 1t 50 happened that no one was
thrown overheard, but before we could
exactly understand what had happened
the craft turned turtle.
''The first thing | knowcd l was on
her bottom, with one of the bows along
side o me. | had small lleg o powder
in the cabin, and my first thought was
that we were blown up I didn't cling
to this idea mcrc'n a minute, however,
! for, as | got the wafer ont o my eyes, |
caught sight Of great black mass along
side, and in a second more made out the
great square head Of a whale. The water
jst there was at least ninety feet deep,
but it had been rolled up until it looked
like a mud hole for an acre or two around
us. got it through my wool pretty soon
that we had been struck by whale.
and that the old leviathan of the deep
was still alongside In fact. | could
have touched his nose with twenty foot
pole
''Now, one of the singular things is
that we hadn't seen the spout of a whale
that afternoon. Indeed it is rare for
one to run in 50 nigh that coast. OF
course, there might have been whale
sporting around and we not see him. but
the chances are that that fellow had made
run OF several miles under water
When he came up to blow he found the
Fly in his way, and hc threw her off hi
nose as bull would toss a cadhv. The
blow must have dazcd him, however for
it was a good three minutes before hc
moved fin. could look into one Of Iii,
eyes. and by and by noticed it take OH
4 malicious twinkle, and he gave hi.
fullcs a fiirt and backed off about hun
dred feet. H was mad. He though,
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