©ANGERS OF THE FISHERY. ANECDOTES. f^i65 



fects of the blow were astonishing. The keel wae 

 broken,-^-^the gunwales, and every plank, except- 

 ing two, were cut through, — and it Vvas evident 

 that tlic boat would ha^e been completely divided, 

 had not the tail struck directly upon a coil of lines. 

 The boat was rendered useless. 



Instances of disasters of this kind, occasioned by 

 blows from the whale, could be adduced in great 

 numbers, — cases of boats being destroyed by a sin- 

 gle stroke of the tail, arc not unknown,-— instances 

 of boats having been stove or upset, and their crews 

 wholly or in part drov.iied, are not unfrequent, — 

 and several cases of whales having made a regular 

 attack upon every boat which came near them, 

 dashed some in pieces, and killed or drowned some 

 of the people in them, have occurred within a few 

 years, even under my own observation. 



Boats, together •with their Crews and Ajipara- 

 tiis, pi^ojected into the Air. — The Dutch ship 

 Gort-Moolen, commandetl by Cornelius Gerard 

 Ouwekaas, with a cargo of seven fish, was anchored 

 in Greenland in the year 1660. The captain, per- 

 ceiving a whale a-head of his ship, beckoned his at- 

 tendants, and threw himself into a boat. He was 

 the first to approach tlie wlialc ; and was fortunate 

 enough to harpoon it before the arrival of the se- 

 cond boat, which was on the advance. Jacques 

 \ ienkes, who had the direction of it, joined hi« 



