1 84 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



close quarters with such gigantic game, the slightest mishap 

 was a death threat. Inexperience, faulty judgment, and care- 

 lessness were mortally costly j terrifying disasters occurred in 

 spite of skill, courage, and hardihood j and the deliberate at- 

 tacks of "ugly" whales, and the convulsive movements of mas- 

 sive bodies seeking to escape, were alike dangerous to the pur- 

 suers. 



These boat accidents assumed various forms. Frequently a 

 man was whisked away to a watery grave by a flying loop of a 

 "foul line" which was being taken out at lightning speed. The 

 few who were released by the slackening of the line and rose 

 to the surface with ghastly wounds were among the favored of 

 the gods. At times one or more men would be picked out of a 

 boat by a sweep of the flukes which missed the craft itself. 

 But when the flukes registered a square hit, or when the small 

 vessel was caught in the jaws of a sperm whale, the result was 

 a "stove boat" — a catastrophe in which the occupants were 

 often wounded or drowned. Upon other occasions the speed 

 and strength of a "running" whale carried a boat out of sight 

 of the larger vessel 5 and if then a storm or darkness set in 

 before the whaler was rediscovered, the situation was preca- 

 rious indeed. Sometimes the following morning brought res- 

 cue 5 but often it was only the first of days that ran into weeks 

 of maddening drifting, hunger, and thirst. In many cases 

 boats so lost were never heard of again. Others were picked 

 up only after one or more members of the small crews had 

 died, and, in a few extreme instances, had been devoured by the 

 survivors. 



Only a detailed recital of specific happenings, however^ can 

 suggest adequately the dramatic perils, the cruel sufferings 

 which characterized the industry. The desperately earnest 

 nature of the chase was epitomized in the slogan, "A dead 

 whale or a stove boat." And very often it was the latter al- 

 ternative which prevailed. For a "stove boat" was one of the 

 most common major accidents suffered on the whaling grounds. 



The facts of one harrowing encounter which took place off 

 the coast of Chile on December 24, 1847, ^^^ given in the log- 

 book of the whaler Acushnet. In spite of a rough sea three 

 boats were lowered in pursuit of two whales, a cow and a calf. 



