32 i^ 100 YEARS EXPLORING LIFE, 1888-1988 



US everything: Hove to for a day in rough weather, and fishing ruined for 

 several hours by aggressive sharks tearing a hole in the bag of the net in the 

 trawl as it was brought in, letting out the fish which were devoured 

 voraciously." 



Whaling provided good stories also. In 1899, Ulric Dahlgren (a Prince- 

 ton University histologist apparently of Viking descent) organized a sword- 

 fishing party. The vessel Vigilant had a traditional "pulpit" at the bow for 

 watching the fish, and the remaining necessary equipment. Dahlgren made 

 up a party including embryologist Edwin G. Conklin, cytologists Edmund B. 

 Wilson and Thomas H. Montgomery, Japanese artist K. Hyashi, and a few 

 others. Expecting a two-day trip, they loaded food and water and set off for 

 the open ocean in the light wind. As the wind picked up, they sailed around 

 Gay Head and out to sea, accompanied by a rosy sunset. After a night 

 without much sleep, tlie group arose for a breakfast of bacon, eggs, 

 hardtack, and coffee, then sailed on. Soon came the excitement they had 

 hoped for. Spotting some sort of cetacean in the distance, they moved 

 toward it. When they got close enough, Dahlgren speared the creature 

 with a dart and iron but not the harpoon. It turned out to be a whale. The 

 whale was not happy and thus dived into deeper water, returning in a few 

 moments. 



Dahlgren decided then that he would try to wear out the whale, and he 

 put out a dory. Two men set off in it, with two sets of oars and a 300-foot 

 piece of rope. They caught up with the barrel attached to the dart and iron 

 and grabbed hold. Securing the rope to their harpoon rope, they were thus 

 tied to the whale. The whale headed at full speed for open ocean, with the 

 dory and two biologists attached. Normally calm and collected, Wilson stood 

 on board shouting "I'd give a hundred dollars to be in that boat." But then 

 the Vigilant fell behind and lost sight of the disappearing dory. While help- 

 lessly waiting for the men and dory to return, those remaining set about to 

 catch the swordfish they had intended to capture, but instead harpooned 

 a giant marine sunfish, Orthagoriscus mola. With some difficulty they 

 wrestled that fish on board, which distracted them for a while. They then 

 finally recalled their missing friends, who had disappeared more than 

 two hours before. 



The men resolved to set out in the second dory in search of the first, 

 because the Vigilant was completely becalmed by then. But tlicy had no oars 

 left. The first dory had left with both sets. They tried boards, which did not 

 work. Concerned about the two men with no food or water out in the hot 

 sun, they tried frying pans as oars, but the handles were too short. They then 

 found two brooms and set out, "sweeping the Atlantic." Fortunately, the 

 other men returned to sight and the sweepers could give up their absurd 

 effoi-t. The whale had moved around so much with his diving and resur- 

 facing that the rope had frayed and broken. Dahlgren estimated that they 



