WHALE HUNTING WITH GUN AND CAMERA 



he would need a second harpoon to finish him. I 

 was delighted, for I had long wished for a chance 

 to get a roll of motion-picture film showing the killing 

 of a whale, and now the conditions were ideal good 

 light, little wind, and no sea. 



I ran below to get the cinematograph and tripod 

 and set it on the bridge while the gun was being loaded. 

 The winch was then started and the whale drawn 

 slowly toward the ship. He persisted in keeping in 

 the sunlight, which drew a path of glittering, dancing 

 points of light, beautiful to see but fatal to pictures. 

 I shouted to Captain Andersen, asking him to wait a 

 bit and let the whale go down, hoping it would rise 

 in the other direction. He did so and the animal 

 swung around, coming up just as I wished, so that 

 the sun was almost behind us. It was now near 

 enough to begin work and I kept the crank of the ma- 

 chine steadily revolving whenever it rose to spout. 

 The whale was drawn in close under the bow and 

 for several minutes lay straining and heaving, trying 

 to free himself from the biting iron. 



"Stand by! I'm going to shoot now," sang out the 

 Gunner, and in a moment he was hidden from sight 

 in a thick black cloud. 



The beautiful gray body was lying quietly at the 

 surface when the smoke drifted away, but in a few 

 seconds the whale righted himself with a convulsive 

 heave. The poor animal was not yet dead, though the 

 harpoon had gone entirely through him. Captain An- 

 dersen called for one of the long slender lances which 

 were triced up to the ship's rigging, and after a few 



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