The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1897-02-10
y n ]HALER' s SERMON
10 oNAH AND HE WHALE; a REPLY
,SsSs O il.YMAf ABE oT1..

$sS 38,S5s 0 LYMAN ABBO OTT.
Able Seaman, WHO has Handled
w hales, TelIs Of the Experiences That
Convinced him OF tho Truth OF tho Hiblo
story--His Warning to soeptics.
Despite modern scientific researches
Is and learned treaties of eminent di-
vines, who have sought eagerly to
p prove to tho world the unreasonable.
ness OF the assertion that a whale can
4 swallow a man, I desire to say, with.
a out fear of reasonable contradiction,
4 that from practical personal knowl-
& edge on the subject | know they are
all1wrong. s.
Thirty years ago | sailed from
n New Bedford, Mass, on whale ship
for Q fOrty.four months cruise in the
South Seas with the veteran whale
man, Capt. elisha Babcock, who is
we'll known to the whaling fraternity.
we had q very successful voyage up
to the time I left the expedition, TWEEN
coast of Borneo. Now, q whale is the
& biggest Of all Gods livin, creatures
on sea or land, and what we callia
sperm whale is the smallest Of whales,
varying in length from 80 to 130 feet
and large in proportion, making from
40 to lao barrels of oil.
One beautiful day in August, 1866,
/ on the Western Ocean, q whale was
} sighted by the man at the masthead,
who sang out:
''Ah, she blows"
Those words had tho effect of an
electric shock. Every man in tho
ship from stem to stern was up and
doing in an instant. Presently the
captain shouted back:
Where away3"
About three points on the lee bow,
SIR" ..l M
How far OFF,"
about three miles, SIR Then said
the captain to the crew:
Back your main yards" 'Lower
4 boats and away" was the next order.
Our ship carried four boats, each
manned by crew Of i've men and an
offlcer. The boat in which I was
reached the whale first. When we
got to him he was asleep. It was the
most dangerous time to strike him, be-
cause nobody can tell what move G
whale suddenly aroused will make
nrst. lie was the largest sperm whale
think ever saw, and probably was
! good for 140 barrels OF oil. That is q
vast amount to get from sperm
whale, although from bowhead
whale one sometimes gets $50 bar
rels. When we struck this fellow he
raised his tail, which measured about
fifteen feet across, and made the water
Z seethe and boil moment or two; then
ne went down. Being fast 10 him
with two irons, we payed out the line
very quickly to keep from going down
with him. Presently the line grew
slack which means that he had stop
ped somewhere just beneath us. But
the water was so thick with his blood
down he was. We knew he was near
but how near we could not tell Just
then. While we were eagerly look.
y ing over the sides Of the boat, quick as
" q flash he struck the bottom Of the
boat and we went flying. When re
covered my senses / was about fifteen
feet below, looking for fresh air.
&5 When I reached the top what should ]
meet but the whale, just as he was
raising his tremendous tail high above
,5 my head. darted to one side. Down
came the tail with an awful splash
iA II 1 had been under it I should have
been smashed to smithereens. AS
was making desperate efforts to ge
# away from the whale. who should
ss.A come up. right alongside me but the
ilaFpOOner. He could not swim. a
few strokes away there was buoy.
secured it, dragged it to him, and jus
as he was about to give up in despair
he grasped it, and was saved. Thor
We both clung to the buoy and took ir
the situation. Rhe bow oarsman wa.
# thrown over about twenty rods. Tho
tub Oarsman, stroke oarsman, and the
second mate were thrown in differ
ef1t directions. /, being midship oars
man, had been picked up, as a pan.
& cake, and tlopped over and showed
s. down. While the harpooner and I
hung to the buoy were kept busy kick.
ing away sharks, pushing them first
one way, then another. Not sharks
OF the kind one sees around the BAYS
and rivers, but big fellows, from fif.
teen to twenty five feet long--the kind
That can divide felloW at one nip.
Our stroke oarsman could not swim,
but he got hold Of piece Of the boat !;
that piece was fast to tho limo and the
line was fast to the whale. lie passed
us like shot, reaching out his hands
and shouting, "Bill Bill Save me
Save mol" lie had no sooner said it
than he was gone. Presently the
whale went down, The piece c9> boat
went with him, and tho ,s..roke oars
man was left at the ,1fercy of the
waves, q good a!stadce away. Mean
while the other three boats were com
ing up, and just as he had exhausted
himself, struggling 10 keep on top, the
third mates boat reached him. ue
Il WAS rescued, and then The rest Of us
were picked up. .0
All this happened within ten min
utes. Nothing remained of our small
boat. The 500 fathoms of line were
gone, as were also the lances, harpoons,
and the two buoys. Que of the other
boats, however, put for the whale and
captured him.
Now, when I was clinging to that
buoy the Bible story of Jonah and the
whale came forcibly to my mind, and
wondered if was doomed to 20
through Jonah's experience. When
tho whale was lying at the ships side
and we were cutting him in l told the
boys of these feelings. They urged
me to so through the whales throat,
y and / resolved to do so when his head
came on deck, to demonstrate tho
possibility of Jonah's experience.
did not then believe in the Bible, but
verified the whale story, for when