Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1907-10-30
the FRIENDLY
WHALE


venture, and although no one doubted
his veracity, afterward looked up
the records and found him correct:
at was in the year 1885," he said,
that l was bound to the ivory coast
on the English brig Plowboy, Capt
craft, well found, but very slow, and
although those were risky days along
the heather coasts owners Of crafts
were stingy about arming thea for
protection. We had two old six
Founders, which had been purchased
at a sale of condemned ordnance, and
ten or a dozen muskets and cutlasses
of but little value.
"The captain was informed that
French ship had been plundered and
sunk between there and the tropic
only two weeks before, and that two
or three suspicious sail were cruising
along the coast We felt brave enough
as we sailed to the south with those
two old cannon on deck, and the wish
was expressed time and again that
we might fall in with pirate.
I'VE got light and battling winds
along the Barbary coast, but were
nearing the tropic, when, one after
noon an hour before sunset, strange
sail was seen standing out from the
coast to cut us Off She was also a
brig, and from the very first sight OF
her there was no doubt in our minds
that she was pirate. We altered our
course a few points to the west, and
then began to get ready for her.
I'VE had no sooner set about load
ing the guns than it was found that
our cannon balls were all too large
for the bore. Not one of them could
be made to fit. =
'The stranger walked up on US at a
rapid rate, and when darkness came
on he was not more than four miles
away Our captain went into the rig
ging with his glass for long squint,
and when he came down he called us
aft and said there was no longer room
to doubt. The stranger was pirate,
and there was no hope of escaping
him. At that very moment the wind,
which was off land, began to fall, and
ten minutes later we hadn't enough
to blow a feather
I'VE could no longer see the stran-
ger, owing to the darkness. We knew
that he must have lost the wind first,
and that he was all of three miles
away. If the calm held through the
night he would have to attack in
boats, if at all, and we, then stood
some show of beating him of.
Midnight came, and we had heard
nothing. The fog was now very
thick, and every man was listening in
tently to catch the first sound, when
all of sudden there was terrific
crash, followed by shouts and shrieks.
There was another crash, more shouts,
and then splash in the water as if
an iceberg had rolled over. In a
minute or two we got swell which
lifted the brig like cork and kept
her dancing for three or four min
utes. When it subsidized the captain
and mate agreed it had been caused
by a whale preaching. Both had
sailed in whaling ships, and they
asserted that nothing else could have
caused the commotion.
From midnight until dawn every
man stood at his post When daylight
came we saw the pirate brig about
two miles off. Between the two YES
sells was a lot of wreck stuff which
the captains glass made out to be
the shattered remnants OF several
small boats. Only four men could be
observed aboard the brig, and as the
captain was watching them they got
into fight. One was killed, one ran
below, and the two men left on deck
got a white cloth from the cabin and
sent it aloft in place of flag.
I'm about half an hour we got the
wind and ran down to her, lowered
boat and went aboard. | went in the
boat, and followed the mate on deck,
where we were welcomed by two men
who spoke English. 1t was queer
case, as you will agree.
Zone of the men was an English
man, the sole survivor of an English
vessel wrecked on the Barbary coast
Ave years before. The other was an
American who had deserted his ship
at the Cape Verde islands three years
previously, and while making a voy-
age in a coaster had been captured
and spared by the vessel he was now
on.
ION the previous night, when the
wind went down, they got their boat
and towed the brig about a mile. The
entire crew, with the exception of the
four men, then armed themselves, and
the boats set off to attack us. What J
followed could be pretty safely |
guessed at The four boats were in
company when the whale struck at
least one of them as he came up.
He must have thrown this boat many
feet into the air. He might have
fallen upon the others or shattered |
them with rap of his fukes, but that |
he destroyed them the evidence was
before us.
"Not a man had escaped, and, in |
stead Of being captured and made to |
L.