ailors and taking them in charge landed them
at Paita, September 15th. The Ann Alexander was hopelessly wrecked and
left to her fate on August 23.

Five months after this disaster this pugnacious whale was captured by
the Rebecca Simms of this port. Two of the Ann Alexander's harpoons
were found in him and his head had sustained serious injuries, pieces
of the ship's timbers being imbedded in it. The whale yielded 70 to 80
barrels of oil.

[Illustration: WHALERS FITTING OUT]

The only other known case of a like nature occurred to the ship Essex
of Nantucket, commanded by Captain George Pollard, Jr.

She sailed from Nantucket, August 12, 1819, for a cruise in the Pacific
ocean. On the morning of November 20, 1819, latitude 0.40 south and
longitude 119 west, whales were discovered and all three boats lowered
in pursuit.

The mate's boat soon struck a whale, but a blow of the animal's tail
opening a bad hole in the boat, the crew was obliged to cut from him.

In the meantime, the captain's and second mate's boats had fastened to
another whale, and the mate, heading the ship for the other boats, set
about overhauling his boat preparatory to lowering again.

While doing this he saw a large sperm whale break water about 20 rods
from the ship. The whale disappeared, but immediately came up again
about a ship's length off, and made directly for the vessel, going at a
velocity of about three miles an hour, and the Essex was advancing at
about the same rate of speed.

Scarcely had the mate ordered the boy at the helm to put it hard up,
when the whale, with greatly accelerated speed, struck the ship with
his head just forward of the forechains.

The ship brought up suddenly and violently and trembled like a leaf.
The whale passed under the vessel, scraping her keel as he went, came
up on the leeward side, and lay apparently stunned for a moment.

The vessel began to settle at the head with the whale 100 yards off
thrashing the water violently with his tail and opening and closing his
jaws with great fury.

While the mate was thinking of getting the two extra boats clear, as
the vessel had begun to settle rapidly, the cry was started by a
sailor: "Here he is; he is making for us again!"

The whale came down for the ship with twice his ordinary speed and a
line of foam about a rod in width, made with his tail, which he
continually thrashed from side to side, marked his coming.

The whale crashed into the bows of the