The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-02-10
AN OLD NHAEER's SERMON.
Jonah and the Whale, Reply to Ly-
man Abbott.

AS Able Seaman, Who Has Handled
Whales, Tells of the Experiences That
Convinced Him of the Truth of the
Bible Story-His Warning to skeptics.
New York SUBJ
DESPITE modern scientific researches
and learned treatises of eminent d.
wires. who have sought eagerly to prove
to the world the unreasonab leness of the
assertion that whale can swallow a
man, 1 desire to say, without fear of
reasonable contradiction, that from prac-
tical personal knowledge on the subject
| know they are all wrong.
Thirty years ago sailed from New
forty-four months crulse in the South
Seas with the veteran whaleman, Capt.
Elisha Baboook, who is well known to
the whaling fraternity. We had very
successful voyage up to the time we left
the expedition, twenty-seyen months after
ward. off the coast of Borneo. Now,
a whale is the biggest of oil Gods living
creatures on sea or land, and what We
call sperm whale is the smallest of
whales. varying in length from SO to
$50 feet and large in proportion, making
from 40 TO 40 barrels Of oil.
One beau tiful day in August 1866, on
the Western Ocean whale was sighted
by the man at the masthead. who sang
out:
"Ah, she blows
These words had the effect of an elso-
trio shock. livery man in the ship from
stem to stern WAS up and doing in an in
slant. Presently the Captain shouted
back:
ssWnat away!' N5
s'About three points on the lee bow,
sir.
'tHow far Off"
bout three miles, sir. = Then said
the Captain to the crew:
"Back your main yards. y Lower
boats and away" was the next order.
Our ship carried four boats, each
manned by crew OF i've men and an
officer. The boat in which I was reached
the whale first. When we got to him he
was asleep. 1t was the most dangerous
time to strike him, because nobody can
tell wha: move a whale suddenly aroused
Will make first. He was the largest
sperm think l ever saw, and probably
was good for $40 barrels of oil. That isA a
vast amount to get from sperm whale,
although from bowheads whale one
sometimes gets 250 barrels. When we
struck this fellow be raised his tail,
which measured about fifteen feet across,
and made the water ssetne and boil a
moment or two; then he went down.
Being fast to him with two irons, we
pRyed out. the line very quickly to keep
from going down with him. Presently
thssline grew slack, which. means. that he
had stopped somewhere just beneath US.
But the water was so thick with his
blood that we were unable to see how far
down he was. We knew he was near,
but how near we could not tell just then.
While We were eagerly looking over the
sidss of the boat, quick as flash he
struck the bottom of the J oat and We
went flying. When I recovered my
senses I was about fifteen feet below.
loo king for fresh air. When / reached
the top what should / meet but the
whale, just as he was raising his trelnen-
do US tail high above my head. / darted
anawful splash. II had been under it
l should have been smashed to smither-
cabs. AS was making desperate efforts
to get away from tire whale. who should
come up right alongside me but the
harpooner. He could not swim. A few
strokes away there was a buoy. secured
1t, dragged 1t to him, and just as no was
about to give up in despair he grasped
it, and WAS saved. Then We both olnng
to the buoy ant. took in the situation.
The bow oarsman. was thrown over
about twenty rods. The tub oarsman,
stroke oarsMan, ana the second mate
were thrown in different directions i,
being mldship oarsman, had beer picked
up. as q aAcake, and Topped over and
shovel down. While the harpoouer and
I hung to tire buoy we were kept busy
kicking away sharks, pushing them first
oce way, then another. Not sharks of
the kind one sees around the buoys and
rivers but big fellows, from is to rs feet
loug-tte 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 the line and the
line was fast to the whale. He passed
us like shot, reaching out his hands
anu shouting, "Bill Bill Save me!
Save mel' he had no sooner said il
than he was gone Presently the whale
went down, the p.ecs of boat went with
him, and the stroke oarsman was left at
one mercy OF tDe waves, gOOQ distance
away. Meanwhile the other three boats
were coming up, and just as he had ex-
hausted himself. struggling to keep OH
top, the third mates boat reached him.
He was rescued. and then the rest of us
were picked up.
All this happened within ten minutes.
Nothing remained of our small boat.
The 500 fathonls of line were gone, as
were also the lances, harpoons, and the
two buoys One Of the other boats, how
ever, put for the whale aud captured
him. --1
sNow, when was clinEing to that
buoy the Bible story of Jonah and the
whale caIoe forcibly to my mind, and I
wondered if | was doomed to go through
Jonah's experience. When sthe whale
was lying at the ships side and we were
outting him up told the boys of these
feelings. They urged me to go through
the whales throat. and resolved to do
so when ibis head came ON deuk, to
demonstrate the possibility of Jonah's
experience. / did not then believe in the
Bible. hut verified the whale story, for
when the head WAS Oh the deck ! went
through the throat as easily as [ had
era wied through bars when boJ.