HAZARDS AND COMPENSATIONS 191 



Practically every boat which was picked up after days or weeks 

 of drifting could be matched by another which was never heard 

 of again. Through every whaling port drifted the shadowy 

 memories of such losses. And while the sufferings and ad- 

 ventures which preceded death can only be surmised, one must 

 conclude that they were at least as harrowing as those of the 

 men who were eventually saved. 



At other times an unsuccessful encounter with a whale 

 involved a less tragic sequel, in that only one or more harpoon 

 irons were carried away by the escaping animal. Since every 

 harpoon was stamped with the name or initials of the vessel to 

 which it belonged, the subsequent capture of the same in- 

 dividual, with this curious means of identification still intact, 

 furnished the material for many a strange tale of the fore- 

 castle. Thus in 1 802 the ship Lion, of Nantucket, Peter Pad- 

 dack. Master, lost an "iron" in a whale which could not be 

 lanced j but in 18 15 the same Captain Paddack, then in com- 

 mand of the Lady Adams, captured the identical mammal and 

 recovered his long-lost harpoon. A similar incident occurred 

 when Captain Bunker, of the ship Howard, of New Bedford, 

 who had lost an iron in a whale, recovered it five years later. 

 An even longer period elapsed between escape and recapture 

 when in 1851 the ship Catawba, of Nantucket, planted an iron 

 which was found by the Andrew Hicks, of Westport, twenty 

 years later. Perhaps the strangest case of all, however, was 

 that of a right whale which was killed in the North Pacific 

 by the Cornelius Howland, of New Bedford. This animal, 

 captured in 18 70, contained an iron belonging to the bark Ansel 

 Gibbs, which for at least ten years before 18 70 had been whal- 

 ing only in the North Atlantic. In many other instances, too, 

 recaptured harpoons were found at points far distant from the 

 original battlegrounds. 



The destructive activities of the game reached a climax, how- 

 ever, when whaling vessels themselves were attacked. Though 

 such instances occurred only rarely, they included several of 

 the most fearful disasters in the history of the industry. One 

 of the earliest experiences in point was that of the whaleship 

 Union, of Nantucket, which was struck by a large sperm whale 

 on October i, 1807. So heavy was the blow delivered by the 



