302 WHALING 



until another boat picked them up. There were, of course, 

 exceptions to this rule: now and then a man went down and 

 never rose, but there are probably in all whaling history not 

 half-a-dozen instances of men directly attacked by whales. 

 American whaling tradition has at least two such instances. 



Once, as I have before recounted, a young man, the cap- 

 tain's son, was thrown from a whaleboat, caught between the 

 open jaws of a sperm whale, and never seen again. Another 

 time, one Marshall Jenkins, mate of another vessel, was so 

 caught. Then the whale sounded but soon reappeared, breached, 

 and disgorged the mate into the remains of the stove boat. 

 The log, with commendable conservatism, reports Mr. Jenkins 

 ''much bruised," but he was on duty a fortnight later, and 

 apparently none the worse for wear. 



Then there are "lone" whales, those occasional solitary bulls, 

 which keep their own company rather than that of the herd — 

 doubtless to the greater satisfaction of both herd and bull. 

 But the sperm whale was not meant to live alone, and these 

 exiles, voluntary or involuntary, have the proverbial bachelor's 

 disposition, so that even the most seasoned whalers would often 

 avoid an encounter with one of them. Many and thrilling are 

 the yarns that are spun about them and some of them are true, 

 but it is singular that of several instances of ships sunk by whales 

 — even of the two which were deliberately attacked — none refer 

 to a "lone" whale. 



The first instance was in 1819. The whaleship Essex of 

 Nantucket, George Pollard master, sailed from Nantucket on 

 August 12, 1819, for a whaling cruise in the Pacific. On No- 

 vember 20th they were in latitude 40° South and longitude 119° 

 West when the masthead man raised whales. Three boats were 

 lowered and very soon the mate's boat was fast to a whale, but 

 the beast struck the whaleboat with his flukes and so damaged 

 it that the men had reluctantly to cut loose and go back to the 

 ship for repairs. When they reached her they saw both the 

 captain's boat and the second mate's boat fast to whales. 

 As the mate headed the Essex for the two boats he saw a large 

 sperm whale breach about twenty rods from the ship, spout, and 



