HAZARDS AND COMPENSATIONS 189 



for more than twenty-four hours. After several unsuccessful 

 attempts, a line was finally transferred to the ship itself j and 

 for an appreciable period even this tremendous weight was 

 towed at a rate of two knots per hour. The annals of whaling 

 afford many other examples of the incredible strength and ten- 

 acity of life often exhibited by both sperm and right whales. 

 Because a boat was often towed by a running whale for many 

 miles before it was possible to haul up close enough to deliver 

 a lance thrust, the pursuers were frequently overtaken by dark- 

 ness and forced to spend the night at sea in an open boat. 

 Often it was not until daybreak that the mutual efforts of vessel 

 and boat to locate each other were successful, although the 

 search was continued throughout the night. Seldom was the 

 quest so happily ended as in the case of two boats which had 

 fastened to a large sperm whale late in the afternoon and were 

 drawn out of sight before sunset. While the ship was sailing 

 to windward in an effort to overtake them a night of such pitch 

 blackness set in that for the time being all further efforts 

 seemed hopeless. Only a few hours later, however, both boats 

 and the captured whale were discovered by means of a lantern 

 held aloft on an oar. 



■ Far less fortunate was the second mate of another Pacific 

 whaler who fastened to a cachalot and killed it just before 

 dark, after a long chase which had taken him far away from 

 his ship. In securing the animal a cutting-spade slipped and 

 all but amputated one hand. But that was not all: one of 

 the South Sea Islanders, crazed through fear of the darkness, 

 threatened momentarily to overturn the boat in his terror. 

 As a last resort the mate was compelled to quiet the cowering 

 Kanaka by keeping his pistol pointed at him. And throughout 

 the night he sat awake, with the excruciating pain of his gaping 

 wound in one hand and a pistol in the other. Nor was it until 

 broad daylight that the boat's crew was discovered by the vessel 

 and taken aboard. 



In other cases, however, discovery and rescue did not come 

 even with the morning j and then followed harrowing days and 

 weeks of experiences to be numbered among the most terrify- 

 ing of maritime adventures. A well-known instance was that 

 of a boat's crew from the bark Janet., which in 1849 was cruis- 



