The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1894-03-22
Washington Evening Star.l

The piscatorial reporter will now
introduce Capt. Jim Willis, who will
favor US with fish story. Capt. Jim
halls from Morehead City, N. e. At
this moment he is leaning against the
buffet at the NormaEdie, and this is
what he is saying:
Down yonder where l live we
have all sorts of fnny denizens of the
deep from minnows up to whales, in
cluding yachtsmen. l don't propose
to stuff you with trout story, or to
say anything to you about the size of
black bass, because l am aware that
there are a lot of land lubbers right
here in this city who can lie just about
as hard as anybody else in this parti-
cular line. l can't tell a yarn with
any bigger bass in it than the next
fellow. My specially is the whale.
I'd like to bet hundred dollars to
cent that when a request for a story
comes round l can catch bigger
whale than anybody else.
But, throwing all jokes to the four,
or even greater number of the winds
of heaven, did have an experience
with whale that came near to making
a Jonah out of me with the casting
up process omitted. One sunny after
noon, not very long ago, l was sitting
in the shade of my own fig tree and
swinging in my own grape vine swing
1t was one of those days when nature
takes an outing. A jet of the ocean
went up and fell back as spray. l saw
this, but l was in too much of reverie
to trace causes. a party of my fisher
friends, came running by, and as they
passed me they sang out 'There she
blows' This cry woke me up. Once
more the jet of water spurted upward
from the sea, and down to the pier l
rushed. A whale is apt to create a
sensation in any seaside community,
even though there be no summer
guests, because there are always many
hundreds of dollars concealed on its
person. 1t is a red letter event in
local annals when a whale comes
The saloon keepers especially make
merry over the arrival. This kind of
guests, however, were 50 few and far
between at Morehead that accommo-
dations for them were rather below the
standard.
"Our reception facilities in this
particular instance were so inadequate
that it was long an open question
whether that whale would or would
not conclude to settle in our town.
1t was only by luck and through no
particular preference of his own that
he did SO. The town only boasted of
two harpooning outfits. One was an
ancient harpooning gun that years
before had been found by wreckers on
board the hulk of South Sea whaler,
which had gone on our coast while
bound to New Bedford, and the other
was very primitive hand power har-
poon rig. The other two were with
out any armament except shotguns
and one or two rifles.
alt was almost hopeless case with
US, for if whale is not hit in the
vitals he will go down to come to the
surface in distant part of the sea.
When one is struck in the vitals he
spouts or blows blood, and then floats
into eternity. We rowed off 50 as to
come at the game from different points
of the compass. l was in the gunboat.
As we approached the whale it was
seen that ne was large and fat one.
He took no notice of our coming.
When when we got within about 100
feet OF the monster the harpoon gun
was fired and the barbed weapon took
effect just behind the head and pretty
we'll up on the back. This was
painful but not necessarily fatal shot.
The other boats turned themselves
loose and made some insertions in the
flesh.
"Instead of going under as wounded
whales do, he remained on top to fight
it out. He swished his tail and turned
the sea into suds, and made such a
swell that the good people of Alexan-
dria would not have permitted him
to pass their ports without slowing
down. He plunged headlong against
one of the boats and stove it SO it
would hardly float. Its occupants
were knocked overheard. There was
a good deal of excitement. The sea
round about US was boiling, the whale,
was red hot with rage, the men were
j shouting and the guns were popping.
We could see that the beach away off
was fringed with the population Of the
town, and We knew that all our move
ments were being watched anxiously
through glasses.
owe had to fight. There was no
time to crawfish or to back water. The
fish next hurled himself against the
boat in which l vas, and it yielded
to his wishes and got smashed. 1t
was raised considerable distance in
the air, and when it came down was
not in it. Where do you think was,
young man? In the water1 Not
much, l wasn't. l was on that whale
back just abaft his head, and holding
on to that harpoon with both hands.
Some Of my friends were founder
ing in the aqueous brine and some
were supporting themselves by clutch
ing the gunwales. Some had climbed
into the other boats, thus Overlooking
them and crippling their efficiency.