roleplaying:munchausen:chapter_vii
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+ | ====== TRAVELS OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN ====== | ||
+ | ===== CHAPTER VII ===== | ||
+ | //The Baron relates his adventures on a voyage to North America, | ||
+ | which are well worth the reader' | ||
+ | sea-gull saves a sailor' | ||
+ | stomach--A dangerous leak stopped à posteriori.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | 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' | ||
+ | another part of his adventures he boasts of royal blood.] | ||
+ | |||
+ | My situation, while I sat there, was rather cool, but the carpenter' | ||
+ | art soon relieved me. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | Go to [[CHAPTER VIII]] |
roleplaying/munchausen/chapter_vii.txt · Last modified: 2005/11/22 17:56 by 127.0.0.1