 and over; he rears his enormous
            head, and with wide expanded jaws snaps at everything around him; he
            rushes at the boats with his head; they are propelled before him
            with vast swiftness, and sometimes utterly destroyed.
             * * * It is a matter of great astonishment that the consideration
            of the habits of so interesting, and, in a commercial point of view,
            of so important an animal (as the Sperm Whale) should have been so
            entirely neglected, or should have excited so little curiosity among
            the numerous, and many of them competent observers, that of late
            years must have possessed the most abundant and the most convenient
            opportunities of witnessing their habitudes.«
                                Thomas Beale's History of the Sperm Whale. 1839.
 
            »The Cachalot« (Sperm Whale) »is not only better armed than the True
            Whale« (Greenland or Right Whale) »in possessing a formidable weapon
            at either extremity of its body, but also more frequently displays a
            disposition to employ these weapons offensively, and in a manner at
            once so artful, bold, and mischievous, as to lead to its being
            regarded as the most dangerous to attack of all the known species of
            the whale tribe.«
                Frederick Debell Bennett's Whaling Voyage round the Globe. 1840.
 
            »October 13. There she blows, was sung out from the mast-head.
             Where away? demanded the captain.
             Three points off the lee bow, sir.
             Raise up your wheel. Steady!
             Steady, sir.
             Mast-head ahoy! Do you see that whale now?
             Ay, ay, sir! A shoal of Sperm Whales! There she blows! There she
            breaches!
             Sing out! sing out every time!
             Ay, ay, sir! There she blows! there - there - thar she blows -
            bowes - bo-o-o-s!
             How far off?
             Two miles and a half.
             Thunder and lightning! so near! Call all hands!«
                            J. Ross Browne's Etchings of a Whaling Cruise. 1846.
 
            »The Whale-ship Globe, on board of which vessel occurred the horrid
            transactions we are about to relate, belonged to the island of
            Nantucket.«
        Narrative of the Globe Mutiny, by Lay and Hussey, Survivors. A. D. 1828.
 
            »Being once pursued by a whale which he had wounded, he parried the
            assault for some time with a lance; but the furious monster at
            length rushed on the boat; himself and comrades only being preserved
            by leaping into the water when they saw the onset was inevitable.«
                                      Missionary Journal of Tyerman and Bennett
