The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1893-07-20
Continued from Third page. J

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 to sleep,
especially if they have been dining
pretty heavy. They sleep sound, and
| have more than once MIXED a she
whale when she was sleeping like that
without waking her up, just as you
might milk a COW Whales milk, |
want to tell you, is the richest milk taat
any animal gives, and, if only enough
of it could be obtained, it would drive
cod liver oil out of the market. We
always MIXED our she whales when We
found them asleep before harpooning
EN-; always. A good, healthy she
whale, with sucking cubs, would give
down a barrel of milk, and then we'd
have feast after a hard days work
"But suppose besides being sleep
mad this big whale that pitched into
the schooner Mermaid had also been
harpoon mad If he had been, The
SIN wouldn't have had that story to
print, for the schooner or her crew
would never have been heard from
again. If there had been three feet or
so of harpoon in that whale, he wouldn't
have been satisfied with one whack at
the schooner, although that one whack
disabled her and sent her scurrying to
the nearest port for repairs. He would
have gone at her again like a battering
ram, and swooped his terrible huke
about her like a cyclone and sent her
and her crew to the bottom, like fell
lows of his have done many time be-
fore. But he was only sleep mad, and
not having the pain of harpoon to
keep it fresh in his mind that the
schooner and its men were responsible
for that pain, he was satisfied with the
damage he did by his one charge and
went below.
did ever have a close call from
an Infatuated whale2 Did | Well,
remembering a few of 'em, think
did 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.
Before we got there we were five days
in the most terrible gale | ever saw,
and narrowly escaped going to the
bottom. AS it was we had to make
Bermuda for repairs. We then set
sail for the Azores.
ave picked up whale now aud
then, but they were not plentiful, but
one day we discovered a tremendous
bow-head or bone whale asleep close
off our port bow Three boats were
lowered | was the harpooner of the
captains boat, and the mate and sec.
ond mate were in charge Of the other
two. We got to the whale without dis
turbing him, and l gave him the har
pooh. That woke him, | can tell you
He was the maddest whale | ever saw,
being both sleep mad and harpoon
mad He turned on our boat and
came at US with a rush. Instead 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 bottom-side
up quicker than ever any boat had
been capslzed before. Ny leg became
foulcd IN the harpoun line, and IN a
second | found myself being lowed
through the water at about twenty
knots an hour and several feet below
the surface The line was wound
about my 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
knife was in my belt | got it cut, and
somehow-but | never knew just how
i managed to reach down and sever
the line. The next second appeared
on the surface, popping up in SO sud
den and startling a manner that |
almost scared the mate and his boats
crew into fits, for | came up right
alongside of their boat. 1t seems that
Just as the whale struck our boat and
wrecked it the mate fastened a 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. came around
after awhile, in time to see the rest of
the fight with that whale, but unable to
have hand in it, And what a fight it
was
''As 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
tornado upon it. He hurled himself
against the vessel three different times,
knocking off the cut-water clear to the