Big Game at Sea 



inches of white oak. Even more remarkable was the 

 force expended upon the whaler Fortune, of Ply- 

 mouth, by one of these fishes. The weapon had been 

 driven through the copper sheathing, an inch board of 

 under sheathing, a three-inch plank of hard wood, 

 then through twelve inches of solid white oak timber, 

 and then through two and a half inches of oak ceil- 

 ing, finally penetrating an oil cask. Such a weapon 

 .can only be compared to a projectile, and doubtless 

 jnany vessels or boats have been destroyed in this 

 manner; sunk, as was the United States Fish Com- 

 mission sloop Red Hot y by being pierced by this 

 swordman of the sea. 



104 



