I Stood Farther Off And Coasted Along Shore To About
Seven Or Eight Leagues Distance, And At Twelve O'clock At Night We
Sounded, And Had But Twenty Fathom, Hard Sand.
By this I found I
was upon another shoal, and so presently steered off west half an
hour, and had then forty fathom.
At one in the morning of the 18th
day we had eighty-five fathom; by two we could find no ground, and
then I ventured to steer along shore again due north, which is two
points wide of the coast (that lies north-north-east), for fear of
another shoal. I would not be too far off from the land, being
desirous to search into it wherever I should find an opening or any
convenience of searching about for water, etc. When we were off the
shoal-point I mentioned, where we had but twenty fathom water, we
had in the night abundance of whales about the ship, some ahead,
others astern, and some on each side, blowing and making a very
dismal noise; but when we came out again into deeper water, they
left us; indeed, the noise that they made by blowing and dashing of
the sea with their tails, making it all of a breach and foam, was
very dreadful to us, like the breach of the waves in very shoal
water or among rocks. The shoal these whales were upon had depth of
water sufficient, no less than twenty fathom, as I said, and it lies
in latitude 22 degrees 22 minutes.
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