SHIP HITS WHALE

Gisborne Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 10260, 2 December 1926, Page 2

SHIP HITS WHALE

EXCITING INCIDENT OF FIFTYTHREE' YEARS AGO.

(Special to the Tunes ) AUCKLAND, Nov. 30

Apropos of the Manngamii’s recent encounter near Three Kings with a black fish Mr H. B. Dobbie Writes to the Herald; as follows: “This reminds me of an incident that happened in 1873, . fifty-three years ago. At that time I was an engineer on the Tasmania, of the Royal West India Mail Company, and the vessel was steaming peacefully in the Carribean Sea, hundreds of miles from land. It was the middle watch, 12 to 4 a.m. The engines were running smoothly, and stead 7 ilv,, when suddenly they began to labor, and the revolutions started to decrease. W e were wondering what had gone wrong with them when the telegraph bell rang, - and the dial pointed to “stop.” Had we got into the Sargasso Sea, or were pirates still about? Then came the instruction, “Slow Astern,” followed a lew minutes after by ‘Full Speed Ahead,' The engines ran as sweetly as ever, and we were wondering wliat control the “shell backs” on deck had over them, when the mate informed us that we had run into a sleeping whale, catching it fair amidships, so that its head was lapped, round on one side of the stem and its tail on the other, and the fish could not get away. “The look-out man told us'tin" when the steamer went astern the whale swam off apparently unhurt.”