216 THE WHALE AND 



Accident to the Essex. A strange and fatal Collision. 



Nantucket for the Pacific Ocean in August, 

 1819. Late in the fall of the same year, when 

 in latitude forty of the South Pacific, a school 

 of sperm whales were discovered, and three 

 boats were manned and sent in pursuit. The 

 mate's boat was struck by one of them, and he 

 was obliged to return to the ship in order to 

 repair the damage. 



While he was engaged in that work, a sperm 

 whale, judged to be eighty-five feet long, broke 

 water about twenty rods from the ship, on her 

 weather bow. He was going at the rate of 

 about three knots an hour, and the ship at 

 nearly the same rate, when he struck the bows 

 . of the vessel just forward of her chains. 



At the shock produced by the collision of two 

 such mighty masses of matter in motion, the 

 ship shook like a leaf. The seemingly mali- 

 cious whale dove and passed under the ship, 

 grazing her keel, and then appeared at about 

 the distance of a ship's length, lashing the sea 

 with fins and tail, as if suffering the most hor- 

 rible agony. He was evidently hurt by the 

 collision, and blindly frantic with instinctive 

 rage. 



In a few minutes he seemed to recover him- 



