St. Paul daily globe., 1895-11-26
THE WHALE WAS DESPERATE
Narrow Escape of Barkentine
From Being Wrecked by a Lee


San Francisco Bulletin.
The yarn spinners are telling a whale
story on the water front which proves
that the steam schooner Sunol, of local
fame, is not the only vessel that has
collided with whale. There is ru-
NOR eXtant that the nine-fathom buoy
is not SO intact as it used to be, but
that does not deter Jack from telling
an odd story of the accident that be-
fell the good barkentine Handa Isle,
which arrived at Sydney Sept. 2, while
the crew of the steamer Alameda were
looking for a jolly good time ashore.
The Handa Isle dropped into Sydney
harbor in tow of the tug Hope, her
port side bandaged up and. a trif1e
compressed at the bilge. The barken-
tine was leaking, and badly, too,- and
the skipper said that had the vessel
been laden with coal instead of lum-
Der she would have taken dive to the
abysmal depths of Davy Jones' mys-
terious locker. -....... .
1t was on Saturday afternoon, at
about 1 o'clock, while the Handa Isle
cWas hauling away from Mercury har-
bog with a fair northwest breeze
3 astern, when two whales were OBJ
;served putting a few points to port.
One was an ugly looking 'bull,' with
a. nose like the bow of river barge.
He was about sixty feet long and as
/, full of sport as a two-year-old colt.
According to the story of the skipper
of the Handa Isle, the whales started
to cross the vessels bow, when it sud
denly seemed to occur to the bull that
S5the Isle was looking for trouble and
that he had better give battle. When
about a cables length from the ship
he made swim at her full tilt, and
before the barkentine'S crew could
grab something solid to hold on to the
/. leviathan struck,@tfle craft amidships
and the concussion was like that of
submarine earthquake. Though the
1anda Isle is vessel of 26O tons and
was loaded with 25O,OO0 feet of lumber,
she trembled from truck to keel and
shook like a dying sea monster.
The other whale dove under the keel,
and was not seen again, but the bulls
nose must have been rendered very
sore for the poor fellow drew away in
a dazed condition, and the sea turned
crimson from his blood. Suddenly his
tail went up and his head went down
and tnaC was llle last Seoh VI iiiiii.
The skipper of the Handa Isle made
an investigation of the ships well, and
on sounding found that his ship was
leaking at the rate of about one foot
per hour. He called all hands to the
pumps and remarked that had the
other whale struck the vessel, too, the
craft would surely have gone to the
bottom. 1t was discovered on examin-
alton that the vessel had a large dent
in her side, though her timbers are
the strongest The captain gave or
ders. to jettison part of the deck load,
so as to lift the damaged part above
the water line. The pumps were kept
going while the lumber was thrown
overheard. The jettisoning of the deck
load did not do much good, for the
crew had to remain at the pumps all
night. A breeze sprang up and sail
had to be shortened, for the leak
gained on the bumpers Finally the
skipper clewed up and went to work
to cover the damaged sides with some
hides that he had in his cargo, and
by ingenious labor he managed to part
ly stop the inflow of water.
The tug Hope sighted the Handa
Isle off Sydney on Sept. l, flying sig
mails of distress and took her in tow.
The builders of the vessel, Bigelow &
Co., of Auckland, have written to this
city stating that in their belief the
yarn spun by the Isles skipper is gos-
pei truth.