The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-06-04
WHALES AND THEIR DOINCS
Yarns Spun by the Old EI-Whaler
Of South Street.

Milking She Whales Before Harpoon-
ing Them While They Are AsIaep on
Top of the Water-Whales Very
Dangerous When Sleep Mad or Har-
poon Mad-A Close Call From Big
Bone Whale.
From the New York Sun.
Chats the best reading I've had for
many long dayln exclaimed the bronzed
old ex-seaman, in his dingy little Sailing
office" in South street, and his bright
eyes twinkled. The reading that pleased
him so was the Victoria dispatch in the
Sun, giving an account of the attack of an
enormous whale on the schooner Mer-
maid, off the Japan coast, last month.
THAT sounds like old times. Some folks,
in these days, may not believe that that
whale pitched into the schooner and
knocked it almost into splinters, but they
don't know anything about whales. can
see that big fellow charging on the vessel
Just as plain as if I'd been there. l wish
l had If l could see such a thing once
more I'd be willing to cast my eternal
anchor. And many just such furious
blAdA EC L llcNC oCSu III VIC HOOO Olu Nldl-
ing days. It's a good thing for that
schooner and her crew that the
whale was only sleep mad. You don't
know what sleep mad is, do youl 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, es-
pecially If they have been dining pretty
| heavy. They sleep sound, and / have
more than once mixed she whale when
she was sleeping like that, without wax
ing her up, just as you might milk cow.
whales milk, l want to tell you, is the
richest milk that any animal gives, and,
if only enough Of it could be obtained, it
would drive cod liver oil out of the mar
/ ket. We always milk our she whales
when we found them asleep, before har-
| pooning 'em. Always. A good, healthy
she whale, with sucking cub, would give
down a 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. 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 scurry-
| ing to the nearest port for repairs He
| would have gone at her again like bat
tering ram, and swOOped his terrible fluke
about her like a cyclone. and sent her and
her crew to the bottom, like fellows of his
| have done many time before. But he
was only sleep mad, and not having the
pain of a 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 any close call from an
Infatuated whale} Did l Well, remem-
bering few of 'em, [ think l did For
| instance, what would you call this one2
| 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 Ber-
muda for repairs We then set sail for
| the Azores.
eve picked up whale now and then.
| DuO JHey were IOI plCUblIul, DuU one Gay
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 second mate were in charge of
the other two. We got to the whale
without disturbing him, and l gave
him the harpoon. That woke him,
| can tell you! He was the mad
dest whale | ever saw, being both
sleep mad and harpOon mad He turned
on our boat and came at us with rush
Instead of striking US head on he passed
our bow and as he was passing struck
the boat with his flukes. He cut us square
in two, and turned the boat bottom side
up quicker than ever any boat had been
capsized before My leg became fouled
in the harpOon line, and in a second |
found myself being lowed through the
water at about twenty knots an hour,
several feet below the surface The line
was wound about my leg just below the
knee, and had cut deep into the flesh
Il knew my end was not more than a
minute ahead of me unless l got loose
from that rushing whale. My knife was
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 almost scared the mate and his boats
crew INTO nus Tor L came up right along
side of their boat. Itseems 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 I
was very little better than dead The
second mate had picked up the captain
and the rest of the crew. l came around
after awhile, in time to see the rest of the
fight with that whale, but unable TO have
a hand in it. And what fight it wasl
las 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 troub-
les, 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 woodends and
starting bad leak While he was thus
engaged the mates boat got near, ana the
furious whale turned on it, The mate
thrust his lance against the whales head,