Leviathan. 
2 39 
proceeded to examine her, misjudged his dis¬ 
tance, and came into collision with disastrous 
effect to both. But there are many instances 
where the whale has deliberately charged a 
ship, either out of pure “ devilment,” or 
when maddened with the agony of the wound 
inflicted by a harpoon. 
Many years ago, a small school or “ pod ” of 
sperm whales was sighted off Strong’s Island, in 
the Caroline Archipelago, by the ship St. George 
of New Bedford, and the Hawaiian brig 
Kamehameha IV. Both ships lowered their 
boats at once, and in a very short time Captain 
Wicks, of the Hawaiian brig, got fast to a 
large bull who was cruising by himself about 
half a mile away from the rest of the “ pod.” 
As is not uncommon among sperm and hump¬ 
backed whales, the rest of the school, almost 
the instant their companion was struck, showed 
their consciousness of what had occurred, and 
at once crowded closely together in the greatest 
alarm, lying motionless on the surface of the 
water as if listening, and sweeping their huge 
flukes slowly to and fro as a cat sweeps its tail 
when watching an expected spring from one of 
its own kind. So terrified were they with the 
