Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-12-19

| to our assistance, and when he ar.
| rived we put the waist boats crew.
all wet and cold. into his boat to he
taken on board the bark. with orders
to come back TO assist us in killing
the whale.
To my surprise. they hoisted the
boat up, leaving me to cope with the
whale unassisted. The weather was
rapidly getting worse. The whale was
very ugly one, and the bark was
soon out Of sight in the n1ists
Realizing that there WAS no time TO
lose IL we were going to kill that
whale, we at once put forth our best
efforts to get near enough to shoot
an explosive bomb or give him a
thrust with the long hand lance As
We hauled the line bringing the boat
nearer, the whale turned on our boat.
We lodged him as he made his mad
rush, and | shot a bomb. following it
up with thrust of the hand lance
that | knew gave him his mortal
wound
But he was not done with us, for.
raining to catch us that time. he set
tied under water only for an instant.
when. coming to the surface directly
under the boat. he caught il in his
jaws and bit 1t in two with no more
x.
Here We were. The aft end Of the
boat with four men hanging TO it.
with all the oars, etc. drifting away.
while one man and myself were on
the forward end. which was bottom
up, hanging on for dear life. Hardly
had we time TO get to our positions
when the man with me sang out,
Look, Mr.. Cook here he comes
Lashing the water into foam, the
whale, spoutinE great masses of clot.
ted blood. was coming directly for us.
with jaws wide open. The man with
me said he was going to jump. but
persuaded him not to 90 it. for in that
cold water in such A sea I knew that
once away from the boat there would
be no hope.
So. Clinsing to our piece of boat. We
watched the monster come. As he
came up to the stem of the boat. he
rolled on his side just as he closed
his jaws with just life enough left to
set his teeth into the wood. and died
not two feet away from where | was
holding onto the boat.
But where was the ship. and how
long could we hold out? Soon, how
ever, through the mist we could see
the dim outline of our ship. but we
saw also that she would pass a mile
or so away. We made every possible
signal to attract attention, being
washr away from our pieces of boat
while attempting 1t.
At last we saw the ship being
hauled aback and we knew that she
had sighted us. One boat was low
cred. in charge of the third mate, who
after hard work succeeded in reach
ing us, saving every man, and taking
lis all safely ahoa I'd
Two boats and gear were lost. and
our boats crew were rescued all but
unconscious. We never saw the dead
whale again.
CALLING from San Francisco later
~ as master of the bark, we shaped
our course to the Kodiak grounds for
right whales. At midnight April Z,
I was called with the startling cry,
Ships on fire.
Rushing on deck. saw a cloud of
smoke forward. Arriving abreast the
fore hatch, I saw the fire was in the
fore hold. Orders had been issued to
rig the portable pump, while others
were drawing water In buckets from
over the side.
Calling for buckets of water, and
for the hose as soon as the pump was
got ready. jumped below to be
tweeen-decks. Nothing could be seen
there but smoke. Taking off the be-
tween-decks hatch and jumping down
into the lower hold, away forward
saw the blaze. s4u
About that time the hose was
passed me, and, calling for others to
come down and pass water In buckets,
we soon succeeded in putting it out.
/ tell you, It was hot and suffocating
work down in that hold Fortunately,
we were favored with weather condi-
tions, as the sea was extremely