4 



XXVi FOREWORD. 



are in a small boat and quite another when you're aboard 

 a big vessel. Captain Jenkins regarded that whale as a 

 huge joke. He shouted to the mate that there was a whale 

 trying to get alongside. "Help him along!" roared he. 



The mate was quick, but the whale was quicker. When 

 the mate stood up to let him have it, the hugh creature 

 was so near, coming so fast, he didn't have room to swing 

 his iron. He failed to make fast and the whale continued 

 to head for the ship; only, as if irritated, he redoubled 

 his already terrific speed. 



Still, the captain felt only vexation at losing the prize. 

 A whale attacked can usually be counted on to sound. But 

 this one did not go down, neither did he swerve from his 

 course. 



When he got within thirty feet of the ship he seemed to 

 see her and tried to dive under her keel, but he was too 

 close. His great, square head struck the bark forward 

 of the mizzen rigging, and five or six feet below the water- 

 line. The Kathleen quivered under the blow as if she had 

 crashed upon a reef. Then she rose at the stern as the 

 whale tried to come up under her, dropping back with a 

 mighty splash. 



Still the captain was not alarmed. In his narrative, he 

 says, "I asked the cooper if he thought the whale had 

 hurt the ship and he said he didn't think so, for he had 

 not heard anything crack." 



The whale, meanwhile, had come up to the surface and 

 "laid there and rolled, didn't seem to know what to do." 

 Perhaps his head ached or he was seeing stars. The mate 

 seeing him thus subdued was for getting an iron into him. 

 But Captain Jenkins ordered him alongside. With night 

 coming on and the three other boats out of sight, he didn't 

 think it best to "fool" with that whale any more. So the 



