412 COLLISION WITH A WHALE. 



seas," which, for its strange icy horror, could not be sur- 

 passed by the most inventive imagination. What might 

 not be made out of it by a poet's pen ! What better 

 subject could be desired than that lonely ship, .with its 

 dead crew, moving silently through the icy seas, and 

 carrying such a burden of unutterable woe ! 



On returning to England, Captain Warrens made the 

 necessary inquiries respecting the owner of the vessel 

 and her destination ; ascertained the names of her crew ; 

 and discovered that she must have been "frozen in" fully 

 thirteen years before he had encountered her among the 

 polar ice. 



A remarkable illustration of the immense strength of 

 the whale was afforded by the fate of the American 

 whaler Essex, which stands almost alone in the annals of 

 whaling adventure. 



Late in the " fall of the year," when in lat. 40 of the 

 South Pacific, she fell in with a " school " of sperm 

 whales, and immediately manned three boats and des- 

 patched them in pursuit. The mate's boat was struck 

 by one of the leviathans, so that he was compelled to re- 

 turn to the ship to repair the damage sustained. While 

 this was being done, a sperm whale, estimated to measure 

 fully eighty-five feet, " rose " about twenty yards 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 speed, when he struck the bows of the latter just 

 forward of her chains. 



So great was the force of the collision, that the ship 

 quivered with it like a leaf. The whale dived under her, 

 just grazing her keel, and then reappeared at about the 



