nd
the men ran to the braces, but the water-laden ship, already well down
by the head, and more sluggish than ever, had fallen off only one point
when the whale leaped upon her with demoniac energy, and--so it
appeared to the seamen--rammed her with maleficent passion.

This time he struck the ship just under the weather cathead. He was
going not less than six knots an hour to the ship's three, and the
force of the blow completely stove in the bows of the _Essex_. Those
on board could feel the huge bulk scraping along beneath the keel a
second time, and then, having done all the damage he could, he went
hurtling off to windward. He had exacted a complete revenge for their
attack upon him.

Working with the energy of despair, for the ship seemed literally
sinking under their feet, the men succeeded in clearing away the spare
boat and launching it. The steward saved two quadrants, two Bowditch's
"Practical Navigators," the captain's chest and that {236} of the first
mate, with two compasses which the mate had snatched from the binnacle.
They shoved off, but had scarcely made two lengths from the ship when
she fell over to windward and settled low in the water on her
beam-ends, a total wreck.

The captain and second mate, seeing the signal for the recall of the
boats flying, had cut loose from their whales and were rowing toward
the ship. They knew something had happened, but what it was, they
could not tell. The captain's boat was the first to reach the mate's.
He stopped close by, so completely overpowered that for a space he
could not utter a syllable.

"My God! Mr. Chase," he gasped out at last; "what is the matter?"

"We have been stove in by a whale, sir," said the mate, telling the
whole appalling story.

By the captain's direction, the boats rowed to the sinking ship, and
with their hatchets the men managed to cut away the masts, whereupon
she rose two-thirds of the way to an even keel. They scuttled the
deck--chopped holes through her, that is--and succeeded in coming at
some six hundred pounds of unspoiled hard bread, which they divided
among the three boats, and sufficient fresh water to give each boat
sixty-five gallons in small breakers--being all they dared to take in
each one. They also procured a musket, two pistols, some powder and
bullets, some tools and six live turtles. From the light spars of the
ship they rigged two masts for each boat and with the light canvas
provided each one with