outs!"

In a moment the watch on deck aroused those below by the loud stamping
of their feet, and up they tumbled. The captain and mates rushed out
from their cabins half-dressed. The four boats were lowered, and away
they pulled in the direction the whale was seen, about two miles to
windward. Medley and I, with two seamen, the doctor, and other idlers,
remained to take care of the ship, and to beat her up after the boats.
The whale sounded, and remaining down fifty minutes rose again nearer
the ship, so that we could clearly see what took place.

The boats and their crews giving way with might and main, gathered round
from different directions. The captain was the first to strike his
harpoon into the whale, following the weapon with a couple of lances; he
was fast, but he quickly backed off from the monster, which, leaping
half out of the water, and turning partly round made a dash with open
mouth at another boat coming up, and in an instant crushed it into
fragments as if it had been built of paper. The crew sprang overboard
on either side, endeavouring to escape--whether any were killed we could
not ascertain--and the next instant the whale, raising its powerful
flukes, struck a third boat, shattering her by the blow, and throwing
her high into the air, bottom upwards, her people and gear being
scattered around on the foam-covered surface of the water. The other
boats pulled away to avoid the same fate, which it seemed likely would
be theirs, for the old lone whale was savagely bent on mischief it was
very evident, when he suddenly sounded, dragging out the line like
lightning after him. A second line was secured to the first, but that
reached the bitter end before the first mate's boat, engaged in trying
to rescue the drowning men, could come up, and it was cut to save the
boat from being dragged under water. Not till then could the captain go
to the assistance of the people still struggling for their lives. Some
were holding on to oars, others to fragments of planks. At length the
survivors were picked up, and the two boats returned on board. The men,
as they came alongside, looked very downcast. Three of our shipmates
had disappeared--two of whom had been crushed by the monster's jaws, the
other killed by the blow of his flukes--as many more were severely
injured, the third mate was among the killed. The captain, ordering the
carpenter at once to put together two boats to supply the places of
those