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 No. 10. 
 
 THE 
 
 CHILD'S BOOK 
 
 
 ABOUT 
 
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 WHALES. 
 
 
 CONCORD, N. H. 
 RUFUS MERRILL & CO 
 
 1843. 
 
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 CHILD'S BOOK 
 
 ABOUT 
 
 WHALES. 
 
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 CONCORD, N. H. 
 *UFUS MERRILL AND CO, 
 
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THE 
 
 W II ALE. 
 
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 The whale is not only the largest 
 fish, but he is the largest animal in 
 the world. A large whale is twenty 
 times as big as an elephant. One 
 species, called by the Greenland- 
 ers the razor-hack, has been known 
 to measure one hundred and five 
 feet in length. This is the largest 
 of the whale tribe. It yields but 
 little oil, and is more violent, res- 
 tive, and muscular than the other 
 
 species. 
 
 The head of the whale is about 
 one third the length of the animal, 
 and the open mouth displays a 
 frightful chasm. The tongue is 
 almost immovably fixed to the low- 
 
4 
 
 er jaw, seeming one great lamp of 
 fat; and, in fac*, it fills several 
 hogsheads with Lluhber. The tail 
 is twenty-four feet broad ; and 
 when the fish lies on its side, its 
 blow is tremendous; with it he 
 dashes the boats of the whalemen, 
 and disables or kills them. But 
 the most curious feature of the 
 whale is the blow holes, or nostrils, 
 which appear like natural jets of 
 
 /■~\ 
 
 
 -c*^ 
 
 i 
 
 
 water. They emit a warm vapor ; 
 and when the breathing is vehe- 
 ment, water is thrown to the height 
 of 20 or 30 feet in the air. The 
 
 m*a 
 
sight of this spout, or the loud noise 
 caused by its emission, is the first 
 sign to the whaler of its approach. 
 
 The female nourishes its younor 
 from her own milk-. The mother 
 shows the greatest affection lor 
 young. These delicate nurslings, 
 only 14 or 15 feel in length, and 
 weighing 2050 pounds, are often 
 killed for the scie pur; • of pro- 
 voking an encounter with the pa- 
 rent, and then the contest is deadly 
 and desperate. 
 
 The fidelity of these animals to 
 each other exceeds whatever we 
 are told of even the constancy of 
 birds. Some fishers having struck 
 one of two whales, a male and a 
 female, that were in company toge- 
 ther, the wounded fish, made a loner 
 and terrible resistance : it. struck 
 down a boat with three men in it, 
 with a single blow of the tail, bv 
 
 warn 
 
6 
 
 • 
 
 - 
 
 which all went to the bottom. The 
 other still attended its companion, 
 and lent it every assistance; till, at 
 last the fish that was struck sunk 
 under the number of its wounds; 
 while its faithful associate, disdain- 
 iricr to survive the loss, with great 
 bellowing stretched itself upon the 
 dead fish, and shared its fate. 
 
 This inoffensive and lethargic- 
 creature sometimes displays viva- 
 city and playfulness. Putting him- 
 self in a vertical position, the head 
 downwards, with a rapid motion of 
 the tail he laves the sea in foam and 
 froth. At other times, with a most 
 ludicrous agility, he darts wholly 
 from his element, and the mass, 
 weighing perhaps seventy tons, is 
 seen suspended in the air. If, as 
 a certain philosopher would make 
 us believe, this earth is only a thin 
 upper-crust, it is happy that he 
 
 I 
 
1 
 
 alights on so flexible and elastic a 
 medium as water ; for such ungain- 
 ly pranks might fracture the sur- 
 face, and give us, however unwill- 
 ingly, an inspection of the far- 
 famed " Sy mines' s Hole." 
 
 The common, or right whale, is 
 the exclusive object of the Green- 
 land fishery. The various species 
 of this whale are found in every 
 part of the ocean, but most abun- 
 dantly in the Greenland seas, and 
 on the banks of Brazil The valu- 
 able products of this animal are 
 common, or right whale oil, and 
 whalebone* Of 322 individuals of 
 this species, the longest was found 
 to be 58 feet in length. The lar- 
 gest quantity of oil ever obtained 
 from the right whale, is about 200 
 barrels. 
 
 The whale, when roused to des- 
 peration, makes an onset with his 
 
- 
 
 s 
 
 mouth only. Then he- crushes a 
 boat to atoms, and the men escape 
 by jumping into the sea. A -perm 
 whale destroyed two boats of a 
 Nantucket ship, and then attacked 
 the ship ; but being obliged to turn 
 over nearly on his back to use the 
 under jaw, with which he does ex- 
 ecution, the vessel esci. 1. 
 
 
 
 The manner of taking whales is 
 thus described : When the whale- 
 men see a whale lying on the wa- 
 ter, several men get into a boat, 
 and go close to him. One of the 
 men takes a harpoon, which is a 
 long, sharp piece of iron, with a 
 
9 
 
 f 5 1 I 
 
 I : 
 
 rope tied to it. i n.2 man tnrows 
 the harpoon at the whale with all 
 his might, and with such good aim 
 
 n- 
 
 esn 
 
 
 and 
 
 le feels 
 
 i U 1 L/ u <. i 1 ci J 
 
 that it j is deep 
 sticks there fast. 
 the wound, and • 
 plunge, he •- to the deep. 
 
 He draw oi. This 
 
 is drawn over the side of the boat 
 so swiftly, by the whale, that the 
 men are obliged to keep constantly 
 wetting the spot, to prevent its tak- 
 ing fire. Sometimes the whale 
 sinks to such a depth, that, over- 
 come by the superincumbent pres- 
 sure of water, he comes up dead. 
 As the warp (lies, it sometimes 
 throws its coils around the body of 
 a in an, and dragging him over in a 
 moment, it carries him into the 
 ocean depths^ I hich he never 
 
 more^fcnei :. Sometimes it oim r 
 d islet -. r hy s inc. ie^s and 
 
wmm 
 
 W»I |I "' | |'wiii 
 
 arms of the unfortunate men who 
 have become entangled in its folds. 
 Pretty soon, the whal is obliged 
 to come to the top to breathe , the 
 sailors perceive that he now spouts 
 forth blood mixed with water. Again 
 he descen and again he comes 
 to the top, ■ tin a fresh har- 
 
 loon is laum 1 into him. But 
 le grows constantly weaker, and 
 by arid by be dies, and floats upon 
 the sea. The fishermen then cut 
 off the fat of the whale, and take it 
 on board the vessel, and from this 
 they o*et a great deal of oil. This 
 oil is put in barrels, and brought 
 home, and we burn it in lamps. 
 
 A mono- the accidents that have 
 occurred in the prosecution of this 
 business, the loss of the ship Essex, 
 of Nantucket, is the most remark- 
 able. The following is an abridg- 
 ment of the narrative of the event, 
 
1 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 ; 
 
 • : Ml a 
 
 *-\ 
 
 \\m\kW 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
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 published by the mate of the ship, 
 Mr. Owen Chase. 
 
 " I observed a very large whale, 
 as well as I couid judge, 85 feet in 
 
 ngth, lie was lying quietly with 
 his head towards the ship, about 20 
 
 els from the bow. He spouted 
 
 o or tiiiies, and then disap- 
 
 peared, In less than three seconds 
 he came up again, about the length 
 of the ship oif, and made directly 
 for us. 1 ordered the boy at the 
 helm to shift it, intending to sheer 
 off and avoid him. The words 
 were scarcely out of my mouth be- 
 fore he came down upon us at full 
 speed, and struck the ship with his 
 head on the bow. He gave us such 
 an appalling and tremendous jar as 
 nearly threw us all on our faces 
 The ship brought up as suddenly 
 and violently as if she had struck 
 a rock. We looked at each other 
 
13 
 
 ' 
 
 I- 
 
 
 in perfect amazement, deprived al- 
 most of the power of speech. He 
 passed under the ship, grazinc her 
 keel as he went along, came up 
 alongside her to leeward, and lay on 
 the top of the water, apparently 
 stunned with the violence of the 
 blow. Supposing he had stove a 
 hole through the ship, I ordered 
 the pumps t bo set going ; but 
 
 If far J 
 
 they had not been . operation 
 more than one minute, ►re I per- 
 ceived the head of the p gradu- 
 ally settling down in the water. 
 I again discovered the whale appa- 
 rently in convulsh i the top of 
 tire water, about ] rods distant. 
 lie was enveloped in the foam that 
 his continual aiui violent threshinor 
 about in the wate ated around 
 him, and I could distinctly see him 
 smite his jaws t r, as if dis- 
 tracted with p. and fury. By 
 
4 
 
 litis time ike ship had settled so 
 
 deep in the water, that I gave her 
 up as lost, and was preparing our 
 boats to ape i i the ship, when 
 I was roused by the cry, ' Here he 
 is, — he is making for us again.' 
 I turned round, and saw him about 
 100 rods dire tly ahead of us, com- 
 ing down with apparently twice his 
 ordinary speed, and he appeared to 
 me with tenfold fury and vengeance 
 in his aspect. The surf Mew in all 
 directions, and his coarse towards 
 us was marked by a. white foam of 
 a rod in width, which he made by 
 a continual violent threshing of his 
 tail. ] is about half out. 
 
 of water, and in that wav he came 
 upon and again struck the ship. 
 I was in hopes, when I descried 
 him making for us, that by pulling 
 the ship away immediately, I should 
 be able to cross the line of his ar>- 
 

 - 
 
 proach, before he could get up to 
 us, and thus avoid what I knew, if 
 he should strike us again, would 
 be our inevitable destruction. 1 
 called out to the helmsman, 'Hard 
 up V but she had not fallen off more 
 than a point, before we took the 
 second shock. I should judge the 
 speed of the ship, at this time, to 
 have been about three miles an 
 hour, and that of the whale about 
 six. He struck her to windward, 
 directly under the cat-head, and 
 completely stove in her bows. He 
 passed under the ship again, went 
 off to leeward, and we saw no mo 
 of him." 
 
 This disastrous encounter occur- 
 red near the equator, at 1000 miles' 
 distance from land. Provisio/i 
 and equipped with whatever they 
 could save from the wreck, twenty 
 men embarked in three (lender 
 
1 
 
 
 whale boats, one of which was af 
 terwards crazy and leaky. One 
 boat was never heard of afterwards. 
 The crews of the others suffered 
 every misery that can be conceiv- 
 ed, from famine and exposure. In 
 the captain's I >at, they drew lots 
 for the pri f being shot, to 
 
 satisfy the rabid hu r of the rest. 
 After nearly mo t's,the cap- 
 
 tain's boat, with two survivors, and 
 the mate's boat with three, were 
 taken up at sea, i miles from 
 
 the scene of the di r, by differ- 
 
 ent shins. 
 
 
 
I. 
 
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f&'J&J 
 
 NEW AND AMUSING 
 
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 TOY 
 
 s> 
 
 Published by RUFFS MERRILL & CO. 
 
 CONCORD, N. H. 
 
 Series No. 2, or two cent Toys, con- 
 taining 12 Nos„ as follows, viz. 
 
 No. ] , History of Beasts. 
 
 2, Description of Various Nations 
 
 3, History of Animals. 
 
 4, The Child's Book about Moseat 
 
 5, My little Song Book. 
 
 6, Nursery Rhymes. 
 
 7, History of Birds. 
 
 8, The? Child's Book about Birds*. 
 
 9, The Sailor Boy. 
 
 10, The Child's Book about Whaled 
 
 11, History of the Bible. 
 
 12, Life of Joseph. 
 
 R. M. & Co. also publish Webster's PirsjE.. 
 Book, or the Elementary Primer, beltfg 
 an FntrodiiCtien to the Spelling Book. By N'^ah 
 Webster. Price 6 cents single. 
 
 They have also in press a Series of No. 1, or 
 one cent Toys, containing 12 Nos. of amusing 
 and instructive matter for the young Child 5 
 also a series of No. 4, or six cent Toys, on the 
 Natural History of Birds-, Beasts, Reptiles, and 
 Plants, and the Character of different Nations. 
 To be illustrated with engravings, and executed 
 in beautiful style. 
 
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