HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERY. 125 



the reward of the captors, who were obliged to put into Fayal for med- 

 ical advice for the boat-steerer, and to repair their damaged vessel.* 



Captain Davis, in his "Nimrod of the Sea,"t mentions two instances of 

 fighting whales. The first was encountered by Captain Huntting, off 

 the river De la Plata, and was, as is usually the case with these aquatic 

 warriors, a bull sperm. " When the monster was struck," says Captain 

 Davis, "he did not attempt to escape, but turned at once on the boat 

 with his jaw, cut her in two, and continued thrashing the wreck until it 

 was completely broken up. One of the loose boats picked up the swim- 

 mers and took them to the ship; the other two boats went on, and each 

 planted two irons in the irate animal. This aroused him, and he turned 

 his full fury on them, crushing in their bottoms with the jaw, and not 

 leaving them while a promising mouthful held together. Twelve demor- 

 alized men were in the water, anxious observers of his majestic auger. 

 Two men who could not swim had, in their terror, climbed on his back, 

 and seated themselves astride forward of the hump, as perhaps the saf- 

 est place from that terrible ivory- mounted war-club which he had bran- 

 dished with such awful effect. At one time auother man was clinging 

 to the hump with his hands. The boat which had gone to the ship with 

 the crew of the first stove boat now returned and took the swimmers on 

 board. 



The whale had now six harpoons iu him, and to these were attached 

 three tow-lines of 300 fathoms each. He manifested no disposition to 

 escape, but sought to reduce still further the wreck about him. Boats, 

 masts, and sails were entangled in his teeth; aud if an oar or anything 

 touched him, he struck madly at it with his jaw. This was entirely sat- 

 isfactory to Captain Huntting, who was preparing other boats to renew 

 the fight. At length two spare boats were rigged, and these, with the 

 saved boat, put off again. The captain pulled on, but the whale saw 

 the boat and tried his old trick of sweeping his jaw through the bottom 

 of it. She was thrown out of his sweep, however, and the captain fired 

 a bomb-lance, charged with six ounces of powder, which entered behind 

 the fin and exploded in his vitals. Before the crew could get out of his 

 way "he tore right through my boat like a hurricane, scattering all 



■with a light warp to recover it. A hatchet aud a sharp knife are placed iu the bow- 

 box, convenient for cutting the line, and a water-keg, fire apparatus, candles, lantern, 

 compass, and bandages for wounds, with waif-flags on poles, aflnke-spade, a boat-hook, 

 and a " drug," or dragging float, complete the equipment of a whale-boat. Among this 

 crowd of dangerous lines and threatening cutting gear are six pair of legs, belonging 

 to six skilled boatmen. Such a whale-boat is ours, as she floats two miles from the 

 ship, each man in the crew watching under the blade of his peaked oar for the rising 

 whale, and the captain and boat-steerer standing on the highest point, carefully sweep- 

 ing the horizon with trained eye, to catch the first spout, and secure the chance of 

 'getting on.' " 



*Luokily the whale struck the Parker Cook direclly on the stem. Had the blow 

 been delivered on almost any other part of her hull, she undoubtedly would have 

 shared the fate of the Essex aud Ann Alexander. 



+ Pages 357-'8-'9, 385-'6-7. 



