Every boat is furnished with two harpoons, six or eight lances, and from five to seven oars.
When a whale is seen on the surface of the water, unconscious of being observed, the harpoon er runs directly upon it, and buries his harpoon in its back; but, when the boat is at a little dis tance, and the whale is preparing to dive, the harpoon is thrown from the hand, or discharged from a gun, and will be effective, in the former case, at the distance of eight to ten yards, and in the latter at the distance of thirty yards or more. The wounded animal makes a convulsive effort to escape. The boat is subjected to the most violent blows from its head or its fins, but chiefly from its ponderous tail, which sometimes sweeps the air with such fury that both boat and men are exposed to imminent destruction. Harpooners have been struck dead with a single blow of a whale's tail. One of the crew of the John of Greenland had his foot separated from his leg, by slipping it through a coil of line in the act of running out; and a harpooner of the Henrietta of Whitby, having made a whale dart downward by a powerful stroke of his lance, the line caught him round the body, and he was almost cut asunder, dragged overboard, and never afterwards seen.
When the harpooner of the ship Resolution, commanded by Captain Scoresby, had struck a whale, it gave the boat such a violent blow with its tail, that the boatstcerer was thrown to some dis tance, and a fresh blow projected the harpooner and line-manager in a similar manner.
" A remarkable instance, says Mr. Scoresby, of the power which the whale possesses in its tail, was exhibited within my own observation, in the year 1807. On the 29th of May, a whale was har pooned by an officer belonging to the Resolution. It descended a considerable depth, and, on its re appearance, evinced an uncommon degree of irri tation. It made such a display with its fins and tail, that few of the crew were hardy enough to approach it. The captain (my father) observing their timidity, called a boat, and himself struck a second harpoon. Another boat immediately fol lowed, and unfortunately advanced too far. The tail was again reared into the air, in a terrific attitude,—the impending blow was evident,—the harpooner, who was directly underneath, leaped overboard,—and the next moment the threatened stroke was impressed on the centre of the boat, which buried it in the water. Happily no one was injured. The harpooner who leaped overboard escaped certain death by the act,—the tail having struck the very spot on which he stood. The ef fects of the blow were astonishing. The keel was broken,—the gunwales, and every plank, excepting two, were cut through--and it was evident that the boat would have been :completely divided, had not the.tail struck directly upon a coil of lines. The boat was rendered useless.
Instances of disasters of this kind, occasioned by blows from the whale, could be adduced in great numbers,—cases of boats being destroyed by a single stroke of the tail are not unknown,—in stances of boats having been stove or upset, and their crews wholly or in part drowned, are not un frequent,—and several cases of whales having made a regular attack upon every boat which came near them, dashed some in pieces, and killed or drown ed some of the people in them, have occurred within a few years, even under my own observa tion.
The Dutch ship Gort-Moolen, commanded by Cornelius Gerard Ouwekaas, with a cargo of seven fish, was anchored in Greenland in the year 1660. The captain, perceiving a whale a-head of his ship, beckoned his attendants, and threw himself into a boat. He was.the first to approach the whale; and was fortunate enough to harpoon it before the ar rival of the second boat, which was on the advance. Jacques Vienkes, who had the direction of it, join ed his captain immediately afterwards, and pre pared to make a second attack on the fish, when it should remount again to the surface. At the moment of its ascension, the boat of Vienkes hap pening unfortunately to be perpendicular above it, was so suddenly and forcibly lifted Up by a stroke of the head of the whale, that it was dashed to pieces before the harpooner could discharge his weapon. Vienkes flew along with the pieces of the boat, and fell upon the back of the animal. This intrepid seaman, who still retained his weapon in his grasp, harpooned the whale on which he stood, and, by means of the harpoon and the line, which he never abandoned, he steadied himself firmly upon the fish, notwithstanding his hazardous situa tion, and regardless of a considerable wound that he received in his leg in his fall, along with the fragments of the boat. All the efforts of the other boats to approach the whale, and deliver the har pooner, were futile. The captain, not seeing any other method of saving his unfortunate companion, who was in some way entangled with the line, called to him to cut it with his knife, and betake himself to swimming. Vienkes, embarrassed and disconcerted as he was, tried in vain to follow this counsel. His knife was in the pocket of his draw ers; and, being unable to support himself with one hand, he could not get it out. The whale, mean while, continued advancing along the surface of the water with great rapidity, but fortunately never attempted to dive. While his comrades despaired of his life, the harpoon by which he held, at length disengaged itself from the body of the whale. Vienkes being then liberated, did not fail to take advantage of this circumstance; he cast himself into the sea, and, by swimming, endea voured to regain the boats which continued the pur suit of the whale. When his shipmates perceived him struggling with the waves, they redoubled their exertions. They reached him just as his strength was exhausted, and had the happiness of rescuing this adventurous harpooner from his per ilous situation.% In one of my earliest voyages to the whale fishery I observed a circumstance which excited my high est astonishment. One of our harpooners had struck a whale, it dived, and all the assisting boats had collected round the fast-boat, before it arose to the surface. The first boat which approached it ad vanced incautiously upon it. It rose with unex pected violence beneath the boat, and projected it and all its crew to the height of some yards in the air. It fell on its side, upset, and cast all the men into the water. One man received a severe blow in his fall, and appeared to be dangerously injured; but soon after his arrival on board of the ship, he recovered from the effects of the accident. The rest of the boat's crew escaped without any hurt.