300 The Story of the New England Whalers 



the whale. As he afterward said, 'she was too 

 dangerous a cuss to run at large in that pasture 

 field.' Watching a chance he got a set on her 

 over the shoulder blade and sent the red flag into 

 the air. This tamed her; she lagged around for 

 a time and settled away dead. The mate then 

 came on board and reported sunk whale. It was 

 several weeks before I was able to take my place 

 in the head of my boat again." 



Still more remarkable than these stories are 

 those of the whales that left off fighting the small 

 boats to make a deliberate attack upon the ship 

 from which they had come. Many ships have 

 collided with whales and many whales have 

 struck ships with destructive effect through pure 

 accident, because unable to see what is directly 

 ahead of them; but the interest in this chapter is 

 confined to the fighting qualities of the monsters. 



Of the stories of the ships that have been 

 struck by whales making a deliberate attack, the 

 most noted were those of the loss of the Ann 

 Alexander, already told, and of the sinking of the 

 Essex, of Nantucket. 



The bark Katblene, Captain Thomas H. Jen- 



