The rebuke of the officer of the morning watch, thus experimentally justified, occasioned, very naturally, a desire to question, if questioning could in any one particular be maintained, the effectiveness or safety of the preparations thus hastily made. And it was questioned whether lines so disposed, for being run off the ropemaker’s coils, would be safe to trust to their running clear in the case of actual service. This matter was soon settled by a most satisfactory experiment. As a whale when harpooned does not go faster away than a man can run, it was proposed to run off the whole of the lines out of the boat by hand, in order to prove that the arrangements that had been made were adequate, both for ordinary service and safety.
The decks were forthwith cleared, fore and aft, and the men arranged to run with the line, from the boat to the forecastle, in unceasing succession,—a service which they performed, after the word was given to start, with a hearty goodwill and their utmost activity; and the experiment was admirably successful. The whole of the lines went out of the boat, by the usual notch over the stem, without hitch or failure of the slightest kind interrupting their free progress from beginning to end!
Section VI.—Tact and Bravery in attacking and killing a dangerously-resisting Whale.
It was no uncommon event for my Father, in case of any difficult or dangerous enterprise in the fishery, to take part himself in the adventure. The special case now referred to will illustrate at once his practice and talent.
On the 29th of May, 1807, a whale was harpooned by one of our officers. It descended to some considerable depth, but speedily returned. On its reappearance, it evinced an uncommon degree of irritation. Its motions, whilst making but little progress a-head, were vehement and incessant,—rolling itself quite over, or, in an oscillating manner, from side to side; throwing its huge tail into the air, or flinging it with fearful impulse right and left, and so keeping the surface of the sea around it in perpetual commotion and foam. The display of its fins and tail was so terrific and dangerous, that few of those in command of our boats were hardy enough to approach it. But, under this violent action of the fish, and the inaction of our men, the risk of losing the hoped-for prize became imminent. This being evident to my Father, who, with discerning and watchful eye, had all along been viewing from the mast-head, with intense anxiety, the exciting scene with his glass,—he made the signal, and in a manner indicative of urgent haste, for one of the boats to come to the ship. In brief space,—the fish not being far distant,—he had personally embarked on his dangerous enterprise.
On reaching the scene of action, where the wounded monster was still exerting its excited energies in aiming blows at any approaching boats, or thrashing the sea into a foam,—our accomplished whale-hunter quietly assumed a station, in parallelism, nearly, with the direction of the animal’s extended length, and within a few fathoms of its broadside. The boat-steerer,—as the custom is,—he guided by the motion of his hand; but the boat’s crew, being previously urged to exert a tremendous spring on their oars when he should decide on making his attack, were to await his verbal command.
A favourable pause, succeeding a terrific display of action and power, had been watchfully discerned by my Father, when, giving the signal to the boat-steerer to sheer towards the fish, and, simultaneously, the emphatic order to the men,—“Give way, my lads; give way!”—he was in a moment placed within reach; and then, at long arm’s length, whilst leaning over the boat’s bow for distance’ sake, he plunged his well-sharpened harpoon deep into the writhing creature’s side. Its usual vengeance-slash of its tail was made harmlessly; for the order to “back off,” had been so instantly and effectively obeyed, that the boat was beyond reach before this ponderous engine of motion or destruction could be thrown out.
Rebuked, in a measure, by this daring attack of their commander, as well as encouraged and stimulated by its success, one of the hitherto hesitating boats immediately followed for a similar object; but the officer commanding it, not having the same tact, advanced incautiously, at an unfavourable moment, and too far within the range of the enemy’s destructive members, as to subject himself and comrades to a formidable peril. The tail of the fish was again reared into the air, in a terrific attitude over the boat. The harponeer, who was directly underneath, happily discovered his danger, and leaped overboard; and the next moment the threatened stroke was impressed with tremendous force upon the centre of the boat, which literally buried it in the water!
Providentially, no one was hurt. The officer who leaped overboard, escaped certain death by the prompt adventure. The huge tail (a member measuring perhaps twenty feet in width, extending to a superficial area of about eighty square feet, and weighing from one to two tons), struck the very spot on which he had previously stood. The effects of the blow on the boat were extraordinary. The keel was broken; the gunwale, and all the planks, except two, were cut through; and it was evident that the boat would have been completely divided, had not the tail struck directly upon a deep coil of the whale-lines. The crew, succoured by the various boats lying around, were all speedily picked up; but the boat was so thoroughly smashed as to be rendered useless.
This alarming discouragement, with the crippling of their strength and resources by the destruction of one boat and the withdrawal of another for the conveyance to the ship of the drenched and shivering sailors, threw the principal burden of the exploit of capture on my Father. For though other harpoons, after some minor adventures, were struck, the actual killing of this leviathan of its tribe was effected by himself.