The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Rudolf Raspe

      I embarked at Portsmouth in a first-rate English man-of-war, of one

      hundred guns, and fourteen hundred men, for North America. Nothing worth

      relating happened till we arrived within three hundred leagues of the

      river St. Laurence, when the ship struck with amazing force against (as

      we supposed) a rock; however, upon heaving the lead we could find no

      bottom, even with three hundred fathom. What made this circumstance

      the more wonderful, and indeed beyond all comprehension, was, that

      the violence of the shock was such that we lost our rudder, broke our

      bowsprit in the middle, and split all our masts from top to bottom, two

      of which went by the board; a poor fellow, who was aloft furling the

      mainsheet, was flung at least three leagues from the ship; but he

      fortunately saved his life by laying hold of the tail of a large

      sea-gull, who brought him back, and lodged him on the very spot from

      whence he was thrown. Another proof of the violence of the shock was the

      force with which the people between decks were driven against the floors

      above them; my head particularly was pressed into my stomach, where it

      continued some months before it recovered its natural situation. Whilst

      we were all in a state of astonishment at the general and unaccountable

      confusion in which we were involved, the whole was suddenly explained

      by the appearance of a large whale, who had been basking, asleep,

      within sixteen feet of the surface of the water. This animal was so much

      displeased with the disturbance which our ship had given him – for in our

      passage we had with our rudder scratched his nose – that he beat in all

      the gallery and part of the quarter-deck with his tail, and almost at

      the same instant took the mainsheet anchor, which was suspended, as

      it usually is, from the head, between his teeth, and ran away with the

      ship, at least sixty leagues, at the rate of twelve leagues an hour,

      when fortunately the cable broke, and we lost both the whale and the

      anchor. However, upon our return to Europe, some months after, we found

      the same whale within a few leagues of the same spot, floating dead upon

      the water; it measured above half a mile in length. As we could take but

      a small quantity of such a monstrous animal on board, we got our boats

      out, and with much difficulty cut off his head, where, to our great joy,

      we found the anchor, and above forty fathom of the cable, concealed on

      the left side of his mouth, just under his tongue. [Perhaps this was the

      cause of his death, as that side of his tongue was much swelled, with

      a great degree of inflammation.] This was the only extraordinary

      circumstance that happened on this voyage. One part of our distress,

      however, I had like to have forgot: while the whale was running away

      with the ship she sprung a leak, and the water poured in so fast, that

      all our pumps could not keep us from sinking; it was, however, my good

      fortune to discover it first. I found it a large hole about a foot

      diameter; you will naturally suppose this circumstance gives me infinite

      pleasure, when I inform you that this noble vessel was preserved, with

      all its crew, by a most fortunate thought! in short, I sat down over

      it, and could have dispensed with it had it been larger; nor will you

      be surprised when I inform you I am descended from Dutch parents. [The

      Baron’s ancestors have but lately settled there; in another part of his

      adventures he boasts of royal blood.]