By some mistake or
other he had allowed the two lines to be hauled together through
the groove in his boat's stem, and before the error was noticed
two fish spurted off in opposite directions, ripping the boat in
two halves lengthways, like a Dutchman splitting a salt herring.
Away went the fish with the whole of the line, nobody being able
to get at it to cut; and, but for the presence of mind shown by
the crew in striking out and away from the tangle, a most ghastly
misfortune, involving the loss of several lives, must have
occurred. As it was, the loss was considerable, almost
outweighing the gain on the day's fishing, besides the
inconvenience of having a boat useless on a whaling grounds.
The accident was the fruit of gross carelessness, and should
never have occurred; but then, strange to say, disasters to
whale-boats are nearly always due to want of care, the percentage
of unavoidable casualties being very small as compared with those
like the one just related. When the highly dangerous nature of
the work is remembered, this statement may seem somewhat
overdrawn; but it has been so frequently corroborated by others,
whose experience far outweighs my own, that I do not hesitate to
make it with the fullest confidence in its truth.
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