ATTACKED BY WHALE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 297, 13 November 1934, Page 5

ATTACKED BY WHALE

TORY CHANNEL ADVENTURE.

FISHING BOAT DAMAGED

Pei- Press Association. BLENEIM. Nov. 10. Behind the mishap to the whaling launch Cachalot in Tory Channel yesterday lies perhaps the most thrilling story in the adventurous history of the Te Aivaiti whalers. A right whale cow with a calf entered Tory Channel, and when harpooned and bombed by the launch party it turned oil its attackers. The whale repeatedly charged the launch, smashing several planks in the hull with blows from its great tail, and finally lifted the boat on its back and all but capsized it. It was an explosion on the Cachalot at this juncture that injured the' owner of the launch and sank the craft. After harpooning the whale the whalers went to dispatch their catch with the deadly loaded lance, but the charge failed to explode through a disconnection of the battery. The whale was already blowing blood, so evidently the harpoon had inflicted a bad injury, but she was full of fight, and deliberately charged the boat. The right whale is just about as agile as an eel, and as the launch swept away the whale caught the hull with her massive tail, stoving in a couple of planks above ihe water-line.

The calf meantime was lying nearby, seemingly heedless of its mother’s desperate plight, when, to the amazement of the occupants of the launch, the cow dived under the youngster and threw her 30 tons of offspring clean into the air. It appeared as if the grown whale was bent upon driving the calf out of danger’s reach. The launch was again brought within bombing range, and this time the missile was placed, but failed to kill or stem the whale, which leapt and thrashed the water, swinging her tail twenty feet into the air. She caught the boat a glancing blow, further damaging the timbers. Turning again upon her attackers, the' cow rushed the Cachalot desperately, only to receive another charge lance as she came in. She made a shallow dive, and the launch was caught up, lifted out of the water, and rolled to its beam ends.

As the launch listed, the rack of charged harpoons emptied its contends across the sloping deck, and the bump against the the side of the launch exploded one, badly wounding Mr Perano, senr. The head flew into pieces like shrapnel, and fragments tore the calf of one leg and wounded both legs in several places. The explosion holed the deck and the hull of the boat, and the wonder is that the concussion did not discharge a quantity of other explosives carried on board. The launch was headed for shore and beached. Help for the injured man was then obtained, and he was taken in a fast launch direct to Picton, where he was admitted to hospital. So far as is known the whale finally escaped. The wrecked launch in under water, but it should be possible to salvage it.

MR PERANO RECOVERING. Per Press Association. T , NELSON, Nov. 12. Air Joseph Perano, who was injured by the explosion of a bomb in the mishap to the v haling launch Cachalot, is making splendid progress and is regarded as being ou.fc of danger.