HISTORY OF THE WHALE. 
17 
•is enveloped in the foam that his continual and vio- 
lent threshing about in the water created around him, 
and I could distinctly see him smite his jaws toge- 
ther, as if distracted with rage and fury. By this 
time the ship had settled so deep in the water, that 
I gave her up as lost, and was preparing our boats 
to escape from the ship, when I was roused by the cry, 
‘Here he is, — he is making for us again. 5 I turned 
round, and saw him about 100 rods directly ahead 
of us, coming down with apparently twice his ordi- 
nary speed, and he appeared to me with tenfold fury 
and vengeance in his aspect. The surf dew in all 
directions, and his course towards us was marked by 
a white foam of a rod in width, which he made by a 
continual violent threshing of his tail. His head was 
about half out of water, and in that way he came 
upon and again struck the ship. I was in hopes, 
when I descried him making for us, that by putting 
the ship away immediately, l should be able to cross 
the line of his approach, before he could get up to 
us, and thus avoid what I knew, if he should strike 
us ac^ain, would be our inevitable destruction. I 
called out to the helmsman, ‘ Hard up! 5 but she had 
not fallen off more than a point, before we took the 
second shock. I should judge the speed of the ship, 
at this time, to have been about three miles an hour, 
and that of the whale about six. He struck her to 
windward, directly under the cat-head, and com- 
pletely stove in her bows. He passed under the ship 
again, went off to leeward, and we saw no more of 
him. 55 
