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.
Contrary to the usual habits of the Greenland whale, this individual,
instead of occasionally seeking the depths of ocean for its protection,
especially on receiving a fresh and painful wound, remained mainly at the
surface. Its natural energies, but yet little acted on by the exhausting
influence of the _pressure_ of water, were consequently very little
impaired; for the superficial wounds of harpoons produce no immediate
effect upon life.
Hence, the operation of lancing was yet to be effected, before there could
be any chance of subduing the still existing dangerous vigour. My Father,
as was his wont, proceeded next to this venturous undertaking. Again he
plants his boat in parallelism of position with that of his gigantic game.
Full of ardour and confidence in their leader, his boat's crew are ready
for any effort or adventure which the daring or activity of man may
accomplish. The proper moment for the attack is waited for, and, when
seen, instantly improved. The boat, as a thing of life, springs, at his
signal, towards the side of the whale. The Commander's long lance--six feet
in the iron, and four feet in the handle--is darted, at arm's length, into
the writhing carcass, up to the very socket; and, before the fling of fins
or tail can reach, he has recovered a safe distance. The effect of the
wound in the vitals is speedily seen. The previous white steamy vapour
ejected from the lungs has become tinged with red; and nature's powers, as
experience indicates, must soon decay. Convulsive action in the monster, as
stimulated by this inward stab, being at length suspended, the favourable
moment is again improved. Another lance,--darted in as quickly as the
stroke of the tiger's paw,--penetrates, for the second time, the vast
viscera of the whale; whilst the active agents of the attack escape, as
before, unscathed. The deadly thrust is quickly repeated; and, as the
capability of exerting instant violence is diminished, the deeply stricken
lance is worked actively up and down whilst still within, so that every
movement effects an additional wound, and the work of death is the more
speedily and mercifully promoted. Thick jets of blood now issue from the
blow-holes, and the sea, through the wide space of disturbed waters, is
tinged by the overflowing streams; whilst boats, oars, and men, are thickly
sprinkled with the sanguinous dye. Lanced, now, on both sides at once, with
these formidable instruments of destruction, the dangerous energies of
this vast animal become soon overpowered, and it now yields itself
passively to its inevitable fate. One effort alone remains. The instinctive
impulse or spasm of expiring vitality,--like the brilliant gleam or
coruscation of the expiring taper, is expended in a series of tremendous
death-throes. The writhing body of the giant captive is now thrown into
strangely powerful action; fins and tail play with terrific violence,
tossing up huge waves, and dashing the sea, for a considerable circle
round, into foam. The prudent fishermen push off to a safe distance, and,
looking on with the solemnised impression of a spectacle at once wonderful
and sublime, leave the convulsions of expiring nature to expend themselves.
The vital energies are exhausted; the huge carcass, so recently perilous in
the energies of life, rolls, by the gravitating tendency of its formation,
on one side, and slowly the helpless fin rises to the surface of the water,
and inherent power of motion ceases for ever! Three hearty cheers from all
hands engaged in the capture, with the waving and "striking" of the "jacks"
displayed in the boats from which harpoons had been struck, announce to the
ship the happy issue of the conflict; from whence, in turn, similar
exulting cheers are heard loudly responding.[J]
We have remarked, in a foregoing chapter, on the economy in Providence, by
which the fiercest quadrupeds, under human tact and intelligence, become
subdued and tractable. Here, again, we are led to reflect on the economy
manifest in respect to the _hugest_ of the animal creation, whether on
earth or in the ocean, whereby all become subject to man, either for
advantageous employment, as to their living energies, or for purposes of
utility as to the produce of their dead carcasses.
The capture of the whale by man, when their relative proportions, as to
physical power and mass, are considered, is a result truly wonderful. An
animal of a thousand times the bulk of man, with a corresponding
superiority in strength, inhabiting an element in which man cannot exist,
and diving to depths where no other creature can follow, with the
capabilities, too, of abiding there for an hour together, is attacked by
man on its own ground, not only in the tranquil Pacific, but in the
boisterous north-western seas; not only in the open seas of the tropics,
but amid ice-bound regions around the pole; and in each region is
constrained to yield its life to his attacks, and its carcass a tribute to
his marvellous enterprise.
Why this result, with such disproportionate physical powers in conflict,
should not only take place, but prevalently follow the attack, is
satisfactorily explained on the simple principle of the Divine enactment.
It was the appointment of the Creator that it should be so. And this,
besides what we have already quoted from the sacred records of creation, we
have again, by the inspired Psalmist and elsewhere, declared. Hence, as to
the fact of the dominion of man over the inferior creation, Divinely
yielded, we have the authority of this adoring appeal of God's inspired
servant:--"What is man, that thou art mindful of him!" "Thou madest him to
have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under
his feet; all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of
the air, and the fish of the sea, and _whatsoever passeth through the paths
of the sea_. O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the
earth!"--Psalm viii. 6-8. No doubt this striking psalm has direct reference
to the world's Great and Divine Redeemer; but what herein is true of the
"Son of Man," is also, in respect to the consideration of the Almighty for
man and his appointed dominion, true of men as a species. And so it
follows, that the monsters of the deep, as well as the wild beasts of the
earth, yield to this law of creation, that man should have the dominant
power!
* * * * *
The whale, thus adventurously subdued, proved a large one of its kind, and
a very valuable prize. Its special dimensions and produce, though not
noted, may be very proximately gathered from the record (always made in the
whaler's journals) which we have of the length of the largest of the laminæ
of whalebone, viz. 11 feet 9 inches. According to the general averages, as
given in the "Account of the Arctic Regions," (vol. i. pp. 449-478,) this
specimen would be about 56 feet in length, and must have yielded about 20
tuns of oil, with about 22 cwt. of whalebone. The value of the capture (oil
being _very low_ in price at the time) was about 500_l._; but the same
capture, in the years 1801, 1813, or 1817, when prices were _high_, would
have been worth no less than 1000_l._ to 1100_l._