The One That Got Away

My great grandfather Andrew Byron Chase was a sea captain. He commanded the ship the Pardon G. Thompson, a three-masted coastal schooner, which sailed up and down the east coast in the early 1900's. The Pardon G. Thompson transported freight -- wood, coal and even pineapples from Barbados. Before Andrew Chase ventured into buying his own ship, possibly with financial assistance from stock holders, he embarked on a different kind of adventure, as a crew member on a whale ship. In 1920 (?) he published an account in the New Bedford Standard Times of his one and only whaling voyage. Below is a portion of my great grandfather's story, written by the Captain himself.

"A Narrow Escape" by Captain Andrew Byron Chase

"We kept on our course to the western grounds for the second time, and, while cruising around during my trick at the mast head one day, I made out what I took to be a school of whales and sung out, 'There she blows!'

'Where away?' called the captain.

'Two points off lee bow, sir!' I answered.

Upon nearer approval the cause of the excitement proved to be a school of killers, a specie[s] of whale equipped with a large fin near the small of the back. All hands were called to man three boats. Then the chase began.

Distance was soon narrowed down. The boat steerer gave one of the lot two irons, and the captain gave orders to hoist and swing the bow boat as the school was close to the ship. The rest of the boats were in pursuit of the school, and the bow boat I was in was sent to help the second mate out. In a few minutes the killer went into a furry.

Instead of keeping astern of the mate's boat as we should, we pulled ahead and the fish, in his dying moment made a final breach clear out of the water, came down and struck the gunwhale of the boat. The whale missed killing the entire boat crew by only two feet. The boat was badly stoved and it was only by taking the shirts off our backs and stuffing them into the hole that we managed to reach the ship in safety.

During the pull to the ship with the dead killer, the mate had to stand by and use his spade to keep off the rest of the whales who, like a company of soldiers clamored for their dead companion. The killer was hoisted aboard and tried, our making: four barrels."


Captain Chase writes about other exciting experiences, including swimming through waters "infested with some pretty large sharks". Family concensus is Great Gradnpa may have exaggerated the shark part a bit. He ends his story this way.


" My first and last whaling voyage was at an end, and I was soon among friends at home relating incidents of what seemed to me one of the most eventful voyages after oil and blubber that ever a man took."


I picked up the paper this morning and read a different kind of fish story. Joan Vennochi wrote in today's Globe about Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner saying he was unaware of the AIG retention bonuses until March 10th. The crux of her article centers around how unbelievable that claim is and she backs up her questioning by listing a chronology of events as reported by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. The facts she details make Mr. Geithner's claim of being in the dark on the bonus issue until March 10 seem nearly impossible.

There's also the "he did/they did/I didn't/they didn't" angle. Ms. Vennochi points out that some are saying Connecticut's Senator Christopher Dodd wanted the bonuses put into the stimulus package, although Senator Dodd states the Treasury Department asked him to include them. Mr. Geitner says his staff added those bonuses.

Swimming with sharks may seem unlikely, but perhaps that is easier on the imagination than the U.S. Treasury Secretary claiming ignorance about the AIG bonus fiasco until such a late date.


The Boston Globe, Thursday, March 26, 2009, "Obama's blind faith in Geithner" by Joan Vennochi, p.A19
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/03/26/obamas_blind_faith_in_geithner/