His CAPTORS. 141 



A Common Disaster. Boat-line Afoul. 



took out a large portion of the line with great 

 rapidity before it was deemed prudent to check 

 it ; then an extra turn was taken around the 

 loggerhead, and the strain upon it became very 

 great ; for the whale, continuing to descend, 

 would bring the bow of the boat down till the 

 water was just about to rush over the gunwale 

 and fill it, when the line would be " surged," 

 or slacked out. 



Sometimes, when the line is nearly spent, 

 and there is great danger of losing the whale 

 by having it all run out, the disposition to hold 

 on has been fatally indulged too far, and the 

 boat taken down. I have heard of one boat 

 being thus lost on the " False Banks," and her 

 whole crew drowned. And very lately the 

 whaling bark Janet, of Westport, lost her cap- 

 tain and a boat's crew of five men, they being 

 all carried down and drowned by the boat-line 

 getting foul while they were fast to a whale. 



In the present instance, before taking all 

 their line, the whale began to ascend, and as 

 it became slackened, the line was hauled in, 

 " hand over hand," by the boat's crew, and 

 coiled away by the boat-steerer. The moment 

 the whale came to the surface, " he went smok- 



