304 The Story of the New England Whalers 



provisions ready to put in the boats, one of the 

 crew shouted : 



"Here he is; he is making for us again !" 

 "I turned arqund and saw him about a hun- 

 dred rods directly ahead of us," wrote Mr. Chase, 

 "coming down with apparently twice his ordinary 

 speed, and to me it appeared with tenfold fury 

 and vengeance in his aspect. The surf flew in all 

 directions and his course toward us was marked 

 by a white foam of a rod in width, which he 

 made with .a continual violent thrashing of his 

 tail. His head was about half out of water, and 

 in that way he came upon and again struck the 

 ship. I called out to the helmsman, 'Hard up!' 

 but she had not fallen off more than a point 

 when we took the second shock. I should judge 

 the speed of the ship to have been at this time 

 about three knots and that of the whale about 

 six. He struck her to windward, directly under 

 the cathead, and completely stove in her bows. 

 He passed under the ship again, went off to lee- 

 ward, and we saw no more of him." 



The spare boat was now hurriedly launched 

 overboard and the ship's compasses were put into 



