"No, indeed," replied the cooper, "that was in the Bajazet. No, this was only a forty-barrel bull, and the worst of it was, we didn't cut him in at all. He stove all four boats for us, and chawed them up into splinters. We got out the last boat we had from overhead, and picked up the men, and the whale chased us all the way to the ship. We pulled all we knew, and got alongside, hooked on, and had the boat raised out of the water, when the old fellow shoved his jaw out and grabbed her right out of the tackles! Such a crashing and splintering of cedar boards you never saw or heard as when he shut down upon her. The two men that were hooking on grabbed the tackles and shinned for dear life. But he wasn't satisfied with that mouthful, for he undertook to chaw the ship. But old Captain Harper hadn't forgotten the Essex story, and we made all sail to get out of his way; for, mind ye, if he had started a leak in the old ship, we hadn't a boat left to save ourselves in. He chased us about four hours, but he was somewhat weakened from loss of blood, for he had seven irons and four lances sticking in him. We were in hopes he would turn up in the ship's wake, but he seemed to find out at last that a stern chase was a long one, and gave it up. The last we saw of him he was going to windward, spouting clear. About a fortnight afterwards, we spoke the Termagant, and they gave us our craft. They had picked him up, dead, and when we came to compare reckonings, we found it was about three hundred and fifty miles from where we lost sight of him!" "How long was it before they found him?" asked Fisher. "The second day after we struck him," replied the cooper, not seeing the drift of the question. "Well, he must have picked up his strength amazingly after he started to windward. You say he couldn't go fast enough to _leeward_ to overtake the ship, and yet he went three hundred and fifty miles _to windward_ in a matter of thirty-six hours: that's about ten knots an hour." "I don't care if it is; he couldn't keep up with the old Deucalion when we put her off with the wind on her quarter." "Why, how fast would she go?" "Seventeen knot, easy," answered the cooper with the utmost gravity. "There, that'll do," said Fisher. "It's time I went on deck. Whenever I can believe that old wagon of a ship went seventeen knots, then I shall be ready to believe in these eating whales. But you haven't got tobacco enough to make me hoist in either."