HAZARDS AND COMPENSATIONS 213 



Down on him again they bore! 

 Fifty rods below the water, 

 There they saw the monster lie; 

 So, despairing him to slaughter. 

 They resolved no more to try. 



At this time, Deblois was standing 

 Sternly on the larboard bow, 

 Ready, with harpoon his hand in. 

 To inflict a deadly blow: 

 Up he saw the monster rising, 

 With velocity and power. 

 At the rate of speed surprising 

 Of full fifteen knots an hour. 



In an instant — Heaven defend us! — 

 Lo, the whale had, near the keel 

 Struck, with such a force tremendous 

 That it made the vessel reel; 

 And her bottom knocked a hole in. 

 Into which the water poured; 

 And the sea so fierce did roll in. 

 That the billows rushed and roared! 



Yet the ship was saved from sinking, 



Though so riddled by the whale. 



And Deblois and his unshrinking 



Crew survive to tell the tale. 



Strong are those daring fellows. 



Doubtless, the harpoon to throw; 



And — to judge from what they tell us — 



Stronger still to draw the bow! 



Other would-be poets, instead of scoffing, were attracted by 

 the romantic and sentimental phases of the fishery j and again 

 they voiced a certain section of contemporary public opinion. 

 Poetry was perhaps too flattering a word for the fugitive and 

 amateurish literary efforts which dealt with whaling: mere 

 versification was a more accurately descriptive term. 



A certain Dr. John Osborn, born on Cape Cod in 1713 and 

 educated at Harvard College, set the standard in this field by 

 composing "A Whaling Song" of such ponderous dullness that 



