CETACEANS. 215 



the air, and either descends upon the boat, cutting it 

 down to the water's edge, or encounters in its trajet 

 some of the crew standing up, as the headsman, or 

 harpooner, who are destroyed and carried away by the 

 blow ; and this last is the most common, as well as 

 the most sudden and awful calamity recorded in the 

 fishery. 



It was by a melancholy accident of this kind that an 

 experienced and enterprising whaler, the father of our 

 commander, lost his life, when in command of the ship 

 Perseverance, and outward bound on a voyage to the 

 Pacific Ocean. He was engaged in destroying a 

 Cachalot, on the Brazil Bank, when a rapid and in- 

 evitable blow from the flukes of the animal struck him 

 out of the boat ; his body floated on the water, and 

 was immediately rescued and conveyed to the ship ; 

 but, although no external marks of injury were any 

 where visible, all attempts to restore animation were of 

 no avail, for life was totally extinct. One of the crew, 

 pulling an oar in the same boat, was also killed by the 

 same blow. The whale, after thus dealing destruction 

 amongst its pursuers, effected an escape ; but there is 

 reason to suppose, from the clue of marked harpoons 

 left in its body, that it was subsequently destroyed by 

 an American whale-ship. 



Captain T. Stavers, of the Tuscan, when cruising in 

 the North Pacific, during the season of 1831, had the 

 misfortune to lose his chief mate, Mr. Young, under 

 circumstances very similar to the preceding. On the 

 morning of the 30th of August, a small party, or " pod," 

 of Sperm Whales was noticed from the ship, and the 

 commander and second-mate lowered their boats in 

 pursuit, leaving Mr. Young on board, in charge of the 

 vessel. While engaged in destroying a large whale, 



