128 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



alone and that lny legs were hanging paralyzed, tbat I felt actually 

 scared. Then it looked as if I couldn't bold out much longer ; I had 

 seen the ship close beside me, and the second mate's boat trying to get 

 in to me, and throwing me lines, or something to float on, but I had 

 failed to reach them. ]STow these things seemed very far off; that was 

 the last I remembered until I came to on board the ship. 



" I was afterwards told that the first mate, in answer to a signal from 

 the ship,* had come up, aud seeing me feebly paddling with my hands 

 and not answering to his hail, he put straight into the fight. The whale 

 saw them coming and made for them. The men sprang to their oars, 

 aud the mate had only time to seize my collar, while they pulled their 

 best to escape from the furious whale. They thus gained time to take 

 me into the boat, seemingly a drowned man. The mate had true pluck. 

 Leaving me to the care of the crew on board, he put back for the whale. 

 As he afterwards said, " She was too dangerous a cuss to run at large 

 in that pasture-field." Watching a chance, he got a " set" on her over 

 the shoulder-blade, and sent the red flag into the air. This tamed her; 

 she lagged around for a time, and settled away dead. The mate then 



whole throat to the thrust of the harpoon or lance ; he may take any course, save the 

 one directly forward. It seems almost as though this sensibility to touch was a guard 

 against the collision of parts so important to existence with other objects, and which 

 are beyond the line of vision. And it is also endowed with a backing power which is 

 simply marvelous, when we consider the enormous weight moving forward with great 

 speed. This very marked peculiarity of the right whale is constantly taken advantage 

 of by the whaleman, who. working about its head completely out of the reach of its 

 active flakes, parries the charge of the enraged monster as deftly as the fencer glances 

 the thrust of his antagonist's sword. If an advancing whale glides under the boat, 

 and the back, or ' small,' touches the keel, then, quick as the lightning flash, the re- 

 sponsive flukes will whip up, aud send boat and crew into the air, amidst a perilous 

 tangle of kinking line, sharp harpoons, lances, spades, hatchets, knives, and boat-gear 

 generally. An accursed attribute of such sharp company is to travel point or edge 

 first, and form closer acquaintance than is agreeable." (Nimrod of the Sea, p. 376.) 



*Each whale-ship has a private code of signals for her absent boats to signify when 

 to return, where to find whales, &c, so when two ships, not cruising in company, 

 lower for whales, the men ou board of one ship can recall the boats, change their course, 

 or convey any other similar intelligence without the nature of the tidings being known 

 to the crew of the rival vessel until it is too late to be available. Captain Preble, in 

 his "Notes on Whales and Whaling" (No. 37), illustrates this fact by giving the fol- 

 lowing, which was the code used by Capt. Elisha Dexter, of the whaling brig William 

 & Joseph: "Whales ahead — Down jib. Whales astern — Haul up spanker. Whalea 

 between the ship and boats — Flag half mast. Whales on the weather bow-Haul 

 up the weather clew of the foresail. Whales on lee bow — Lee clew of foresail. 

 More whales and a better chance — Flags on the fore-top-gallant-mast head and peak 

 of the spanker. Whales on the weather beam — Mizzen topsail aback. Whales on 

 the lee beam — Keep the ship off and luff" her up again. Whiles too near to keep off — 

 Signal to come on board. This signal is made by standing on the top-gallant yards 

 and holding flags in your hands." Signaling is sometimes done with the mast-head 

 waif, which is a light pole 6 or 8 feet long, with a hoop fastened on the end and cov- 

 ered with canvas. (This is sometimes called a "yonder" by English whalemen.) 

 Scammon, ^30. 



