The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-02-06
A WHALE TO THE RESCUE.
A Leviathan of the Deep Performs a
Remarkable Service.
From the Hartford Times.

From the Hartford Times.
ut was in the year 1885, said the old
sailor. that was bound to the ivory coast
on the English brig Plowboy, Capt, Scott,
commander. She was a dry craft, well
found, but very slow, and although those
were risky days along the heather coasts,
owners of crafts were stingy about arming
them for protection. We had two old six
Founders, which had been purchased at
sale of condemned ordnance, and ten or
dozen muskets and cutlasses of but little
value. We called at the Canary Islands on
our way down the coast, and there we got
the cannon out of the hold and mounted
them on their carriages The Captain was
informed that French ship had been plum
dered and sunk between there and the troplc
only two weeks before, and that two or
three suspicious sail were cruising along the
coast We felt brave enough as we sailed
to the south with those two old cannon on
deck, and the wish was expressed time and
again that we might fall in with a pirate.
1--WE got light and battling winds along
the Barbary coast, but were nearing the
tropic, when, one afternoon an hour before
sunset a strange sail was seen standing out
from the coast to cut us off. She was also
a brig, and from the very first sight of her
there was no doubt in our minds that she
points TO the west, and then began to get
ready for her. We had no sooner set about
loading the guns than it was found that our
cannon balls were all too large for the bore
Not one of them could be made to fit. This
discovery took the courage out of us, and it
was only i'll the hope that we might kill a
few of the pirates before we were all sacrl-
feed that we loaded with bolts, pieces Of
chain and such stuff in place of solid shot.
Tho 1icoh xynnlH ha affppfiNa at close
quarters.
"This stranger walked up on us at rapid
rate, and when darkness came ON he was
not more than four miles away. Our Cap
tain went into the rigging with his glass for
| squint and when he came down he called
us aft and said there was no longer room to
doubt. The stranger was pirate and there
was no hope of escaping him. AT that very
| moment the wind, which was off the land,
began to fall, and ten minutes later we
hadn't enough TO blow feather. We could
no longer see the stranger, owing to the
darkness. We knew that he must have lost
| the wind first, and that he was all OF three
| miles away.
IF the calm held through the night he
| would have to attack in boats, If at all, and
we then stood some show of beating him off.
Believing that this would be his plan, we
made the best preparations possible. 1t was
1
rising from the water, and all our lights
were extinguished at dark, and we moved
| about in our bare feet. The pirates had
probably taken our bearings by compass
before night shut in, but with that fog com
| ing a little thicker he could not see us 10i
feet away.
Midnight came, and we had heard moth
| ing The fog was now very thick and every
| man was listening intently to catch the first
| SlICnOiO1c snnT1 u-han 81 II Of 81 SI1H1aO there
was a terrific crash, followed by shouts and
shrieks. There was another crash, more
| shouts, and then a splash in the water as il
| an iceberg had rolled over In a minute or
| two we got a swell which lifted the brig
like a cork and kert her dancing for three
or four minutes When it subsidized the
captain and mate agreed it had been caused
by a whale preaching. Both had sailed in
whaling ships, and they asserted that moth
ing else could have caused the commotion
"From midnight until dawn every mar
stood at his post When daylight came we
saw the pirate brig about two miles off. Be
| tween the two vessels was a lot of wreck
stuff, which the captains glass made out tC
| be the shattered remnants of several small
boats. Only four men could be observed
aboard the brig, and as the captain was
watching them they got into fight. One
was killed, one ran below, and the two mer
left on deck got a white cloth from the
cabin and senU it aloft in place of flag.
''ln about half an hour we got the vino
| and ran down to her and lowered a boat anC
went aboard. went in the boat and fol
lowed the mate on deck, where we were
welcomed by two men who spoke English
1t was queer case, as you will agree. One
of the men was an Englishman, the sole
survivor of an English vessel wrecked or
the Barbary coast five years before The
other was an American, who had deserted
his ship at the Cape Verde Islands three
years previously, and while making &
voyage in a coaster had been captured and
spared by the vessel he was now on. The
| dead man and the man below were native
Agerines, as were most of the briggs crew
"On the previous night, when the vino
went down, they got out and towed then
brig about mile. The entire crew, with
the exception of the four men, then armed
themselves, and the boats set off to attack
| us What followed could be pretty safely
| guessed at The four boats were in com
pany when the whale struck at least one of
them as be came up, He must have thrown
| this boat many feet into the air. He might
have fallen upon the others or shattered
them with a rap Of his fiukey, but that he
| DESTROYED them the evidence was before us
mot man had escaped, and, instead Of
being captured and made TO walk the plank
as we had reason to expect, we had turned
about and captured the piratical craft with.
out firing a shot. She was a fine prize,
can tell you, having over 500, 900 worth Of
plumber on board, besides being better
vessel than our own. We carried her down
to Sierra Leone, where she was delivered
over and passed upon, aud everyone of US
got a comfortable lump of prize money
| from the adventure. She was an Englisl
brig which had been captured five years be
fore and recorded as lost in a gale"