Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1885 — A Ride on a Whale’s Back. [ARTICLE]

A Ride on a Whale’s Back.

“JVe take 'white Whales on the run, sometimes,” said an old sailor, “and the last one I took last season got a joke on me that ain’t quite worn off yet. We went out in a gang that day, some with rifles and some with harpoons, and I reckon there was ten boats all told, and right down by the mouth of a creek we struck a school of ’em, so big that there was nothing but heads a-pop-pin’ up all around. When we got into the lot the boys began a-shootin’ and strikin’, and got so mixed up that we didn’t know where we was for a while. My boy had my harpoon, and the only thing I got holt on was a lance, jest like this, and as I was standing in the bow a big whale came up under me. I let drive and sunk the lance into huin about two feet, and at the same moment one of the other boats struck us right amidships. I lost my balance, and afore I knew it I was a-settin’ on that old whale’s back, hangin’ on to the pole, and goin’ along like greased lightnin’. The boys set up a yell and made way me, and off I went. “Ye see, ” continued the speaker, “the water was only about four feet, and the critter could not dive, so I just clung to it. First she struck in shore, and then skirted along the beach, a-snortin’ and puffin’ and beatin’ the water with her tail so’t you could hear her clean across the bay. But she couldn’t shake me off. I jist .clung to the handle and let her rip, and pretty soon, when we came to a shoal place, I beached her, or she beached me, I didn’t know which. Any way, I reckon I’m the first one that ever rode a whale in these diggins.”—Hartford Courant.