Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1893-02-24


Whales Eyes-The Grew Usually
Humanity's Odds and Ends.
~ TORIES of the sea always have
fascination for the landsman,
| y and so it was that group of
Arctic blubber hunters had
lot of interested auditors.
SHOW would you like to have eight
or ten thousand dollars on string3"
asked one of them, knocking his pipe on
the edge of the ssringer and addressing
the group of landsmen collectively.
'Well, I've had that much many a
time," he went on without waiting for a
reply, ''and it makes a fellow rather
nervous guessing whether he's going to
land his fish or whether he'll get tipped
overheard. I've been to sea now thirty
four years and / expect I've struck about
as many whales as the next one, but it's
pretty exciting business yet. Why, last
season one of our boats struck a big sperm
whale and he started down. Our ship
had five boats and each boat carries 280
fathoms of line. That whale took down
the whole FIVE of 'em-1400 fathoms In
all. 1t began to look as we had lost the
whole thing, but he was too tired, and
when he came up we afeathered into
him."
'"You wouldn't believe that fish-at
least spouting fish-are Influenced by the
moon?" said another of the group.
"Well, they are. I've seen it time and
again, and I've called other peoples at
tention to it, too, but never found any
one else who had noticed it. Sometimes
when you are at sea and whales are to be
seen frequently-it may be at the full
moon or at new moon-well, all at once
they will disappear and you won't see
one for two weeks. Then just as sud
denly the water will be full of them.
I've compared notes with other vessels.
Maybe they were sixty miles or more
away at the time and the whales there
would be numerous just at the same time
they appeared near our vessel. Oh, you
fellows needn't laugh. There is some
thing In it.
s'And then I've noticed another thing
about this same class of fish. When you
catch them you will always find that
they have the pupil of the eye the Same
shape as the moon at that time. If the
moon is full the pupil will be round, and
il it is half or quarter the sight will
be like crescent"
The Captain stopped to light fresh
pipe and another one of the whalers
spoke up.
"I've had some experience myself"
said he, "but two years ago came the
nearest taking after sonah that man
ever did. We< had made strike all
right aud the whale went down, not
very far, but when he came up he had
his mouth open, and some how or other
he came up with one jaw on the port and
the other on the lea side of our boat.
Surpriseda Well, that whale looked
very much as If be was ready to receive
company, but wasn't invited, so made
streak for another boat"
"You would be surprised" said the
first speaker, changing the direction of
the talk, 'twhat queer mixtures there
are in whaler's crew sometimes. Why
I've had lawyers and doctors and any
number of young men with degree of
some kind. And once I shipped fel.
low that turned out to be preacher,
and wish l could get him again, for
we got eight whales that season. l be.
lieve he was a mascot. One poor fellow
who went overheard in gale, had in his
trunk physicians diploma, aud any
number of letters with high recommend
ations, but guess lie had gone wrong
some how, and wanted to get out of the
way for while. He succeeded better
than he intended. l guess they won't
think of looking for him at the bottom
of the Arctic.
"We get lots of men for seasons
cruise that way. If a fellows wants to
hide himself for while don't know OF
any place he could do it better than oD
board whaler. Nobody would think
of looking for such man in this bust.
ness, and then they couldn't look much
If they wanted to. That kind of sea
man never makes you any trouble. It's
the shiftless fellow you pick up here on
the wharf that you've got to handle
pretty roughly before he learns how to
keep decent tongue in his head"
"On one of my cruises / had big,
black West Indian in the crew." said the
first speaker. "One day for some reason
he jumped overheard. The sea was a
little rough and it was quite while be-
fore we got the boats lowered, aud we
lost sight CT him. But we pulled back
little way and soon saw him, swim
ming with all his might, but in the op-
posite direction from the boat. ! yelled
to him, and when he saw he was discov-
cred he made no further effort to get
away. And where he was going is more
than know, for it all happened in mid
ocean. We hauled him into the boat,
and made for the ship. It was four
months before we made port and yet in
all that time, Sandy, for that was his
name, never spoke word. No one on
board could get sound from him. Some
times he wonld lie down on the deck
and seem to be asleep and some of the
crew would slip up and stick him with
pin. At first he would twitch little
and then would not move at all. We
made a bed for him down below and
kept him away from knife or other
weapon. You could tell him to take the
wheel and he would steer right enough.
but If you asked him what course the
ship was making he was silent as the
grave. And when we made the first
port he went ashore and never saw him