Some few of my Father’s original ideas, on such topics as these, were occasionally elicited in conversation, but, unfortunately, no record was made of them by those immediately in intercourse with him, nor were any papers, generally expository of his views, met with among those amid which this curious and interesting document was found.
Section IV.—Miscellaneous and concluding Notices.
The originality of mind, superiority of intelligence and peculiar abilities of the subject of these records, were characteristics yielding much variety of illustration in the foregoing pages.
His peculiar abilities as a whale-fisher, as may have been already inferred, were conspicuous in every department, and in every practical operation connected with the adventurous pursuit. If he could successfully attack, and safely subdue, a vicious and dangerous whale which was working destruction upon others who had assailed it; so he could harpoon a whale, under circumstances of difficulty or distance, when no less powerful and expert an arm could reach it. In the primary attack, the aim of the harponeer is to get the boat fairly on the back of the whale, that he may the more effectually bury his barbed weapon deep in its body; but, as ofttimes happens, the whale retires from the surface before the boat can come up to it, and must then be assailed, if the distance will permit, by the projecting of the harpoon with an energetic heave. To strike the retiring or affrighted fish in this manner, with a weapon, which, with its immediately attached line, is of the weight of eleven or twelve pounds, is an operation requiring both strength and skill. Comparatively few harponeers are able to perform this important object, effectually, beyond a distance of twenty to twenty-two feet; and the distance of four fathoms, or twenty-four feet, requires superior expertness. This, however, was an easy range with my Father; whilst he has been known to heave his harpoon with precision and success even as far as twenty-six or twenty-eight feet.
His management in the urging and furthering of the general operations of the fishery was sometimes attended with extraordinary results. Thus, on one occasion, during his command of the John of Greenock, he captured thirteen whales in thirty hours, and flensed five of them, comprising a produce of about eighty tuns of oil, of the commercial value (inclusive of the whalebone) of about 3500l.! The ice, in this case, closing and threatening besetment, other ships in company urgently made their escape; my Father, judiciously weighing the risks and probable advantages, determined to abide the issue. He did so, his ship got beset, but, as he had anticipated, was soon released, and on the relaxation of the pressure, just as the ice was opening, whales again appeared, and he made further important progress in the fishery!
The originality of talent and tact so observable in the various records heretofore given, became equally conspicuous, as occasions offered, in an enlarged and general scope of application. The following case, though I do not remember how I learnt it, is so characteristic of my Father, that I cannot hesitate in offering it for illustration.
He had a remarkable keenness and power in the eye, which, in the case referred to, he turned to account with a curious and surprising result. Having occasion to visit a ship lying in a tier in a dock, he encountered, in his transit across from vessel to vessel, a fierce and dangerous dog. Though warned against venturing to cross the deck on which this formidable looking animal was placed as guardian, he, relying on the power of the human eye, which he believed no animal, if its gaze were once fixed, could bear, determined to venture on the experiment. Immediately on the dog observing the approach of an intruder on its domain, it exhibited the most expressive tokens of the intention to resist; and when my Father put his leg over the bulwark of the contiguous vessel it flew fiercely towards him. Pausing in this position, he strove to catch the eye of the dog, an attempt which for some time it contrived to evade. But at length succeeding so that whenever it glanced towards his face it met his steady, stern, and penetrative gaze, an effect, in the discomposed expression of the creature, became soon observable. Whilst thus obtaining and holding its unwilling look, my Father moved his other leg over and slowly advanced with one foot upon the rail of the guarded vessel,—a movement which was resisted by fierce barking and sundry traverse-like springs, but, withal, an obvious indisposition to attack the being whose eye was so over-awing. Another step forward renewed the display of noise and action, but the stern, fixed look, now perpetually watched, repelled the assailant. He next stood firm on the forbidden deck, and yet was free from attack; he advanced a step, and the dog still bounding from side to side, or forward and backward in front, came no nearer. Another and another step was deliberately, but determinately pushed forward, whilst the dog, repelled by the immovable gaze, yielded the ground. The result, as I have understood, was, that when the dog had been driven entirely across the deck where there happened to be no defence as bulwark, betwixt the rail and the ship’s side, my Father sprung a step or two suddenly forward, as if designing, in turn, to become the assailant, when the panic-stricken brute, as suddenly backing, unconsciously passed beneath the railing and fell overboard!
As it has not been our plan in these memorial records to give a regular and general biography, few circumstances in respect to habits on shore, domestic relations, and private life, have been introduced. We may here, however, supply some incidental matters in brief notices.
His habits of life were, in respect to matters of self-indulgence, generally moderate and temperate. At sea, his favourite beverage was tea; and though not connected with any Temperance Society, nor practising total abstinence from stimulating drinks, he was a great tea-drinker. On occasions of long exposure at the mast-head, or after irritation of the throat by much exertion with the speaking-trumpet in giving directions to the men at a distance, when on ice or in boats, he was wont to take what was called an “egg-dram,” consisting of a raw egg beat up with a spoonful or two of ardent spirits. This was not unfrequently carried up to him by the steward, and taken in the crow’s-nest; but he almost regularly, except at the dinner hour, resorted to tea on each succeeding occasion when refreshment was needed. Under hard and prolonged engagements in fishing, or penetrating the ice, when from twelve to eighteen hours (with but very brief intervals below) might be spent aloft, his call to the steward, as he anticipated a few minutes of respite, was often heard to prepare tea. And “tea,” “tea,” some four or five or even six times, betwixt rising from and retiring to his bed, has been the chief orders for refreshment in his hard and protracted exertions.
In character, my Father was patriotic, benevolent, and philanthropic; in temper, quick and passionate, but soon composed, and singularly free from animosity against those with whom he had been at variance, and most forgiving to those who had injured him.