2o8 : The Atlantic 



whaling industry. Twenty-two of the vessels came from New Bed- 

 ford; two from New London; two from Martha's Vineyard; three 

 from San Francisco and four from Honolulu. 



These are a few of the large-scale collective accidents that hap- 

 pened to whaling vessels. They represent one type of danger in whal- 

 ing. The other kind of danger or disaster was that which happened 

 to individual whalemen or to the crews of whaleboats when they 

 were away from the ship and engaged in harpooning a whale. 



The things that whales could do to men and men could do to 

 whales is almost endless. When a man who may be six feet in height 

 stands up in the bow of a boat less than thirty feet long to lean over 

 and thrust the long and painful shaft of an iron into the hide of a 

 powerful animal that could be anything up to lOO feet long, a rapid 

 succession of strange events could take place. Every whale is danger- 

 ous but different types of whale are dangerous in different ways. The 

 danger spot in the right whale was in his tail or flukes. His mouth 

 was relatively harmless. The danger spot in the sperm whale was in 

 his long, punishing jaw, armed with enormous ivory teeth. The right 

 whale could see to either side but could not look forward. Conse- 

 quently he was always attacked and harpooned head-on. The sperm 

 whale could see ahead of him but was not very conscious of what 

 went on behind him so was always attacked and harpooned from the 

 rear. The greatest danger from the right whale was that he would 

 twist himself around and batter the whaleboat into kindling wood 

 with one swish of his great tail. The great danger from the sperm 

 whale was that, when struck, he might decide to "sound," that is, to 

 dive deep into the water and keep going as far and as fast as possi- 

 ble. Sometimes sounding whales carried down the whaleboat and its 

 entire crew before anyone had the power or the presence of mind to 

 cut the ropes. Another method of response of a whale to having a 

 long barbed iron thrust into his hide was to start with great determi- 

 nation and great speed for some point beyond the horizon. On these 

 occasions the boat steerer had his hands full, for the rate of speed 

 was terrific — the sharp prow of the whaleboat cutting through the 

 water and throwing a wave of white spray to either side. A long and 

 fast tow of this kind was referred to by the old-time whalers as a 

 "Nantucket sleigh ride." 



If the whale tired himself out in long straightaway charges, the boat 

 crew was relatively lucky, but whales had countless other tricks. 

 Sometimes the whale would swim in circles and the crew of the 

 whaleboat would have to keep their boat on an even keel. Some 



