The Whale and His Captors; Or, the Whaleman's Adventures. and the Whale's Biography as Gathered on the Homeward Cruise of the "Commodore Preble."

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1850. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... Melancholy Wreck discovered in the Gulf Stream. CHAPTER XVIH. KNITTING UP THE LESSONS OF THE VOYAGE AT ITS CLOSE. I saw a wreck upon the ocean flood. How sad and desolate 1 No man was there; No living thing was on it . There it stood; Its sails all gone; ita masts were standing bare : Toss'd on the wide, the boundless, howling sea ! The very sea-birds scream'd, and pass'd it by. And as I look'd, the ocean seem'd to be A sign and figure of Eternity. The Wreck An Emblem Seem'd of those that sail Without the pilot, Jesus, on its tide. Thus, thought I, when the final storms prevail, Shall rope, and sail, and mast be scatter'd wide 1 And they, with helm and anchor lost, be driven, In endless exile sad, far from the port of Heaven! T. C. Upham. Rounding Cape Cod, Massachusetts Bay. IN all probability, this beautiful sonnet must have been written somewhere at sea, just after passing such a wreck as we met with a few days ago in the Gulf Stream. Such sad things (and they are melancholy objects, indeed, to behold at sea) are often fallen in with there. Perhaps more wrecks are made within, and at The Wrecks of Opinions in Philosophy and Religion. the edges of the Gulf Stream, than in any other part of the ocean; squalls are so violent there, the lightning so terrific, and the wind and current so often opposed, as to raise an ugly, chopping, " head-beat" sea, that, if long continued, will beat to pieces, or start dangerous leaks in the very best of ships. Wrecks, too, once made there, and ships abandoned without foundering, will stay^or a long time in the course of the stream, being carried along and kept within it by the force of the current. Some captains think that the same wreck may sometimes go the whole round of the stream, being kept along in it to where it...