ready in the bow with the harpoon, and the men
were all ready with their oars to pull back, so as to keep clear of him.
On he came, and when his snout was within six feet of us, we pulled
sharp across him; and as we went from him, I gave him the harpoon deep
into the fin. `Starn all!' was the cry as usual, that we might be clear
of him. He `sounded' immediately, that is, down he went, head-foremost,
which was what we were afraid of, for you see we had only two hundred
fathoms of line in each boat; and having both harpoons in him, we could
not bend one to the other, in case he `sounded' deep, for sometimes they
will go down right perpendicular, and take four lines, or eight hundred
fathoms, with them; so we expected that we should this time lose the
whale as well as our lines, for when they were run out, we must either
cut or go down with him. Well, the lines ran out so swift, that we
poured water on them that they might not fire--and we thought that it
was all over, for the lines were two-thirds out, and he was going down
as fast as ever, when all of a sudden he stopped. We were hauling in
the slack lines, when we saw him rise again, about a quarter of a mile
off. It was a hurrah, for we now thought that we had him. Off he set
with his nose up, right in the wind's eye, towing the two boats at the
rate of twelve miles an hour; our stems cleaving through the sea, and
throwing off the water like a plume of feathers on each side of the
bows, while the sun's rays pierced through the spray and formed bright
rainbows. We hoped soon to tire him, and to be able to haul in upon our
lines, so as to get near enough to give him our lances; but that was
only hope, as you'll hear. Of a sudden, he stopped, turned round, and
made right for us, with his jaws open; then, all we had to do was to
baulk him, and give him the lance. He did not seem to have made up his
mind which boat he would attack--we were pretty near together, and he
yawed at one, and then at the other. At last he made right for the
other boat, and the boatsetter dodged him very cleverly, while we pulled
up to him, and I put the lance up to the stock into his side. He made a
plunge as if he were going to `sound' again; and as he did so, with his
flukes he threw our boat into the air a matter of twenty feet, cutting
it clean in half, and one of the boat's thwarts came right athwart of my
nose, and it never has been straight since. So now you have it,
messmate; an