There are three cases known to history of a whale sinking a ship. The “Essex,” of Nantucket, was attacked by a huge whale in 1819, and twice did the animal make a rush at the ship, which became submerged in a few minutes. Owen Chase, the first mate, wrote an account of the accident and subsequent sufferings of the crew. Three whaleboats set sail for the Marquesas Islands. One boat was never heard from; another was picked up by an English brig with only three of the crew alive; and the third with only two survivors, having sailed over twenty-five hundred miles, was picked up by a Nantucket vessel, three months after the accident. Captain Pollard, who was in command of the “Essex” at this time, had previously been one of the crew on Fulton’s “Claremont” on his first trip up the Hudson. He survived the frightful experience, but nothing could induce him ever to refer to it. He finally abandoned the sea and became a police officer in Nantucket.
The “Ann Alexander” of New Bedford.
The “Kathleen” of New Bedford sinking in mid-ocean, having been “stove” by a monster whale. Flags at the mastheads are signals for the three whaleboats to return.
The “Ann Alexander” of New Bedford, which is shown in the next cut, met a similar fate in 1850, and the ship sank so quickly that only one day’s supplies were saved. With the horror of the “Essex” staring them in the face the crew set sail in the small boats, and with great good fortune in two days sighted the “Nantucket” and were taken on board. Five months after this incident the “Rebecca Sims,” of New Bedford, killed a whale, and to the great surprise of the crew, the irons of the “Ann Alexander” were discovered in its body, and there were also several pieces of the ship’s timber imbedded in its head.
The latest of the three accidents happened to the bark “Kathleen” in the Atlantic Ocean in 1902, and the picture shows her about to sink after having been rammed by a whale. The three flags at the mastheads are signals to the three boats to return at once, but as each one was fast to a whale, they were loath to obey the signals. The whale showing its “flukes” at the right of the picture is the one that stove the hole in the vessel. The “Kathleen” also had a whale alongside, making four just captured. The accident meant a loss, not counting the vessel and oil on board, of ten to twelve thousand dollars. Captain Jenkins, who was in command, lowered with Mrs. Jenkins, a parrot, and nineteen of the crew, and with difficulty rowed to the other boats, which took in their share of the men from the captain’s over-crowded one. Captain Jenkins declares that the parrot, when removed from its home on the “Kathleen,” swore that “he would be damned if he’d ever go to sea again!” Three boat loads were discovered by a Glasgow ship, but the fourth had to sail over one thousand miles to the Barbadoes. Captain Jenkins is to-day living in South Dartmouth. He has written a small volume on the loss of his ship and is such a well-known whaleman that he was one of those who occupied the platform at the time of the unveiling of “The Whaleman” statue.
THE “CATALPA” EXPEDITION
While not primarily a whaling voyage, the “Catalpa” Expedition should be outlined in any account of whaling adventures.
