The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1893-06-27
PART PAGES 9 TO IL.
DOINGS OF WHALES.
SEA YARNS SPUN BY AN OLD Ex-
W4ALER OF SOUTH STREET.

Milking She Whales Before happening
Them While They Are Asleep Top OF
the Water - Whales Very Dangerous
When sleep Mad or Harpoon Mad.
"That's the best reading I've had for
many long day, )" exclaimed the bronzed
old ex-seaman in his dingy little "sail-
ing office in South street, and his bright
eyes twinkled. The reading that pleased
him so was the Victoria dispatch giving
an account of the attack of an enormous
whale on the schooner Mermaid off the
Japan coast.
"You don't know what sleep mad is,
do you? It's just the kind of mad that
big whale had on him, and the same kind
of mad that any big whale is sure to get
on him when he has just had his dinner
and is taking his after dinner nap. The
whales of the waters where this schooner
Mermaid was cruising are great sleepers.
They turn over on their sides on top of
the water and let the waves rock them
tosleep, especially if they have been din
ing pretty heavy. They sleep sound, and
1 have more than once MIXED O she
whale when she was sleeping like that
without waking her up, just as you
might milk COW. A good, healthy she
whale, with sucking cubs, would give
down barrel of milk, and then we'd
have feast after hard days work.
"But suppose that besides being sleep
mad this big whale that pitched into the
schooner Mermaid had also been harpoon
mad. If he had been, The Sun wouldn't
have had that story to print, for the
schooner or her crew would never have
been heard from again.
"Did / ever have any close call from
an Infatuated whale? Did I? Well, re-
Wondering few of 'em, think didi
For instance, what would you call this
one? Forty years ago was one of the
crew of the whaler Mary Pilgrim of
Nantucket We started in April after
sperm whales in the waters around the
Cape de Verde islands.
eve picked upa whale now and then,
but they were not plentiful, but one day
we discovered tremendous bow head
or bone whale asleep close off our port
bow. Three boats were lowered. was
Iklb DOODCI VI bllO Captain 3 DOdb, anu
the mate and second mate were in
charge of fine other two. We got to the
whale without disturbing him, and
gave him the harpoon. That woke him,
l can tell you'll He was the maddest
whale l ever saw, being both sleep mad
and harpoon mad. He turned Oh our
boat and came at us with a rush. In
stead Of striking us head on he passed
our bow, and as he was passing struck
the boat with his fukes. He cut Us
square in two and turned the boat bet
tom side up quicker than ever any boat
had been capsized before. Ny leg be-
came fouled in the harpoon line, and in
q second found myself being towed
through the water at about 20 knots an
hour and several feet below the sur
face The line was wound about nv
leg just below the knee and had cut
deep into the flesh.
II knew my end was not more than a
minute ahead Of me unless | got loose
from that rushing whale. My knifewas
in my belt. got it out, and somehow
but never knew just howl managed
to reach down and sever the line. The
next second appeared ON the surface,
popping up in SO sudden and startling a
manner that I almost scared the mate
and his boats crew into fits, for came
up right alongside of their boat. It
seems that just as the whale struck our
boat and wrecked it the mate fasteneda
harpoon in the enraged monster and was
being towed by it to the windward, and
had come to the surface just as they
were passing that spot. They took me
in on the fly, as it were, but was very
little better than dead. The second mate
had picked up the captain and the rest
of the crew.
GAS the whale was tearing along with
the mates boat in tow he discovered
our vessel lying to, and making up his
mind that there lay the source of all his
troubles he turned and charged like a
tornado upon it. He hurled himself
against the vessel three different times.
knocking off the cutwater clear to the
wood ends and starting bad leak. While
he was thus engaged the mates boat got
near, and the furious whale turned ON it.
The mate thrust his lance against the
whales head and threw all his weight
upon it as the whale rushed forward.
while the crew backed the boat for their
lives. At that critical moment the cap
tain, with the second mates boat, came
up. He had bomb lance and fred it
at the whale. The bomb struck the
great head of the monster on the bone
above the left eye and exploded on the
outside, doing no damage except to mo-
mentarily stun the whale. he soon re-
covered and charged on the captains
boat. That boat being free avoided the
rush. and then the whale made again for
the mates boat.
''Three different times the captains
boat drew the whale away and saved the
mate and his crew. At the fourth time
the whale didn't turn aside from his
furious rush on the mate, and / thought
our fate was sealed. With a less ex-
perienced and true handed sailor than
cur captain it would have been sealed,
too, in very few seconds more. The
whale charged right upon us, and his
giant fukes were N the air, to svpbop
down and crush us beneath their
mighty and irresistible sweep, but that
gave the pluc&y captain the chance he
wanted. He drevethe hand lance into
the whale clear to its seizing, and the
monster fell back IN the water between
the two boats, neither one escaping by
more than a yard.
The captains plunge with the hans
lance had been true to its mark Bots