Literary Papers (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1855 edition. Excerpt: ...They may be truly said to make light of their formidable prey. They have a standing toast and sentiment--" New England enterprise: it grapples with the monsters of the Pacific to illuminate our dwellings, and with the problems of science to enlighten our minds." Not a few most interesting sailors' yarns are collected by the author, illustrative of the dangers of whale-fishing; indeed it becomes very evident, that were the sperm-whales to put their heads together and make a determined set against their persecutors, neither ships nor whalemen could survive the collision. What they can do is shown in the following fearful tale: --"But the most dreadful display of the whale's strength and prowess yet authentically recorded, was that made upon the American whale-ship ' Essex, ' Captain Pollard, which sailed from Nantucket for the Pacific Ocean, in August, 1819.-Late in the fall of the same year, when in latitude 40 of the South Pacific, a school of sperm whales were discovered, and three boat3 were manned and sent in pursuit. The mate's boat was struck by one of them, and he was obliged to return to the ship in order to repair the damage. ""While he was engaged in that work, a sperm whale, judged to be eighty-five feet long, broke water about twenty rods from the ship, on her weather bow. He was going at the rate of about three knots an hour, and the ship at nearly the same rate, when he struck the bows of the vessel just forward of her chains. ' At the shock produced by the collision of two such mighty masses of matter in motion, the ship shook like a leaf. The seemingly malicious whale dived and passed under the ship, grazing her keel, and then appeared at about the distance of a ship's length, lashing the sea with fins and...