Vienkes flew along with the pieces of the boat, and fell upon the back of the animal.

This intrepid seaman, who still retained his weapon in his grasp, harpooned the whale on which he stood; and by means of the harpoon and the line, which he never abandoned, he steadied himself firmly upon the fish, notwithstanding his hazardous situation, and regardless of a considerable wound that he received in his leg in his fall along with the fragments of the boat.

All the efforts of the other boats to approach the whale and deliver the harpooner were futile.

The captain, not seeing any other method of saving his unfortunate companion, who was in some way entangled with the line, called him to cut it with his knife and betake himself to swimming.

Vienkes, embarrassed and disconcerted as he was, tried in vain to follow this council.