The Whalers : 211 



school of whales. The chief mate's boat was stove in by the flukes of 

 a whale that had been struck. In the meanwhile, the captain's and 

 second mate's boats were fast to another whale. The chief mate, in 

 charge of the ship, had headed the vessel in the direction of the cap- 

 tain's boat when, suddenly, a whale of about 85 feet in length shot 

 from the water quite near to the ship and charged directly at the 

 Essex and struck her on the bows on one side. The whale was 

 stunned but, after resting a few moments, it recovered and swam 

 away. While the whale recovered, the ship did not, for some of the 

 planks of the ship had been displaced and the vessel was leaking rap- 

 idly. Still, repairs might have been made had not the whale reap- 

 peared and charged again. By this time the vessel was turned over 

 on her beam-ends and all that was left for the mate and crew to do 

 was to launch the other boats and pile in. While nothing could be 

 done to repair the vessel, it took several days before it finally foun- 

 dered. During this time the officers and crew made some repairs to 

 their whaleboats and took aboard all the supplies and equipment they 

 could salvage. The coast of Peru was 3,000 miles away. It took them 

 five days to reach a deserted island. One of the boats became separated 

 from the other two. During the 2,500 mile row to Juan Fernandez 

 Island, many of the men died of hunger and thirst. Those who died 

 were eaten by the survivors. The first boat was picked up by an Eng- 

 lish brig called the Indian and three survivors were taken aboard. 

 The survivors, therefore, had been in the whaleboat from Novem- 

 ber 23rd until February 17th — that is, eighty-six days. The captain's 

 boat was not picked up until five days later — that is, ninety-one days. 

 The captain and one man were the sole survivors. 



In 1858 the Ann Alexander of New Bedford, John S. DeBlois the 

 captain, on August 24th attempted to capture a whale which 

 smashed two of its whaleboats. The men from these wrecked whale- 

 boats succeeded in reaching the ship. One boat was still aboard when 

 the whale appeared and charged at the Alexander. The hole made in 

 the ship near the keel was so large that the vessel started to sink. 

 The men aboard barely had time to toss a few things into a boat and 

 to escape from the ship before it sank. The whaleboats were in poor 

 condition and food and water were scarce. Fortunately, the survivors 

 were picked up by the ship Nantucket of Nantucket within two days. 

 Five months after the wreck of the Alexander a whale was captured 

 by a ship from New Bedford called the Rebecca Simms. This whale 

 had two irons in its body carrying the name of the Alexander. What 



