WHALE FISH BUY. 571 



On the first cessation of the storm, we made all sail 

 towards the boat, succeeded in finding it, recovered boat 

 and line, but lost the fish. 



'On the twentyeighth of May, 1817, the Royal Boun- 

 ty, of Lei th, Captain Drysdale, fell in with a great num- 

 ber of whales in the latitude of 77 25' N., and longi- 

 tude 5 or 6 E. Neither ice or land was in sight, nor 

 was there supposed to be either one or the other, within 

 fifty or sixty miles. A brisk breeze of wind prevailed, 

 and the weather was clear. The boats were, therefore, 

 manned and sent out in pursuit. After a chase of about 

 five hours, the harpooner commanding a boat, who, with 

 another in company, had rowed out of sight of the ship, 

 struck one of the whales. This was about four o'clock 

 in the morning 1 , of the twentyninth. 



' The captain supposing, from the long absence of the 

 two most distant boats, that a fish had been struck, di- 

 rected the course of the ship towards the place where he 

 had last seen them, and about eight o'clock in the morn- 

 ing, he got in sight of a boat, which displayed the signal 

 for being fast. Some time afterwards, he observed the 

 other boat approach the fish, a second harpoon struck, 

 and the usual signal displayed. As, however, the fish 

 dragged the two boats away with considerable speed, it 

 was mid-day before any assistance could reach them. 

 Two more harpoons were then struck, but such was the 

 vigor of the whale, that although it constantly dragged 

 through the water from four to six boats, together with 

 16,000 fathoms of line, which it had drawn out of the 

 different boats, yet it pursued its flight nearly as fast as 

 a boat could row, and such was the terror it manifested 

 on the approach of its enemies, that whenever a boat 

 passed beyond its tail, it invariably dived. All their en- 

 deavors to lance it were, therefore, vain. The crews of 

 the loose boats, being unable to keep pace with the fish, 

 caught hold of and moored themselves to the fast-boats, 

 and for some hours afterwards, all hands were constrain- 

 ed to sit in idle impatience, waiting for some relaxation 

 in the speed of the whale. Its most general course had 

 hitherto been to windward, but a favorable change tak- 

 ing place, enabled the ship, which had previously been 



