The New York herald., 1922-01-09
MHALESFAMlLYN NOW
STIRSSOUTHAMP
Cap'ns Get Ready to Hunt
Eife and Child of Monster
That FOiled Them.
FACTS ALL MIXED UP
New Version Is Explosion of
Bomb Upset Veteran, Not
Flip of a Fluke.
BULL WEARS GREEN LIGHT
Old Time Hunters to Shoot
Red Lamp Onto Their Head
strong Derelict.
BULL WEARS GREEN LIGHT

On Saturday three boatloads of
cap'ns put out from Southampton
after the bull whale that, according to
THE New YORK HERALD's veracious
correspondent, has bedeviled the east
end of Long Island these last three
weeks. The old bull, as big and as
whale that exploded (you remember
the song that Your grandmother used
10 sing?). towed one of those three
boatloads of cap'ns six miles out to
his neck and a piece OF mis- tail miss
ing.
Yesterday his wife ana child (at any
rate it was a COW and a calf and who
appeared off Southampton, and it was
none other than Capn Silas Edwards
who sighted them. 1t was Cap'n Ed
wards who. on Saturday, commanded
by the big bull, and it was Cap'n Ed
wards who, just as he was about to
spear the whale again. was knocked
out of his long. boat by the beast who
the captive boat, hurting the capn
into the water.
The Cap'n was caught in the suction
caused by the diving of the whale ana
darned near drowned. The last words ~
Capn Edwards as ne followed the whale
toward the bottom of the ocean were:
Thar she blows"
The rest OF the cap'ns in tho long boat
decided they had seer the last of silas
but he came to the surface intact though
somewhat disjointed and was carried
back to Southampton. And thus it came
70 pass that yesterday he emerged on
crutches to be the first to sight the COW
whale and her calf coming. obviously, to
sec what all the fuss had been about and
TO verify. probably, the story the old bull
had told at home by way of explainias :
his long absence
on on Another Hunt To-day.
To-day Cap'n Edwards and Cap'ns
William Sylvanus Bennett, Frank w.
w :,
Henry White, Walter Benedict ani
Frank Benedict are going to take to the
boats again and land the COW and ner
calf, II they can. Moreover they are go
Ing to provision the boats and mount red
and green lights on the harpoons and
let calm men do the harpooning, for thev
said yesterday that il It hadn't been that
Cap'n Mort Cooper gets St. Vitus's dance
every darned time he gets excited they'd
"a ah.d hot htali -l,.1.. -.
Edwards wouldn't be on crutches.
1t seems that in the general excits-
ment, THE New YORK HERALps South
ampton correspondent overlooked two cf
the most vital points in the story.
In the first place IL was Cap'n Mort
Cooper who was entrusted with the Job
of sinking the torpedo harpoon into the
big bull on Saturday. Cap'n Edwards
was only going to spear the whale w..i,
an extra tow line. The whale was doing
about ten knots towing the long boat
with him because Cap'n Edwards had
already sunk barb into his side and
had lashed the hawser to the bow OF
the long boat.
But II seems that just the moment that
Cap'n Mort Cooper and Cap'n Edwards
were due TO heave their simultaneous
harpoons tCap'n Mort's with the tor.
pedo attached and Cap'n Edwaris's be-
cap'n Mort doesn't get an attack OF ST.
Vitus's dance and--whong the torpedo
intended for the old bull whale explodes
right under the bow OF the long boat and
blows Cap'n Edwards into the water.
Cap'n Edwards Doesn't Know.
or course. Cap'n Edwards doesn't
know what has happened and he thinks
the big bull has done IL with a flip OF his
fuke. lie sees the big bull dive just as
he is describing neat parabola. and
naturally cries:
Thar she blows"
But Cap'n Edwards has let go his
harpoon at the moment he was expected
to--the exact moment when Cap'n Mort
Cooper. being attacked with ST. Vitus's
dance. lets 20 the bomb in the water
lust Off the bow Of the long boat. The
result Is that Cap'n Edwards's spear
takes the whale nelt in the neck. AL
the rest of the Cap'ns In Silas Edwards
boat testify that his harpoon took tho
whale neat In the neck. so that's settled
And now IL Is learned that cap'n I'd
wards had thought to attach a greer
lamp TO the harpoon he threw. being tc
port OF the big bull. and wherever the
pesty beast is he's no menace 20 trans
atlantic traffic as long as he has that
green light on his port bow.