“While the whale is floating at the stern of the ship, they cut off his head, and tow it with a boat as near the shore as it will come; but it will be aground in twelve or thirteen feet water.”
“In their way they saw many whales sporting in the ocean, and in wantonness fuzzing up the water through their pipes and vents, which nature has placed on their shoulders.”
“Here they saw such huge troops of whales, that they were forced to proceed with a great deal of caution for fear they should run their ship upon them.”
“We set sail from the Elbe, wind N.E. in the ship called The Jonas-in-the-Whale . … Some say the whale can’t open his mouth, but that is a fable. … They frequently climb up the masts to see whether they can see a whale, for the first discoverer has a ducat for his pains. … I was told of a whale taken near Shetland, that had above a barrel of herrings in his belly. … One of our harpooneers told me that he caught once a whale in Spitzbergen that was white all over.”
“Several whales have come in upon this coast (Fife) Anno 1652, one eighty feet in length of the whalebone kind came in, which (as I was informed), besides a vast quantity of oil, did afford 500 weight of baleen. The jaws of it stand for a gate in the garden of Pitferren.”
“Myself have agreed to try whether I can master and kill this Spermaceti whale, for I could never hear of any of that sort that was killed by any man, such is his fierceness and swiftness.”