WHALES AND SHIPS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3695, 24 September 1927, Page 4

WHALES AND SHIPS.

THRILLING EXPERIENCES.

Passengers on the White Star liner Baltic had a thrilling experience a few week ago. When the vessel was on the south coast of Ireland on her way to Liverpool, she rammed an eighteen-foot whale. The ship was stopped, and the whale, which had been impaled on the liner’s bow, floated clear. But there was a deep wound in the back of its neck, so it will probably think twice before trying conclusions with a liner again.

But whales are not always the victims; sometimes they attack ships. The destroyer Lamson was recently butted by a whale off the coast of Maine. The whale, a fairly big one, seemed to take offence at’ the vessel and turned on it. The engines were reversed, but even so the shock of the impact made the whole ship tremble. It flung men out of their bunks and smashed crockery. Happily, no serious harm was done, and the big beast, who was probably worse hurt than the , ship, dived and vanished. ; A whale that has been harpooned will sometimes turn on its attackers. Some years ago the whaler Dimon, while working near the Faroe Islands, was charged by a great whale with such force that her whole bow was stove in and her forecastle filled with water. The water invaded the engine-room, and the vessel became helpless. The steam trawler Salvia took off her crew of nine, and the derelict was towed into port. \ The most famous case of the kind happened many years ago. One of the big old-fashioned whalers, the Essex, struck a school of sperm whales, and her boats were busily engaged when a monstrous bull, the leader of the po.d or herd, hauled off and rushed at the ship. The Essex was a sailing-ship and, as the wind was light, could not get out of her way. The whale, which weighed at least eighty tons, crashed into her side with such fury as to stave her thick planking. Not content, the great beast charged a second time, and this finished the ship. She sank in less than half an hour, and her crew spent three days in open boats before they were picked up. In 1910, the steamer Pallanza, steaming in mid-Atlantic, hit a whale and nearly cut it in two. It was impaled on the bow, and the As they chopped at the carcase As they chopped at the carcass, they found a harpoon marked “J.T.li. 1902.” This must have belonged to the whaler J. T. Duncan, which disappeared at sea, and there is every possibility that she was sunk by this very whale.