16 
HISTORY OF THE WHALE 
speech. He passed under the ship, grazing her keel 
as he went along, came up alongside her to leeward, 
and lay on ihe top of the water, apparently stunned 
with the violence of the blow. Supposing he had 
stove a hole through the ship, I ordered the pumps 
to be set agoing ; but they had not been in operation 
more than one minute, before I perceived the head 
of the ship gradually settling down in the water. I 
again discovered the whale apparently' in convulsions 
on the top of the water, about 100 rods distant. He 
