He may do dozens of other highly original things, all of which show his playful, good-natured disposition and, if he is allowed to continue his elephantine gambols unmolested, he is as harmless as a puppy. But once imbed an iron in his sensitive flesh and it is wise to keep well beyond the range of his long flippers and powerful flukes which strike the water in every direction with deadly, crushing blows.
The humpback is the whale which is most usually seen from the Atlantic passenger vessels, and may easily be recognized because when “sounding,” or going under for a deep dive, the flukes are almost invariably drawn out of the water; the finback and blue whales, the two other common species, seldom show the flukes.
A humpback whale “sounding.” “The humpback comes up obliquely, and, as soon as the spout has been delivered, arches the back and begins to revolve.”
When a humpback dives the easy grace with which the animal manipulates its huge, ungainly body and great propeller-like tail, drawing it out of the water smoothly but with irresistible force, always gives me a thrill of admiration. I remember one day, while crossing the Atlantic on the Kronprinz Wilhelm, a humpback came up not far from the ship and swam parallel with her for several minutes. Each time the big fellow drew himself up, slowly rolled over, and brought his flukes out, an involuntary cheer went up from the passengers. But it is only when sounding that the tail is shown and never when the whale is feeding or swimming near the surface.
A humpback whale with a very white breast. The side fins, or flippers, are almost one-quarter the entire length of the animal, and to them barnacles attach themselves as well as to the folds of the throat and breast.
The humpback comes up obliquely and, as soon as the spout has been delivered, arches the back and begins to revolve, finally drawing out the flukes and going down vertically. When hunting, the proper time to shoot is when the dorsal fin begins to show above the water—depending, of course, upon the distance. The iron then has a fair chance to reach the lungs or heart and a larger target is presented.
How far a whale can descend is a matter of conjecture and more or less dispute among naturalists. One writer argues that whales cannot go deeper than three hundred feet because of the tremendous water pressure. But all cetaceans have certain specializations in body structure which undoubtedly enable them to withstand high pressure.
I have, as personal evidence upon this subject, the fact that a blue whale, harpooned between the shoulders and but slightly injured, dove straight downward and took out over a quarter of a mile of rope. We were, at the time, almost a hundred miles at sea and so far as could be determined the animal had gone down to the full limit of the line which hung from the bows as rigid as a bar of steel. The whale remained below for thirty-two minutes and reappeared not more than a hundred yards away and directly in front of the ship.