Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Paul Cuffe, a Pequot Indian, During Thirty Years Spent at Sea, and in Travelling in Foreign LandsCuffe, Paul
History
Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Paul Cuffe, a Pequot Indian, During Thirty Years Spent at Sea, and in Travelling in Foreign Lands
Cuffe, Paul
Cuffe, Paul, 1795 or 1796-
which we paid corn, meal and bread. These people are of a very dark
hue, and speak the Portuguese language. Here we stopped but four days,
when we set all sails and steered away a southwest course, for the
Brazil Banks, where we arrived, after a sail of forty-two days.
Here we commenced fishing for whale, but for a time had bad luck, owing
to the drunken habits of our Captain. We sunk twelve whales before we
caught one. Then we caught six in the course of two weeks. I harpooned
all these, and assisted in taking and towing them along side the ship.
After we get a whale along side, we hitch our blubber hooks into the
head, after severing it from the body, then, with our windlass, draw it
aboard, and dip the oil out, which sometimes amounts to more than fifty
barrels. After this, we commence cutting the whale in a circular manner
with our spades; then we hitch the blubber hooks into the commencement
next to where the head was taken off, and by pulling at the windlass,
take off a large piece which will usually when tried and strained,
produce ten barrels of oil. Before heaving on board this piece, another
hook is fastened below the one to be taken off; when this is done with
a cross blow from the spade, the first piece is separated from the rest
of the whale. Then the cutting is continued in the same manner as
before mentioned, and another piece torn off and swung aboard. This
operation keeps the whale constantly rolling over until the mass of
flesh is stripped from the carcass, which is then permitted to float
off, or sink, and it becomes the sport of sharks, who feed upon the
little flesh which remains after it has gone through the hands of the
whalemen.
Here we stayed but six weeks before we took in 1600 barrels of oil.
This was about 300 miles off the Brazil coast.--From this place we set
sail with our cargo about the middle of June 1813, for New Bedford,
where we arrived in fifty-seven days. When off Block Island we saw the
keel of a brig, upon which were marked the names of a number of persons
who undoubtedly belonged to her and had died upon the wreck.
We were about five days unloading ship, after which the hands were paid
off and discharged. After this I went again to visit my parents at
Westport, where I stayed but two weeks before I went to Philadelphia
across land, and shipped aboard the Dorothea, a Letter of Marque brig,
Captain Aaron Pitney, bound to St. Jago, loaded with flour and
hoop-poles. This brig mounted ten guns. When out two days we fell in
with an English brig of ten guns, to which we gave chase, and fought
her for about two hours, when she got away from us, we being unable to
gain upon her in consequence of having our rigging badly cut to pieces.
In this action we lost two men killed and the Captain badly wounded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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