Work of the Fighting Whales 303 



Then, as he was about to begin the work of re- 

 pairing his own boat, the mate saw a huge sperm 

 whale come to the surface of the water about 

 twenty rods away. It lay for a moment ap- 

 parently having a look at the ship, and then it 

 settled just beneath the surface, after the manner 

 of whales when making an attack, and headed for 

 the ship. The mate ordered the wheel hard up, 

 but the ship was moving so slowly that she was 

 unable to dodge, and the whale struck her on the 

 bow, giving her "such an appalling and tremen- 

 dous jar as nearly threw us all on our faces. The 

 ship brought up as suddenly and violently as if 

 she had struck a rock," so said the mate. The 

 whale then passed under the ship, scraping her 

 keel as he passed, and came to the surface about 

 a hundred yards away, where he lay thrashing 

 the water with his tail and "snapping his jaws as 

 if in a great fury/' 



Meantime the ship began to sink, and the mate 

 (Mr. Owen Chase, who wrote an account of the 

 disaster that was printed in book form) at once 

 started the pumps and set a signal to recall the 

 boats. A little later, as he was getting some 



