The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1901-01-17
New Jersey Flsharman Who
Lost his Big Pound Net.
YARN TOLD BY A lkN1SMiN.
BanaeI,s Trouble the Big Fish and They
Rssst 10 An Ssrls Of trpsdisats
To Lose Than.


spent the summer last year" said =
landsman. II met fisherman who told
me "a story about whst--s hanback,
whale. This fisherman had a pound net
planted on the beach The net was many
hundred feet long and cost hundreds.
don't know about thousands. OF dollars.
"one day after he had got the net set
the fisherman saw little farther off
shore humeback whale. sort OF idling
around In the water. but gradually work
ing inshors. g
III was not usual to see whales OF the
coast and the fisherman wasn't very
particularly struck by this whale, even
when he saw that he was edginE in tow
ard the land and toward his pound net.
because ne expected really every
minute 10 see him sheer of and go 10 sea
again. t~
The idea OF whales troubling his pound
net never occurred TO him. hut the first
thing he knew the whale was right along
side it.
The next minute the fisherman saw
the whale. rubbing his back aud sides
against II, rubbing the bsrrscles on hts
back on his pound net, e..tb M
The hard tsrred rope. tied up IA dia-
mond meshes. was just the thing fer this,
or would have been N the net and stakes
had been a little stronger: but apparently
IT pleased the whale greatly as IL was.
PUSHED THE NET OVER.
He ribbed along ID slowly. the barna-
eles catching the angles of the meshes
and being yanked on. or else bunch of
them. or the surge of the whale. or both
faar "a th.. MT i..
the whale crowding in harder all the time
and being especially tiokled when he rub
bed against a stake. but making the stake
bend and crack.
And stiil a-crowding harder and hard
er. rubbing and scrubbing along the
whale finally pushed the whole blessed
pound net over and wrecked and half de-
stroyed IT, Then he up helm and put to
sea.
Well, now you know. I was inclined TO
doubt the story: just q little, anyhow;
but another fisherman i saw down there
said, while this happened before he came.
he didn't question that Il was the simple
truth.
He said he'd seen whales rub and roll
on sandy beach TO rub bsrnacles on.
and be didn't see why a whale shouldn't
use pound net for that II II found one
handy.
He said whales often got great num-
hers Of barnacles on them, not on the un-
der part OF the body but on the sides or
back. and that the barnaclss grew and
thrived there just as they would. fer in
stance. on a turtle, or ~ they do In IN
ormous numbers on ships
These barnacles may not actually ir-
ritate the whale. but they impede it's pro-
gress just as they would ships and
make the whale want TO get rid of them.
The whale can't very we'll rub the bar
be likely 10 find only soft ooze and mod
and that's about whathe find inshore, 100,
at the mouth OF rivers and such places;
but IL he strikes sandy beach. there
he'll rub himself
And ne might clean himself on rocky
coast: but II he did II wouldn't be- on the
rocks. but on some little beach where
there was place for It. made by the
weathering OF the rocks and grinding up
OF the fragments by the sea.
WHALE WAS ASLEEP.
"The whale. this man said, certainly
does not come into such places to rub the
barnaces OF: and he thought the pound
net story was no fish story. but just a
plain statement OF facts.
II met down there another fisherman
still who told me about humpback
whale he once met off Sandy Hook, when
he was going into New York, on a fish,
ing smack.
This whale was lying on top Of the
water. dead. 10 all appearances: and from
what showed Of IL above water IL ap-
peared TO he about ~ feet long.
"They headed the smack up for IL ana
had got within about 20 feet of IL, when
one of the crew dropped a sweep on the
smack's deck. IL struck the deck with
loud bang. and
''Swish-slap. went the whales tail al
he threw IL up and then slammed it down
on the water and zoo-op! down and away
he went In a grand crush and slather of
foam and waves. ,.
'They saw him again about quarter
OF q mile OF. and then they didn't see
him again at all.
''The whale, YOU see had just been living
there on the water asleep. And they were
glad that man dropped the oar as he did
and walked him. because. tho smack was
y small sloop, and the whale would have
made II warm for them n they'd been
over him as they might have been, when
he woke up"