The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-07-05
DOINGS OF WHALES.
Sea Yarns Spun by an Old Ex- Wlaler
Of South Street.


Milking She Whales Before Happening
Them While They Are Asleep on Top of
the Water = Whales Very Dangerous
When Sleep Mad or Rarpoon Mad.
"That's the best reading I've had for
| many a long day." exclaimed the bronzed
old ex-seanan 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
to sleep, especially If they have been din
ing pretty heavy. They sleep sound, and
I have more than once MIXED a 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.
"Dfd ever have any close call from
an Infatuated whale? Did /? Well, re-
membering a few of 'ean, think I 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.
1--WE picked up 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. I was
the harpooner Of the captains boat, and
the mate and second mate were in
charge of the other two. We got to the
whale without disturbing him, and I
gave him the, harpoon. That woke him,
can tell youi 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. 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 TIVE and turned the boat bot
tom side up quicker than ever any boat
had been capsized before My leg be-
came fou1ed in tho harpoon line, and in
a second I found myself being lowed
through the water at about 90 knots an
hour and several feet below the sur
face. The line was wound about my
leg just below the knee and had cut
deep into the flesh.
81 knew my end was not more than a
minute ahead Of me unless 7 got loose
from that rushing whale. My knife was
IN my belt. I got it out, and somehow,
but I never knew just howl managed
to reach down and sever the line. The
next second I 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 fastened
harpoon in the enraged monster and was
being towed by it 70 the windward, and
I 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.
sAs 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 tie cutwater clear to the
wood ends and starting a bad leak. While
he was thus engaged the mates boat got
near, and the furious whale turneG 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 fired 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
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