But fortunately the special point I here seek can be established
upon testimony entirely independent of my own. That point is this:
The Sperm Whale is in some cases sufficiently powerful, knowing,
and judiciously malicious, as with direct aforethought to stave in,
utterly destroy, and sink a large ship; and what is more,
the Sperm Whale has done it.
First: In the year 1820 the ship Essex, Captain Pollard,
of Nantucket, was cruising in the Pacific Ocean. One day
she saw spouts, lowered her boats, and gave chase to a shoal
of sperm whales. Ere long, several of the whales were wounded;
when, suddenly, a very large whale escaping from the boats,
issued from the shoal, and bore directly down upon the ship.
Dashing his forehead against her hull, he so stove her in,
that in less than "ten minutes" she settled down and fell over.
Not a surviving plank of her has been seen since.
After the severest exposure, part of the crew reached the land
in their boats. Being returned home at last, Captain Pollard
once more sailed for the Pacific in command of another ship,
but the gods shipwrecked him again upon unknown rocks and breakers;
for the second time his ship was utterly lost, and forthwith
forswearing the sea, he has never attempted it since.
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