Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1890-09-04

NO s:s,: : .ss Ii; Il:
right whale with his tail. The fin
back, doesn't fight at all. He only
runs. but if he knew enough he
could knock such boats as ours
around the Cape to pieces. l re
member one case Of right whale
making a fight that ended very
strangely. was first mate on that
trip. This whale had been struck,
and the boats were out trying to
get chance to lance him, or shoot
bomb into him. The Captains
boat got up TO him first, and the
captain himself gave him u thrust.
The whale gave him flip with his
fiukes and up went the captain into
the air, and off went the whale quite
piece. The captain came down on
the gunwale, fell into the water, and
vas pulled out unconscious. The
bont wasn't injured much, and the
captain was the only man thrown
out hy the blow. was two miles
away with my crew, and hurried
UP. As / came near the men cried
out tnnt the captain was dead. l
saw that he was still alive, though,
and had a chance for it, SO, as there
was man on board that could tend
to him as well as could. ordered the
captains crew to tnge him back to
the ship, while l chased the whale
with my own crew. Well, we chased
him until shutdown. and had to give
it, up, though it was clear that the
whale was done for. When return
ed l found the captain still uncon-
.scious, but in a promising condition.
He was so badly hurt, though, that
ordered the ship homeward. The
next day the captain felt better, and
seemed SO cheerful that we decided
to keep on whaling. just before
dark we fell in with another ship that
had her flag at half mast. We went
up to see what was the matter, and
found that her caprain was dead. 1t
proved that they had met our whale,
which was an easy capture for them
on account of his weakness from our
wounds. They had got him along
side, and were preparing to hoist
hinf up SO as to begin cutting, when
some tackle got out OF fix on the
yard, pulley block dropped, struck
the Captain on the head, and no
didn't know what killed him."
Captain Williams paused to put
the sloop upon the other tack before
he resumed.
II got knocked in the air myself
once, but it didn't happen to hurt
me any. We had struck whale and
he ran out with the line. Our line
was 800 fathoms long a length that
is usually enough. for it isn't often
that a whale with the iron we'll into
him will run that far. This one did,
though and in order not to lose him
bent on another 3OO.fathOm line
and let him go with that. Blessed il
he didn't run that out too, but he
stopped there and we rowed close up
to him. was trying for chance
to shoot bomb into him, and
had a gun that was out OF order in
the lock, SO that sometimes the
hammer wouldn't fall when y lou pull.
cd the trigger. Well, it just failed
up on me that time, and away went
The whale and for a second time he
Tan out the O-fathom line. We
pulled up again and that time
took good care and hit him right
under The fin, a spot just the same as
il a bullet was to strike you under
the arm. 1t did the business for him.
of course, but he Topped around, hit
the boat with his tail, and up went
into the air. The men in the boat
said ] went up at least fifty feet.
don't know; it seemed 500 to me
and know had time before came
down to do quite some thinking.
struck the water when came dOwr
or else ! wouldn't be sitting here tt
tell you aboutit. We got the whale.
$40 you try to hit whale under
the fin?''
h Eyes, that s the best place, but yo,
can't always take your choice o
spots, and you can't tell dead SURF
what will be the effect of the shot.
remember once Of seeing n whale &c
straight for boat with his mouth
open, and the mate fired right into
the critters throat. 1t killed hip