Captain Davis, in “Nimrod of the Sea,” mentions an occurrence in
which a whale attacked one of the men who had been hauled from the
whaleboat. Then ensued a fight, and every time the monster swam for
him he was obliged to dive. The mate rushed into the encounter with
his boat and finally succeeded in killing the whale. Another captain
described how the crew of his whaleboat was obliged to cling all night
on the body of a dead whale until help came at daybreak. It happened
to be Christmas evening, and the famished men obtained their Christmas
dinner by digging from the back of the dead animal enough meat to
satisfy their hunger. If a whaleboat were upset, and it was seen that
the crew had something to hold on to in order to prevent going under,
it was often a long time before the other boats rendered assistance,
it being a truism among whalemen that whales were of much higher
commercial value than men.
Captain Hosmer, of the bark “Janet” of Westport (near New Bedford),
met with a horrible experience off the coast of Peru in 1849. He had
just secured a whale, and in towing it back to his ship his boat was
capsized. He immediately displayed distress signals, and the “Janet”
sailed towards the men who clung to the small boat, when suddenly, to
his amazement and horror, the ship swung off and headed in another
direction. They could see her sailing about searching for them, but
were unable to attract her attention, and finally, as the distance
between them increased, they set sail towards the nearest land, after
bailing out their boat with difficulty, and having lost one man by
drowning. The nearest coast was over one thousand miles away, and
they had not a drop of water or a morsel of food. At the end of seven
days lots were cast to decide who should be killed in order that the
rest might live. Four more of the crew died, and after twenty days
the two survivors landed on an island and were later picked up by the
“Leonidas” of New Bedford.
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.
[Illustration: The “Ann Alexander” of New Bedford.]
[Illustration: 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.