Myself have agreed to try whether I can master and kill this Sperma-ceti whale, for I could never hear of any of that sort that was killed by any man, such is his fierceness and swiftness. Richard Straffords Letter from the Bermudas. Phil. Trans. A.D. 1668.
Whales in the sea Gods voice obey. N. E. Primer.
We saw also abundance of large whales, there being more in those southern seas, as I may say, by a hundred to one; than we have to the northward of us. Captain Cowleys Voyage round the Globe, A.D. 1729.
and the breath of the whale is frequently attended with such an insupportable smell, as to bring on a disorder of the brain. Ulloas South America.
Rape of the Lock.If we compare land animals in respect to magnitude, with those that take up their abode in the deep, we shall find they will appear contemptible in the comparison. The whale is doubtless the largest animal in creation. Goldsmith, Nat. Hist.
If you should write a fable for little fishes, you would make them speak like great whales. Goldsmith to Johnson.
In the afternoon we saw what was supposed to be a rock, but it was found to be a dead whale, which some Asiatics had killed, and were then towing ashore. They seemed to endeavor to conceal themselves behind the whale, in order to avoid being seen by us. Cooks Voyages.
The larger whales, they seldom venture to attack. They stand in so great dread of some of them, that when out at sea they are afraid to mention even their names, and carry dung, lime-stone, juniper-wood, and some other articles of the same nature in their boats, in order to terrify and prevent their too near approach. Uno Von Troils Letters on Bankss and Solanders Voyage to Iceland in 1772.
The Spermacetti Whale found by the Nantuckois, is an active, fierce animal, and requires vast address and boldness in the fishermen. Thomas Jeffersons Whale Memorial to the French minister in 1778.
And pray, sir, what in the world is equal to it? Edmund Burkes reference in Parliament to the Nantucket Whale-Fishery.
Spain- a great whale stranded on the shores of Europe. Edmund Burke. (somewhere.)
A tenth branch of the kings ordinary revenue, said to be grounded on the consideration of his guarding and protecting the seas from pirates and robbers, is the right to royal fish, which are whale and sturgeon. And these, when either thrown ashore or caught near the coast, are the property of the king. Blackstone.
Falconers Shipwreck. Cowper, on the Queens Visit to London.Ten or fifteen gallons of blood are thrown out of the heart at a stroke, with immense velocity. John Hunters account of the dissection of a whale. (A small sized one.)
The aorta of a whale is larger in the bore than the main pipe of the water-works at London Bridge, and the water roaring in its passage through that pipe is inferior in impetus and velocity to the blood gushing from the whales heart. Paleys Theology.
The whale is a mammiferous animal without hind feet. Baron Cuvier.
In 40 degrees south, we saw Spermacetti Whales, but did not take any till the first of May, the sea being then covered with them. Colnetts Voyage for the Purpose of Extending the Spermaceti Whale Fishery.
Montgomerys World before the Flood. Charles Lambs Triumph of the Whale.In the year 1690 some persons were on a high hill observing the whales spouting and sporting with each other, when one observed: there- pointing to the sea- is a green pasture where our childrens grand-children will go for bread. Obed Macys History of Nantucket.
I built a cottage for Susan and myself and made a gateway in the form of a Gothic Arch, by setting up a whales jaw bones. Hawthornes Twice Told Tales.
She came to bespeak a monument for her first love, who had been killed by a whale in the Pacific ocean, no less than forty years ago. Ibid.
No, Sir, tis a Right Whale, answered Tom; I saw his sprout; he threw up a pair of as pretty rainbows as a Christian would wish to look at. Hes a raal oil-butt, that fellow! Coopers Pilot.
The papers were brought in, and we saw in the Berlin Gazette that whales had been introduced on the stage there. Eckermanns Conversations with Goethe.
My God! Mr. Chace, what is the matter? I answered, we have been stove by a whale. Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Whale Ship Essex of Nantucket, which was attacked and finally destroyed by a large Sperm Whale in the Pacific Ocean. By Owen Chace of Nantucket, first mate of said vessel. New York, 1821.
Elizabeth Oakes Smith.The quantity of line withdrawn from the boats engaged in the capture of this one whale, amounted altogether to 10,440 yards or nearly six English miles
Sometimes the whale shakes its tremendous tail in the air, which, cracking like a whip, resounds to the distance of three or four miles. Scoresby.
Mad with the agonies he endures from these fresh attacks, the infuriated Sperm Whale rolls over and over; he rears his enormous head, and with wide expanded jaws snaps at everything around him; he rushes at the boats with his head; they are propelled before him with vast swiftness, and sometimes utterly destroyed It is a matter of great astonishment that the consideration of the habits of so interesting, and, in a commercial point of view, so important an animal (as the Sperm Whale) should have been so entirely neglected, or should have excited so little curiosity among the numerous, and many of them competent observers, that of late years, must have possessed the most abundant and the most convenient opportunities of witnessing their habitudes. Thomas Beales History of the Sperm Whale, 1839.
The Cachalot (Sperm Whale) is not only better armed than the True Whale (Greenland or Right Whale) in possessing a formidable weapon at either extremity of its body, but also more frequently displays a disposition to employ these weapons offensively and in manner at once so artful, bold, and mischievous, as to lead to its being regarded as the most dangerous to attack of all the known species of the whale tribe. Frederick Debell Bennetts Whaling Voyage Round the Globe, 1840.
October 13. There she blows, was sung out from the masthead.
Where away? demanded the captain.
Three points off the lee bow, sir.
Raise up your wheel. Steady! Steady, sir.
Masthead ahoy! Do you see that whale now?
Ay ay, sir! A shoal of Sperm Whales! There she blows! There she breaches!
Sing out! sing out every time!
Ay Ay, sir! There she blows! there- there- thar she blows- bowes- bo-o-os!
How far off?
Two miles and a half.
Thunder and lightning! so near! Call all hands.
J. Ross Brownes Etchings of a Whaling Cruize. 1846.The Whale-ship Globe, on board of which vessel occurred the horrid transactions we are about to relate, belonged to the island of Nantucket. Narrative of the Globe Mutiny, by Lay and Hussey survivors. A.D. 1828.
Being once pursued by a whale which he had wounded, he parried the assault for some time with a lance; but the furious monster at length rushed on the boat; himself and comrades only being preserved by leaping into the water when they saw the onset was inevitable. Missionary Journal of Tyerman and Bennett.
Nantucket itself, said Mr. Webster, is a very striking and peculiar portion of the National interest. There is a population of eight or nine thousand persons living here in the sea, adding largely every year to the National wealth by the boldest and most persevering industry. Report of Daniel Websters Speech in the U. S. Senate, on the application for the Erection of a Breakwater at Nantucket. 1828.
The whale fell directly over him, and probably killed him in a moment. The Whale and his Captors, or The Whalemans Adventures and the Whales Biography, gathered on the Homeward Cruise of the Commodore Preble. By Rev. Henry T. Cheever.