The daily Alaskan., 1905-02-18
S0UID AND WHALE

Bengal in the brig Hope, Douhu ArOlh Calcutta to Liverpool Sehen a calm fell upon the sea and alfnight long we lay without further motion than the heave of the ground swell. When morning came there was no sign of wind. and the watch was washing down decks when a strange thing hap pened.
 The brig was suddenly lifted up and thrown on her beam ends, and suug- Rllng out from under her bottom, but held alongside on the port side, came a whale sixty feet long and gigantic souId or octopus. The whale had one of the squId's tentacles in his mouth and was tearing at it, while the seven others were wrapped around him like so many ropes.
 Before we had recovered our wits the brig was on a level keel and under way again, and never did a craft have a stranger tow. The squld released two of his arms and attached them to the forward keel of the brig, while the others held even tighter than before, and away we went through the water at the rate of five or six miles an hour, the whale doing the towing and the sQuid acting as a tow rope.
 When the big fish found himself fast alongside he was terribly frightened, and, as for us, we didn't propose to run any risk to chop him loose. From 6 o'clock in the morning till 10 at night we were towed to the south and almost in straight course. Twenty different times in that interval the whale tried to break away, but his efforts, though tremendous, were al- ways in vain. At 10 o'clock he had eX- hausted himself and lay without mo ton for over two hours.
 What he would do when he recover ed his strength and had time to think things over was a question of serious import to us, but we could do nothing but wait. Heretofore he had not used his tail, one blow of which would have smashed in our bulwarks for dis tance of thirty feet but there was no telling what he would do when he started off again.
 Along about midnight, when all was quiet and most of the watch were doz- ing, the leviathan suddenly tried to sound. There was light enough to see him plainly, and the mate was looking over the side at the time. Failing in his efforts to get his head down and his tail up, the monster became thor oughly mad. He dashed the sea with bis tail, rolled from side to side, and now and then he would lift his head and shake 1t as a dog shakes hat. The blows of his gigantic aukes were something awful, and had he swung | in on us he must have sent the brig | to the bottom in short order. He work ed away for half an hour before he gave up, and It amazed us to note the strength of the grip which held him fast. The arms of the octopus were like wire cables. The whale worked away like a steam engine before he | would realize his helpleSsneSs, and then he went away to the south at pace that was recorded in the log at ten miles an hour The run lasted about fifty minutes; then the pace proved too much for him, and be slack ened down about one-half, and he kept at that till long after daylight.
 There were three ships in sight as day broke, none of them being over four miles away, and as we were seen to be moving along with all Sails furl- ed and almost against the wind all of them signaled to know what was wrong. As we could not signal the sentence, "We are being lowed by a whale" we had to leave their curiosity ungratifled. We were being lowed dead on to the coast of Sumatra, and as no | effort of ours could alter things the captain ordered the boats proyisioned and made ready for the worst. At high noon, with the brig making steady four miles an hour, the island of Mas was hove up over the bows, and at 1 o'clock in the afternoon was only five miles away. The whale held for it as if he intended to run ashore, but al two miles distance, in water about fif- teen feet deep, he struck a rock or reef and was held fast while the brig ran on to him.
 We saw what was coming and took to the boats, but 1t was a close shave from being swamped by the heavy seas kicked up. As the keel of the brig hit the whale he hammered her until he knocked her bows to pieces. The reef caught her keel at the same time, but after being held fast for a moment she surged over it to sink like a stone In the deep waters beyond. | The whale rested after his frantic ] struggles, and the blood which stained the sea proved that he was badly hurt. After half an hour or so he made off to the west, dragging lot of wreck. age after him by the 'tangle, and after watching him out of sight we pulled ashore at the village of Member, with ship and cargo a total loss, and no man having saved anything except the