The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1894-07-19
AN OCEAN LUMBAT.
The Terrific Battle Between a
Eb Whale and Three Orcaa
Enemies Before Whom the Giant of the
! Ocean Floes In Terrur-Their Singular
~" Aethod OF Attacking the
a MOnstec.

Hank Welsh. who has followed whal
ing for many years. was lucky enough
to be one of crew beyond the gulf O.
the Holy Cross last spring that came
upon a large whale in distress. sur
rounded by three monster orcas, o.
billers, which had him winded ant
badly wounded. The story of the
fight was told as follows by Welsh tc
the San Francisco Chronicle:
I'VE saw q big broadhead half 8
mile away to windward, and he kept
a jumping so hard that we knew he
was in trouble. When we got closer
we saw some thrashers or billers afoul
of him. and the water for an acre o,
two around was bloody. The orcas
pwere pretty big ones and very vicious
especially one which was fully twenty
feet long, and when the whale went
down a few fathoms this old boy
rushed down after him, and gave it tc
him hard. You see a whale can stay
under about half an hour, and he can
go down four or five hundred fathcrls
without minding the pressure, but he
can't do single submarine trick ahead
of an orca. These orcas sometimes
chase a whale so hard that when he
hits the bottom he breaks his jawbone.
Well, this old orca followed the whale
so savagely that he did not stay down
over five minutes at time, and when
he came up he was jumped on by the
other two, which kept watch on him
like two hungry wolves. When he saw
the ferocious gang he seemed to lose
heart, for they were too quick for him.
l think he was just about worn out
or down-hearted or something, for he
anchored for a second. This gave the
big orca chance to slide up and catch
him by the under lip and bite piece
out. The old fellow dashed and dived.
but down went another orca after him.
when the whale came up the orca
had him by the lip, and the third one
caught him by the tongue. Now, a
whales tongue is six feet long and
weighs as much as man. The way
the orcas jerked it all out of him piece
by piece and then ate off his lower lip
in spite of all he could do beat all the
fights under the sun. How that whale
did suffer till we got up and let dy-
Mantle bomb into him. When Bill
Peters lanced him he seemed to enjoy
it, for he turned over and died easily
1t seems to be agreed among all
whalers that no fight ever seen equals
the awful combats which these sea
monsters wage against one another
with unflagging ferocity. The orca is
the only grampus or warm-blooded an
imal of the ocean that constantly preys
upon warm-blooded creatures of his
own kind, preferably the whale, the
largest of his species. The orca's hab-
its are predatory and his strength and
ferocity are remarkable.
''The orcas often travel with sword
fish," said Capt. Thompson, an old
whaler, land have sometimes seen a
whole school in combat with four or
five orcas and few swordfsh. When
the swordfish get under a whale and
the orcas commence to tear his under
lip and tongue, which are choice NOR
sells for them, he seems to know his
days are numbered. don't know how
long a whale can live after these saw
age creatures attack him, but our
crews have found several carcasses of
whales which had bled to death from
the wounds thus inflicted by their enc
mics have also seen broken-backed
orcas which had been struck by a
whales fukes.'