The Orca
is probably the Thresher whale. Pliny thus describes it:—“The Balæna (whale of some sort) penetrates to our seas even. It is said that they are not to be seen in the ocean of Gades (Bay of Cadiz) before the winter
solstice, and that at periodical seasons they retire and conceal themselves in some calm capacious bay, in which they take a delight in bringing forth. This fact, however, is known to the Orca, an animal which is particularly hostile to the Balæna, and the form of which cannot be in any way accurately described, but as an enormous mass of flesh, armed with teeth. This animal attacks the Balæna in its place of retirement, and with its teeth tears its young, or else attacks the females which have just brought forth, and, indeed, while they are still pregnant; and, as they rush upon them, it pierces them just as though they had been attacked by the beak of a Liburnian Galley. The female Balænæ, devoid of all flexibility, without energy to defend themselves, and overburdened by their own weight; weakened, too, by gestation, or else the pains of recent parturition, are well aware that their only resource is to take flight in the open sea, and to range over the whole face of the ocean; while the Orcæ, on the other hand, do all in their power to meet them in their flight, throw themselves in their way, and kill them either cooped up in a narrow passage, or else drive them on a shoal, or dash them to pieces against the rocks. When these battles are witnessed, it appears just as though the sea were infuriate against itself; not a breath of wind is there to be felt in the bay, and yet the waves, by their pantings and their repeated blows, are heaved aloft in a way which no whirlwind could effect.
“An Orca has been seen even in the port of Ostia, where it was attacked by the Emperor Claudius. It was while he was constructing the harbour there that this orca came, attracted by some hides, which, having been brought from Gaul, had happened to fall overboard there.
By feeding upon these for several days it had quite glutted itself, having made for itself a channel in the shoaly water. Here, however, the sand was thrown up by the action of the wind to such an extent that the creature found it quite impossible to turn round; and while in the act of pursuing its prey, it was propelled by the waves towards the shore, so that its back came to be perceived above the level of the water, very much resembling in appearance the keel of a vessel turned bottom upwards. Upon this, Cæsar ordered a number of nets to be extended at the mouth of the harbour, from shore to shore, while he himself went there with the Prætorian Cohorts, and so afforded a spectacle to the Roman people; for boats assailed the monster, while the soldiers on board showered lances upon it. I, myself, saw one of the boats sunk by the water which the animal, as it respired, showered down upon it.”
Olaus Magnus thus writes “Of the fight between the Whale and the Orca. A Whale is a very great fish, about one hundred, or three hundred foot long, and the body is of a vast magnitude, yet the Orca, which is smaller in quantity, but more nimble to assault, and cruel to come on, is his deadly Enemy. An Orca is like a Hull turned inwards outward; a Beast with fierce Teeth, with which, as with the Stern of a Ship, he rends the Whale’s Guts, and tears its Calve’s body open, or he quickly runs and drives him up and down with his prickly back, that he makes him run to Fords and Shores. But the Whale, that cannot turn its huge body, not knowing how to resist the wily Orca, puts all its hopes in flight; yet that flight is weak, because this sluggish Beast, burdned by its own weight, wants one to guide her, to fly to the Foords, to escape the dangers.”