292 The Story of the New England Whalers 



attention of the monster. As the whale turned 

 toward the captain's boat the mate shouted: 

 "Look out, sir; it's a fighting whale!" 

 "All right; I've got a long lance and want 

 to try it," replied the captain. But before he had 

 poised his boasted lance the whale grabbed the 

 boat by the bow, lifted it entirely out of the water 

 and shook it to pieces, scattering the crew and 

 implements far and wide over the water. The 

 crew were all picked up, leaving the whale busily 

 searching the water for fragments of the broken 

 boat. These, as he found them, were all bitten 

 and crushed into matchwood, save only a keg 

 that had been in the boat. That danced over 

 the waves, escaping the rushes of the whale in 

 a way that seemed to exasperate the monster; 

 at any rate, it soon left all other objects to pursue 

 the keg with steadily growing vigor. 



On seeing, after reaching the ship, the whale's 

 interest in the keg, the mate (his name was 

 Norton, but his first name was not recorded) 

 offered to pick a crew and lower once more. 

 He was allowed to do so. As he drew near to 

 the whale, however, it lost interest in the keg 



