162 Towed by a Whale. 



into her head to go straight down : the line would 

 not render, the bows of the boat were dragged 

 under water, and the water came rushing in over 

 the harpooneer. This saved us, for the water 

 lubricating the line, allowed it to render, and the 

 boat righted, though not before a large quantity of 

 water had been shipped. We should, indeed, have 

 been placed in a most dangerous and unpleasant 

 predicament, for had the line not rendered, nothing 

 could have saved the boat from being taken down, 

 and our chance of escape would have been very 

 small. The other fast boat was some distance from 

 us, and they would have thought twice before cut- 

 ting their line, and so losing a valuable fish, to 

 come to our assistance, the other boats being miles 

 away. Our stroke oar and line manager, a power- 

 fully-built Shetland man, standing about six feet 

 two inches, commonly called "Big Johnnie," was 

 unable to swim, so that altogether we should have 

 been in a pretty pickle. It was five o'clock before 

 any boat came to our assistance, when five more 

 harpoons were buried in the monster's flesh, and 

 several lances plunged in, but all, apparently to no 

 avail, — the brute would not die. Three rockets 

 were also fired into the unfortunate animal, that 

 clung to life with such tenacity. Eventually the 

 ship came up and took the lines from one of the 

 boats on board, and yet, singular to relate, the fish 

 actually towed the ship and seven boats at the rate 



