Idaho news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1887-1891, 1890-10-04

TN fights with his
W mouth, and the |
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. re
member one case of a 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 a chance to lance him, or shoot
a bomb into him. The Captains
boat got up TO him first. and the
captain himself gave him thrust.
The whale gave him flip with his
flukes 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
was pulled out unconscious. The
boat wasn't injured much, and the
captain was the only man thrown
out by the blow. was two miles
away with my crew, and hurried
up. As l came near the men cried
out tnat 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 Icould. ordered the
captains crew to tage him back to
the ship, while | 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 / found the captain still uncon-
scious, but in a promising condition.
He was so badly hurt, though, that
i 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
him 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 he
didn't know what killed him"
Captain Williams paused to put
the sloop upon the other tack before
he resumed.
81 rot knocked in the air myself
once, but it didn't happen to hurt
me any. We had struck whale anc
he ran out with the line. Our line
was 300 fathoms long length that
is usually enough, for it isn't offer
that whale with the iron well into
him will run that far, This one did
though and in order not to lose hin
/ bent on another 300-fathom lin,
and let him go with that. Blessed
he didn't run that out too, but h
stopped there and we rowed close VI
to him. / was trying for o chanc
to shoot bomb into him, and
had gun that was out OF order il
the lock, so that sometimes tn
hammer wouldn't fall when you pull
ed the trigger. Well, it just faile'
up on me that time, and away wen
the whale and for a second time h
ran out the GOO fathon line. w
pulled up again and that time
took good care and hit him RICH
under the fin, spot just the same a
If q bullet was to strike you unde
the arm. 1t did the business for hin
of course, but he Topped around, hi
the boat with his tail, and up went
into the air. The men in the boa
said ] went up at least fifty feet.
don't know; it seemed 500 to mi
and | know had time before l cam
down to do quite some thinking.
struck the water when / came dow
or else / wouldn't be sitting here t
tellyou aboutit. We got the whale.
DO you try to hit whale undo
the fin?''
YES, that's the best place, but 20
can't always take your choice /
spots, and you can't tell dead SUI
what will be the effect of the shot.
remember once of seeing a whale Q
straight for bout with his mout
open. and the mate fired right int
Ahe critters tbroat. lie killed hir