208 THE WHALE AND 



A Bull-whale getting the Head-ache. The fatal Tap of a Fin. 



sure, the monster does not swallow it, but he 

 crushes it to pieces as if it were an egg-shell, 

 and, not unfrequently, some of its crew at the 

 same time, and this is always to be apprehended. 



Sometimes a sperm whale will drive " head 

 on" to his captors with such a speed and force 

 that they can neither prick him off with the 

 lance nor have time to sheer away. A blow 

 that would beat in the oak ribs of a man-of-war 

 would hardly, I suppose, give a bull- whale the 

 headache. There are two cases I have heard 

 of, one in the Atlantic and one in the Pacific, 

 in which an enormous sperm whale, with mal- 

 ice aforethought, did thus run three several 

 times full tilt against a whale ship, until his 

 butting had battered in her sides, and the men 

 had to abandon the ships a thousand miles from 

 land. But three or four survived the peril in 

 each case and got safe to land. One of them, 

 then a boy, is now master of a whale ship, still 

 grappling with dangers, and successfully pros- 

 ecuting this adventurous trade. 



I have known of one captain who was killed 

 instantly in the bow of his boat, by the tap of a 

 whale's fin upon his skull, when no one else was 

 at all injured. To have legs and arms broken, 



