TIT FOR TAT 303 



disappear. Soon the beast came up again, about a ship's 

 length away and heading straight for her. 



"Hard up your helm!" But the whale quickened his speed 

 immediately and struck the ship, head on, just forward of the 

 fore chains. She brought up suddenly and shook like a leaf, 

 while the whale passed under, scraping her keel, and rose about 

 a hundred yards to leeward. For a moment he seemed to be 

 stunned, but probably he was hurt by scraping the keel, for 

 shortly he began thrashing his flukes and snapping his enormous 

 jaws. The Essex had already begun to settle by the head, when 

 the shout came, " Here he is! " and at twice the ordinary speed he 

 came at her, crashed into her bows, and stove them completely 

 in, directly under the cathead. Then he passed under her again 

 and out of sight for the last time. 



The spare boat was launched in haste, a few instruments 

 and a few provisions were got into it and the men jumped in 

 after, as the Essex listed to windward and settled deeper. Cap- 

 tain Pollard now came aboard with all possible speed and 

 ordered the masts cut away. As soon as this was done the ship 

 righted, but, even so, with water pouring into the breach that 

 the whale had made, she was rapidly falling on beam ends. 



They lay by all night, and next morning they managed to 

 get out a few more supplies, to mend the mate's stove boat 

 after a fashion, and to build up the sides of the others. Light 

 and frail as it is, the whaleboat is a buoyant craft, and to this 

 buoyancy they now had to trust their lives on a thousand-mile 

 row. They took observations with their few instruments, de- 

 cided against the nearest land — the Marquesas or the Society 

 group. 



For thirty days they struggled on in those open boats. Once 

 the captain's boat was attacked in the night, probably by a 

 killer; all three boats ran short of food and water; their ship's 

 bread was soaked and, when they had dried it, it proved too 

 salty to eat. Dolphins played about the boats, but there was 

 no way of catching them. The men suffered agonies of thirst 

 and, when at last rain fell and they caught it in their sails, the 

 sails were so salty from earlier wettings with sea water that 



