TOE WHALi; FISHERY. 267 



the boat clear of the whale; but in the swift tide of the shallow and turbid waters in the narrow 

 passages of the lagoons, the dangers are greatly augmented by the terrible lashings of the ponderous 

 flukes, and scarcely a day passes in this fishery but there is a general upsetting and staving of 

 boats, and occasionally the loss of a limb, severe cuts, aud bruises. These whales have been 

 attacked and escaped so repeatedly that they have become remarkably shy and wary, and the 

 greatest strategy must be practiced by the whalemen to insure a capture. Some of them assume 

 positions which leads their captors to believe that they are dead, or at least tractable; but upon 

 the approach of the boat within shooting distance they are on the move again, and out of sight 

 in a moment. When an officer of a boat discovers a wtratn he sets a waif in his boat and gives 

 chase; the boats belonging to another vessel will not interfere, but go in pursuit of other whales.* 



Many whales float along the rim of the water, their backs a little above the surface, while 

 others swim " top water." 



Accidents during the capture of the whale may be attributed primarily to the energetic 

 actions of the huge cetaceans to get out of the way of their pursuers or hide themselves from 

 them; secondarily, to carelessness or inexperience of the men, and to the vain desire of some officers 

 of the boats to be the first to strike the whale, or to strike more whales than any one else a prac- 

 tice known to the old New Bedford whalemen as ''whaling for victory," which every commander 

 should condemn ; to unavoidable accidents which may occur with the utmost care, and, finally, to 

 the disposition of "ugly" whales to attack and destroy the boats. Not that all whales are vicious 

 or pugnacious some are ; but when these immense creatures endeavor to hide themselves in the 

 depths below, they must get a "purchase" with their horizontal flukes to "round out" in order 

 that they may go down head first, and when these enormous caudal attachments crash through a 

 frail cedar boat containing six men, lives and limbs are in danger. It makes no difference whether 

 the whale strikes a boat intentionally or accidentally, the effect is substantially and emphatically 

 the same. 



The capture of the whale, full of perils at all times, has been shorn of some of its dangers by 

 the introduction of guns and bomb-lances. At least, it would seem so. Still, the record of acci- 

 dents shows that the mishaps of the old style of fishing aud those of the new are about evenly 

 balanced. The dangers incident to "hamstringing" a whale with the boat-spade and killing it 

 with the hand-lance may be offset by accidents resulting from the use of tire-arms. 



MANNER OF USING SHOULDER-GUNS. The distance from the whale at which it is customary 

 to discharge the shoulder-gun depends upon the skill of the gunner and the position and actions of 

 the "fish." The officer prefers to get as close to the whale as possible without gallyingtit; not that 

 the gun will not shoot accurately at a greater distance, but because the whale swims so low as to 

 cause the bomb-lance to traverse a considerable distance through water. Capt. William M. Barnes 

 tells me that in killing bowhead whales, the shoulder-gun should be fired at from 20 to 50 feet 

 from the " fish," sometimes a greater distance ; and also that a bomb fired at a distance of 100 feet 

 would in most cases prove ineffectual. As a matter of choice the whalemen prefer <o be as near 

 the whale as 18 feet in order that the bomb may penetrate that part of the animal called the "life" 

 (lungs), which is usually submerged ; but there are instances on record where whales have been 

 almost instantly killed with bomb-lances at a distance of 30 feet. Captain Scammon saysf that 

 the Brand gun does good execution within a range of 25 yards, and Messrs. Wright, Bowne & Co., 



* Marine Mammalia and American \Vli.-ilr Fishery, p. 25. 



+ This word "gullied" is in constant, use among whalemen in the 1 sense of frightened or confused. It is perhaps 

 a corruption of the obsolete verb gallow, to be found in old writers. Thus Shakspeare has, in King Lear, " The wrath- 

 ful skies gallow the deep wanderers of the dark." W. II. MACY There She Blows, p. 72. 



{ Marine Mammalia and American Whale Fishery, j;. -16. 



