FATAL ACCIDENT TO A HARPOONER. 163 



ness of the man entrusted with this important duty, Scores- 

 by, one of the most distinguished whalers that has ever 

 been known on these perilous enterprises, records an in- 

 stance which had a fatal consequence : 



" As soon as the boats came within hailing distance (sent 

 in pursuit of the whales), my anxiety induced me to call out 

 and inquire what had happened. * We have lost CarrI' 

 This awful intelligence, for which we were altogether unpre- 

 pared, shocked me exceedingly, and it was some time before I 

 was able to inquire into the particulars of the accident 

 which had deprived us of one of our shipmates. As far as 

 could be collected from the confused accounts of the crew of 

 the boat of which he went out in charge, the circumstances 

 were as follow: The two boats that had long been absent on 

 the outset, separated from their companions, and, allured by 

 the chase of a whale and the fineness of the weather, they pro- 

 ceeded until they were far out of sight of the ship. The whale 

 they pursued led them into a vast shoal of the species. They 

 were, indeed, so numerous that their ' blowing' was inces- 

 sant, and there could not have been less than one hundred. 

 Fearful of alarming them without striking any, the crews in 

 the boats remained for some time motionless, watching a 

 favorable opportunity for commencing the attack. A whale 

 at length arose so near the boat of which William Carr was 

 harpooner, that he ventured to pull towards it, though it 

 was meeting him, and afforded but an indifferent chance oi 

 success. He, however, fatally for himself, succeeded in har- 

 pooning it : the boat and fish, passing each other with great 

 rapidity after the stroke, the line was jerked out of its place, 

 and instead of ' running over' the stern, was thrown over 

 the gunwale. Its pressure in this unfavorable position so 

 careened the boat that the side sank below the water, and it 

 began to fill. In this emergency the harpooner, who was a 

 fine active fellow, seized the bight of the line, and attempted 

 to relieve the boat by restoring it to its place ; but, by some 



