WHALE HUNTING.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 769, 26 November 1886, Page 8

WHALE HUNTING.

Scientific American.

The Monterey Whaling Company is about the oldest institution of the kind on the coast, amd the stock proves a very fair investment to the holders, who are’the whale killers themselves. The business office, storeroom, and eating and sleeping apartments of the Company are in a fl’hite adobe building in the western suburbs, and half a mile further South is a high cliff, whereon is the company’s lookout. He is armed with a powerful glass, and a tall mast is rigged with halyards for hoisting a signal when game is sighted. The hunting tools consist of three of the regulation double-pointed boats in use by whalers the world over, five long oars to each boat, 200 fathoms of line smoothly coiled in tubs in the bow, and two guns to each boat. The larger size of the two has the proportions of a young cannon, and is mounted on a pivot. The missile discharged from it is a steel bar 4 feet in length, and provided with a folding barb that opens out when the harpoon buries itself in the whale. This takes the place of the old-time harpoon, and is much more certain and effective. The lighter gun is fired from the shoulder, and looks like a large-sized fowling-piece. It has a bore. It is used to put the finishing touches on the whale after the harpoon has made him fast, and the method is to fire an explosive bomb into a vital spot. The bomb is ljin. in diameter by 18in. long, the butt end being winged with rubber, after the manner in which an arrow is feathered, to secure guiding power. It was early morning when the white signal fluttered to the top of the staff of the mast on the cliff, and having previously obtained permission to join the hunt with Captain Mariano, the quartermaster was speedily seated in the stern sheets, awaiting the signal to shove off. This was soon, given, and six miles to the north-west the three boats came up with their game, which proved to be an unusually large specimen of the Californian gray variety. The gigantic fish rolled lazily about on top of the water, all unconscious of impending danger, and did not even deign to notice - the approach of the boats that came upon either side and behind her. A hundred feet away the men lay on their oars, and Captain Mariano sighted over his swivel gun. The men b?nt over their oars, with every muscle ready to pull or back-water at the slightest hostile movement on the part of the enemy. It was a moment thatseemed an age of awful suspense to the green; but suddenly the captain had a fair mark presented and pressed the trigger. The boat quivered-under the shock accompanying the report, and the eye could plainly catch the flash of the harpoon as it cleaved the air and buried itself out of sight somewhere in the right shoulder. Attached to the steel missile was the stout Manila line coiled in the bow, and it bore the appearance of a flash of brown lightning as it zigzagged through the air after its powerful motor. The whale hardly seemed to comprehend the trouble that had overtaken her at first,- and it was fully half a minute before she emitted an angry snort, and started for the bottom at a rate that made the line smoke and emit sparks as it ran over the bows. Both the captain and the boat steerer peered uneasily in the clear depths as the line stopped running out; and a minute later the former shouted : ‘ Back all ! Back hard !’ The five ashen blades bent and quivered with the strain put on them, but it was none too much, as the boat was scarcely a dozen feet away-when the huge bulk of the infuriated whale rose to the surface, and spurted twin columns of the brine high in the air. Before the animated waterspout could repeat the., dose the boat was out of range, both of the fire extinguishing apparatus and the terrible flukes that soon commenced to thrash the water into foam. Her contortions were so violent that the captain could not get in a shot with his bomb gun, which he raised and lowered half a dozen times without pulling the trigger. Finally the flukes quit their thrashing, and like a flash the levathian dashed away at a terrific rate, burying the boat’s bow between

two walls of water fully 18 inches high, but the speed was such that scarcely a drop entered the boat. This gait was kept up for, a good ten minutes, and then the speed commenced to slacken, and the wounded monster swam easily and quietly on top of the water. The living tug came to a total at last, and, pulling around to a broadside position, the captain was given his opportunity. The second explosion was followed by the whistling of the rubber-winged bomb, which buried itself in the great mass of blubber. Scarcely had the smoked cleared away from the bow before the muffled boom of the bomb exploding in the historical residence of Jonah sounded the death knell of the poor old whale. The victim’s Luge bulk grew animated again, but only for a moment. The flukes thrashed violently for a few seconds, while the waterspouts became tinged a warm red. Struggles and spouts became more. and more contracted, until, with a last final effort, the inwardly wounded monster rolled over and expired. The other boats made fast, and a hard pull of three hours landed the prize on the beach, where it is to he cut up.