122 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



How many instances of the destruction of ships by whales the cata- 

 logue of " missing " vessels may furnish can never be known, but it 

 may be safely presumed that some of those ships from which widows, 

 fatherless children, and sorrowing relatives have sought for some tidings 

 or some memento iu vain, would help to swell the list. A few brief 

 days, and had not the crew of the Ann Alexander so providentially met 

 a rescuer, their doom must have been sealed, and their vessel would 

 have appeared on the marine lists simply as a " missing " ship. The lands- 

 man would glance casually at the expression, and think no more of it. 

 The mariner and the relatives and friends of those who followed the 

 sea would read the word with a shudder as they thought of the probable 

 sufferings, privations, and possibly horrible, lingering death the unfor- 

 tunate crew might have encountered. Those to whom the word meant 

 far more than an empty sound w^ould think — "What sighs have been 

 wafted after that ship ! What prayers have been offered up at the de- 

 serted fireside of home ! How often has the mistress, the wife, the 

 mother pored over the daily news, to catch some casual intelligence of 

 this rover of the deep ! How has expectation darkened into anxiety, — 

 anxiety into dread, — and dread into despair! Alas, not one memento 

 remains for love to cherish. All that shall ever be known is, that she 

 sailed from her port and was never heard of more." 



But the pugnacity of the whale is rarely directed against the ships 

 themselves, so rarely that when the account of the loss of the Essex 

 reached England, some of the prominent British journals scouted the 

 tale as preposterous. Scarcely a w^haleman, however, but can tell some 

 story of the attacking of boats by these monsters, and the attacks and 

 parryings require on the part of those having charge of the boats the 

 utmost nerve, adroitness and jirecisiou. A few instances of this kind 

 it may be well to briefly mention. 



In October, 1832, the ship Hector, of New Bedford, Capt. John O. 

 Morse, then ninety days from port, "raised" a whale, and lowered for 

 him. But while the crews were proposing offensive operations, the 

 whale himself took the initiative, and just as the harpoon struck him he 

 struck the mate's boat, staving it badly. By drawing sails under her 

 and bailing, the boat was kept afloat, and the attack resumed. Jn the 

 mean time Captain Morse came to his assistance, and the mate warned 

 him of the character of his antagonist, but Captain Morse told him he 

 had a long lance and he wanted to try it. Accordingly the Captain 

 advanced to the whale, which immediately turned, and, taking the Cap- 



her headway. As she was a ship of 500 tons, deeply laden, and running at the rate of 

 nearly ten knots an hour, some idea can be gained of the tremendous momentum of 

 ber assailant.— (Eicketson's Hist, of New Bedford, p. 101.) The London Punch of 

 December 6, 1851, contained a humorous description of the attack on the Ann Alex- 

 ander. A similar, though not so disastrous an experieuce befel the Pocahontas, of 

 Holmes's Hole, in 1850. She was attacked by a large bull sperm whale, and put into Rio 

 Janeiro for repairs, leaking 250 strokes per hour. 



