Thus, then, one of our own noble stamp,
even a whaleman, is the tutelary guardian of England;
and by good rights, we harpooneers of Nantucket should be
enrolled in the most noble order of St. George. And therefore,
let not the knights of that honorable company (none of whom,
I venture to say, have ever had to do with a whale like their
great patron), let them never eye a Nantucketer with disdain,
since even in our woollen frocks and tarred trowsers we are much
better entitled to St. George's decoration than they.
Whether to admit Hercules among us or not, concerning this I long
remained dubious: for though according to the Greek mythologies,
that antique Crockett and Kit Carson--that brawny doer
of rejoicing good deeds, was swallowed down and thrown up
by a whale; still, whether that strictly makes a whaleman
of him, that might be mooted. It nowhere appears that he ever
actually harpooned his fish, unless, indeed, from the inside.
Nevertheless, he may be deemed a sort of involuntary whaleman;
at any rate the whale caught him, if he did not the whale.
I claim him for one of our clan.
But, by the best contradictory authorities, this Grecian story
of Hercules and the whale is considered to be derived from the still
more ancient Hebrew story of Jonah and the whale; and vice versa;
certainly they are very similar.
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