194 NIMROD OF THE SEA; OR, 



And this records only part of the loss. Young Topping, of 

 the Thorn, had his boat stove by the whale. He got into 

 the mate's boat, and returned to the attack. Not one of 

 that crew came out of the encounter alive. Captain, mate, 

 and five men perished, just how no one witnessed; and none 

 survived to tell the sad tale. This is a marble record that 

 in ten years from this one port six masters perished, the 

 oldest being thirty years. For them I could sing," Hiuton 

 went on, 



" ' Kep thy red gold and gems, thou stormy grave! 

 Give back the true and brave ; 

 Give back the lost and lovely ! those for whom 

 The place was kept at board and hearth so long !' 



" That is a black picture, Hinton," said Posey ; " though I 

 can't help holding, with the good Gardiner, that there's a 

 * sweet little cherub that sits up aloft, and looks out for 

 the fate of poor Jack.' There is Captain Henry Huntting, 

 a son of Southampton too, who ran the gauntlet, boy and 

 man, boat-steerer, mate, and captain, and never had a man 

 killed in his boat, and excepting one ugly knock on the knee 

 from a whale's flukes, was never hurt in his long experience. 

 And there's his brother, Captain Jim. If there ever was a 

 man to believe that whalemen are wonderfully preserved, he 

 is the man. Did any of you ever see Captain James Hunt- 

 ting? No? Then just figure to yourselves a young giant, 

 seventy-eight inches in his stocking-feet, two> hundred and 

 fifty pounds in weight, and not an ounce of fat to cut his 

 wind proportions of Hercules, and the face of man. 



"When he was a boat-steerer, a sperm-whale stove his 

 boat, and rolled it over on him. He came up under it all 

 tangled in the 'line that was coiled in the stern-sheets of the 

 boat. He fought like a giant to throw off the deadly coil. 

 It was about his body, his arms, and his neck. It was for 

 dear life that he was working, and he knew the odds were 



