200 THE WHALEMAN'S ADVENTURES. 



water about twenty rods from the ship, on her 

 weather bow. He was going at the rate of 

 about three knots an hour, and the ship at nearly 

 the same rate, when he struck the bows of the 

 vessel just forward of her chains. 



At the shock produced by the collision of 

 two such mighty masses of matter in motion, 

 the ship shook like a leaf. The seemingly 

 malicious whale dived and passed under the 

 ship, grazing her keel, and then appeared at a- 

 bout the distance of a ship's length, lashing the 

 sea with fins and tail, as if suffering the most 

 horrible agony. He was evidently hurt by the 

 collision, and blindly frantic with instinctive 

 rage. 



In a few minutes he seemed to recover him- 

 self, and started with great speed directly across 

 the vessel's course to windward. Mean time 

 the hands on board discovered the ship to be 

 gradually settling down at the bows, and the 

 pumps were ordered to be rigged. While 

 working at them, one of the men cried out, 

 " God have mercy ! he comes again ! " 



The whale had turned at about one hun- 



