The Grit-advocate., 1903-08-28

good a prize to lose,' shouted the cap
tain as he ran on deck with his glass
The men of the Gloucester fishing
schooner Mary l.. Belts sprang to the
boats and down they went into the
water The Mary l.. Belts is fishing
boat pure and simple. but on her
last cruise had an experience which
Thomas Marrow of Boston, a long
shoreman. will never forget.
We were about one hundred miles
of st. Johns headed nor'norwest
VIII an the man in the lookout shouted:
There she blows!' he said. | had
been an cid New Bedford sailor and
whaleman myself and the familiar
call from above stirred my blood like
the call to battle
Il was in the for'ard of one of the
whaleboats. and it came natural for
me to pick up the long harpoon and
stand ready for the deadly work that
| had so often done in the fights with
whales off Hatteras when | was
seaman going out of New Bedford.
Our boat had the lead by long
distance, and in half an hour VIC had
overtaRen the school and were draw
ing up to the monsters. / picked out
the biggest of the whales and ordered
the boat put over toward him, when
all of a sudden right in front of us
one of them rose to the top and lay
wallowing in the swell We were
headed right for his tail, and it was
necessary to back water with all our
might to prevent striking him across
the fIka | had curI1 Ct til,as in
my day, and had seen the boats
smashed to kindling wood in the
twinliling of an eye and the men all
killed
THE monster did not seem to no.
tce us, but lay there. opening his
great mouth and squirting the water
in and out among his teeth as they do
when they are after school of her
ring. Ordering the boat about, |
headed toward his nose, fully sixty
nine feet away. AS | drew up to him
| had the spear poised aloft. In
minute the creature turned over in
the hollow of the sea and exposed his
great soft belly. In the twinkling of
an eye | had hurled the spear for a
point | picked out just back of the lin
and under the heart.
Il do not know whether it was be-
cause | was long out of practice or
that the spear was dull. but it only
pierced mis- flesh a little way, and
hung there quvering. The smart of
pain thoroughly awoke the creature,
though. and he went down like shot.
His great tluke went high in the air
and his head down, kiting up torrent
of water and splashing the great tail
down upon the fiat surface within ten
feet of the boat 1t nearly swamped
us. 1t filled the boat half full of water
and upset every man in her.
These men We're not professional
whalesmen. but were Gloucester fish
ermcn. They did not know what to do
and for a minute all was confusion.
while the line was reeling out with a
sharp twanging hum that told of
mighty power at the other end of the
line. My first thought was to get the
AK in my hand and stand by to cut
the line when it reached the end of
the reel.
Suddenly the whale stopped and
rose to the surface a little way off.
We could see the white of his foamy
wake glisten with red blood as he
lolled for minute in the sunshine
Half the men were wildly bailing
ont the water with their hands. hats
and with one or two wooden buckets
The rest were pulling toward the
whale and still others were shouting
orders. | think | was the quietest
one among them. All Of a sudden the
whale seemed to see us for the first
time He came blowing his way
through the water straight for MS.
Pull Pull for your life.' I shout
cd If he strikes us there won't be
man alive to tell the story And
they did pull. It is wonderful what
force men can put into the oars when
their life depends upon it. 1t was a
matter of life and death, and they
knew it. We pulled out of his path,
but the old sinner stopped and turned
around toward us with mighty swirl.
1t was such a swirl as the leap of
trout might seem to a fly in a willow
leaf floating upon the surface of a
pond Again he came straight for us,
but when he would have hit us with
his great junk he went down suddenly
and up on the other side of us. Then
he lay still. We edged up with an
other harpoon
He seemed to be waiting for some
thing to happen.
II hurled the great spear with bet
ter workmanship this time. He tore
away to the south, dragging the boat
after him at fearful speed. The PROV
went down to the dead level of the
waves. and on either side the green
waters rose three inches above the
gunwale as it rushed past. | reached
for the ak to cut loose, when / found
that II was NOT ihpre In the excite