AT CLOSE QUARTERS

New Zealand Tablet, 29 August 1912, Page 61

AT CLOSE QUARTERS

The experience of the sailors who went out to capture a whale and found a tiger seemed funny enough to themselves when they discussed it afterward, although there was nothing amusing in their situation at the time, save the unexpectedness. Two days had been spent watering ship at a spring on the banks of the New River, which is a day’s sail from Anjer, a neat little roadstead in the island of Java; and on the morning of the third day the captain of the New Bedford whaler concluded he would make an excursion few miles up the river. Accordingly his boat was fitted out with some provisions, and there was a gun for each man, with plenty of ammunition. The captain took his rifle, the only weapon of its kind on board. A young whaler with a record as a good shota tiger at twenty feet being his most famous achievement—was ordered into the boat as the look-out man and sharp-shooter. What followed after they set sail is best told in . his own words as he has written them in Forest and Stream: ‘ The wind was fair, and we proceeded up the river at a good pace. It was a narrow, sluggish stream, its banks bordered with virgin forests, and no sign of human habitation. The trees were full of birds and monkeys, and they kept up a racket which was novel and interesting to us. Then, too, the captain' was in excellent humor, full of yarns of his voyages and adventures, and the time passed rapidly. At noon we ate our lunch and took in sail, and began our return journey, estimating that we had gone up the river about fifteen miles. The wind was now dead ahead, and we got our oars for a fifteen-mile pull, a mere trifle for wellseasoned whale-men. Bending to the ash, we made the boat spin along at a lively gait, and were . some five miles away from the turning point when suddenly the captain exclaimed: - ‘ My goodness ! Look at that tiger And sure enough, lying well out on an overhanging branch of a tree under which we must pass, lay a magnificent tiger, evidently watching its chance to spring into our boat. 1 To say that the captain was flustered conveys but a faint idea of his mental condition, but as Tor ,my shipmates, they were a sight to behold. Perhaps, my experience at Anjer helped to steady my nerves, - for while the captain was still in a funk I said confidently: ‘ “ Captain, let me have your rifle, and I feel sure I can knock that fellow off his perch.” ‘ The captain handed me the rifle, and in an instant I drew a bead, and just as the captain was saying, “Now, Jack, don’t miss him,” I fired. I felt shaky myself, for I knew if I missed him the chances were that when he made his spring he would land in our frail boat, and that would be the end of boat, captain, and crew. ‘ But the bullet went to the mark. Like an arrow from a bow, the beautiful creature shot through the air. We felt the wind of his form as he passed only a few inches over our heads, and with a fearful splash went below the surface of the water. The instant he struck the captain roared like a lion: ‘“Now pull, boys, pull! Let’s get out of this hole ‘ We did pull better perhaps than we ever did on going on to. a whale; and the gait we made in going back to the ship held the record for the rest of the voyage. Long after, sometimes when the captain would get excited in pulling for a fleeing whale, he would sing out, “Pull, boys, pull! There’s a tiger up -that tree!”’