HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERY. 131 



ing his men to be ready to rush on deck the instant the explosion had 

 taken place, regardless of him if he was injured by it, he fired the train. 

 The crash of the timbers and the screams and yells of the wounded and 

 terrified savages told of the success of the plot. Rushing on deck the 

 crew speedily drove overboard those natives who had not already found 

 refuge there, and the terrible conflict was over. From first to last the 

 fight occupied about an hour. The captain, mate, and second mate 

 were killed, and four men had received fearful gashes from the murder- 

 ous spades ; one man died a few days afterward, the rest recovered. 

 Mr. Jones took charge of the ship and brought her home.* 



One of the most fruitful sources of peril to the whaleman is the dan- 

 ger of his boat being taken down by the whale through the line fouliug, 

 or of being taken out of sight from the ship in his desire to hold to his 

 whale to the last moment. Numerous cases have occurred where a 

 boat's crew has been lost under one or the other of these circumstances, 

 and though occasionally in the latter case they may have recovered 

 vheir own ship, or have been rescued by another, the danger arising 

 from this cause has always been formidable. Occasionally the boat 



*This account is gathered from that of the third mate, Captain Silas Jones, of Fal- 

 mouth (who, with the characteristic modesty of whalemen, refers but little to his own 

 actions in the struggle), and from that given by Captain Davis in the "Nimrod of the 

 Sea." The annals of whaling afford many instances of a similar nature to this, both 

 in the English and American South Sea fishery. 



In April, 1825, the ship Oeno, of Nantucket, struck on a reef near Turtle Islaud, one 

 of the Fejee group, and speedily showed signs of breaking up. The crew, twenty-one 

 in number, took to the boats and landed upon the island, lured thither by the friendly 

 motions of the natives, but when ashore about two weeks a tribe from a larger island 

 visited the one upon which they were, and finding them unarmed massacred all but 

 one of them. He escaped by hiding until they returned to their own island, and subse- 

 quently got away from the island. 



In 1834, or '5, the brig Waverly, Capt. William Cathcart, of Woahoo, was cut off at 

 Strong's Island and all on board massacred, and in 1842 the English whaler Harriet, 

 of Loudon, Capt. Charles Bunker, shared the same fate. 



In 1842 or '3, seventeen of the crew of the whale-ship Offly, of London, were massacred 

 by the natives of Solomon Islands, in revenge for the murder of a thief by the mate of 

 another vessel. 



In 1845 the captain, second mate, and two boats' crews of the French whaler Ange- 

 line were reported massacred at the Mulgrave Islands. 



In 1847 the ship Triton, of New Bedford, put into Sydenham's Island (one of the 

 King's Mill group), to recruit. While the captain with his boat's crew were ashore 

 purchasing a fluke-chain, the natives, incited by a renegade Spaniard, attacked and 

 captured the ship, killing one of the mates and several of the crew. The second mate 

 with his men escaped in a boat. The ship worked off shore and the natives left her. 

 She was afterwards carried into Papiete, (one of the Society Islands). The United 

 States and Alabama, both of Nantucket, touched at the King's Mill group and succeeded 

 in rescuing the survivors. In all, five were killed and seven wounded. 



In 1852 the brig Inga was cut off at Pleasant Island, and all on board were murdered. 

 One of the original crew, left on the island about a year before to recruit, was spared. 



These are only a few of numerous instances. The crews of English ship Syren, the 

 Boy, of Warren, R. I., the Twdight, of New Bedford, and many others suffered at the 

 hands of the natives of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. 



