The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1889-05-28


very fine and the wind light. l had all
the men on deck setting up the rig
ginp. some of which had slackened
away. A man aloft suddenly hailed
the deck with the information that a
| large whale was bearing down on the
ship, head on. We were merchant
! vessel. and the sight of a whale had
no interest for us. We went on with
Our work for three or four minutes
when the man again hailed me with:
eff that fellow holds his course he
will be dead on TO us, sir. He's a
big fellow, and coming like an iron
steamer"
ran forward TO get a look. and the
sea was so smooth that / had no diff
Guilty in making out the whale. He
was still mile away. coming down at
about steamer speed, and holding d
course as straight as if somebody
aboard of him was steering by COM
pass. / was not a bit alarmed. expect
| ing to see him show fiukes every
moment, but the captain came on deck
and ordered the man at the wheel to
break off two or three points. This
brought the whale on our port bow.
AS told you, / expected to see him
sound every moment. 1t was astonish-
| ing that he had not discovered us long
before. | could scarcely believe my
eyes as he held on, and by and by We
had him alongside. l am telling you
the truth when l say he actually
rubbed us as we passed each other,
and the odor of him was SO rank that
some of the men cried out in disgust.
That whale was ninety feet long if he
was an inch, and he had head on him
| like brick wall So far as We could
see he was carrying no harpoons and
had no fresh wound, but he was moss
grown and barnacled as if he had
knocked about for couple of hundred
| years. The fact of his holding his own
in such a bull-headed way was alarm
ing, and when we were clear of him we
fell to congratulating ourselves over
the close shave.
| We were perhaps a mile apart when
the whale slowed around. The moment
| we discovered what he was doing we
knew that he meant to attack. The
breeze had now died away until we
| could not hope to dodge him, and he
had not yet fairly turned when We
| dropped the yawl from the davits and
ran her alongside to the bow. Two
men were ordered to get water and
| provisions into her, and as the whale
| headed up for US we went off before
the breeze to give him all the room we
could. Three or four minutes settled
| the question of whether he was after
the ship or sailing his own course. He
headed up for her, coming faster and
| faster, and when he was two cables
length away there was a great
| white wall of water rolling before
him, and his speed was from eight
cen to twenty miles an hour. He
struck us full on the starboard
| quarter, and the shock was as il two
ships had collided. Planks and ribs
/ gave way before him, and as he re-
cOiled from the blow our ship settled
down stern first and was under water
within two minutes. Everybody was
knocked down by the shock, and
everybody got up to rush for the yawl.
| | was sucked down almost as soon as /
reached my feet, and after a struggle,
in which | came out first best by
close shave, | was shot 10 the surface
amid a lot of deck rattle. There were
| two or three men around me at first
and as ! was heaved up | caught sight
| of the yawl with at least two men in
| her. The whale was still at hand.
lying very quiet. but | feared he would
soon be aroused and attack US in turn.
and | seized the galley door and pad
died away TO get out of his reach.
| While doing this a squall came down
and hung on for twenty minutes. and
when it had passed l could see nothing
| of boat nor whale.
That afternoon, an hour before sun
down, was picked ND by the Ameri-
can whaIer Richard Knox. She al
ready had our yawl, which she had
| found bottom up, but had not seen any
of the men nor met with any wreck
age. | was again the only one saved.
and but for my te ,timony the fate of
the ship would have forever remained
a mystery. As to why the whale at
tackled us was made more clear after
my rescue. The Knox had raised and
chased him the evening before, and
often during the month past that he
had Become ugly. He came for us
with the intention of sending the ship
to the bottom, and he succeeded only
too well in carrying out his purpose.
A third mystery was the case of the