WHALING IN THE BAY. 1 1/ 



innumerable shipwrecks to be charged to 

 the account of this bar. 



An old sea-captain told me how, not 

 many years ago, he saw an Italian brig, 

 the " Giovanne," dashed to pieces at the 

 Peaked Hills, and all but one of her crew 

 drowned before his eyes. No living soul 

 could help them, as no life-boat could 

 possibly get through the great foaming 

 breakers which rolled in more than thirty 

 feet high. He said the captain, a great, 

 powerful fellow, several times swam almost 

 up to the shore, but was as often swept 

 back by the undertow. At last he was seen 

 to give up the unequal contest, throw up 

 his hands, and sink below the waves ; and 

 after the storm his body was thrown up on 

 the beach, together with those of his crew. 



Within a few years, in the month of 

 November, three of the crew of the life- 

 boat, including the captain, all Province- 

 town men, were drowned while trying to 

 reach a stranded vessel, a part of whose 

 crew they had already saved. This was 

 the first wreck on the coast after the 



