WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 89 



of the risks we all run at any crossing as pedestrians or 

 motorists. 



Off Norway, several steam-whalers have had sea-water 

 and daylight let into them by careless whales, and a whale 

 here, some years ago, when the industry was new, took 

 offence at being fired at, and flew at the innocent little 

 steamer (seventy tons solid life and energy against a ninety- 

 five-foot boat) with jaws wide open and generally chewed-up 

 rails and superstructures, so the owners hardly knew it when 

 it came back to the station. But whales are not in the habit 

 of behaving like this. I did myself, however, experience a 

 mild charge last year ; possibly the charge was unintentional, 

 but certainly the whale came straight at our starboard bow, 

 and had we not been quick enough to swing and depress the 

 gun's muzzle and shoot at six yards, something might have 

 happened ; as it was the whale came on and struck a dead 

 whale we had alongside, and with its impetus it gave our 

 little ship a considerable dunt in the ribs. " If " it had 

 not been hit and " if " it had struck us a little harder, say 

 twice, we would have had to row home a hundred miles 

 in the boats, which would have been rather a come-down 

 from steaming the wide seas o'er, on our up-to-date little 

 whaler, the Haldane of Colla Firth. 



" If " another whale a few nights ago had pulled a little 

 harder, when it suddenly changed from towing us forward 

 to towing us astern, we might have been quite upset, whereas 

 we were only half-seas over. But alas, there was a really 

 very sad and dreadful experience here, two years ago. 

 Captain Torp, a fine man and a good gunner, fired at a 

 whale and the harpoon ricochetted, and three hundred and 

 eighty-five grammes driving a one-and-a-half -hundredweight 

 harpoon burst the five-inch cable, and the inside end 

 came back and wound round him and broke him unspeakably 

 from head to foot, and yet he lived two days, and fourteen 

 ounces of chloroform had little effect. 



Then, too, one sometimes gets sunk whilst whaling. 

 Casperg, a master in Ronas Voe, our next-door station, had 

 that experience went down in his cabin with pipe and 

 tobacco pouch in hand, felt himself kicking the rock with his 



