He
obtained a patent for his first boat in 1785.
The two sailors in the picture below are Greenwich pensioners,
supported, you know, at Greenwich Hospital, which was founded by Charles
II. for superannuated or wounded sailors. They are smoking their pipes,
and discussing the merits of the Life Boat.
[Illustration: THE WHALE.]
WHALE FISHING.
The whale is the largest of all known animals. There are three kinds of
whale; the Greenland, called by the sailors the right whale, as being
most highly prized by them; the great northern rorqual, called by
fishers the razor-back or finner, and the cachalot or spermaciti whale.
The common whale measures from sixty to seventy feet in length: the
mouth, when open, is large enough to admit a ship's jolly boat, with all
her men in it. It contains no teeth; and enormous as the creature is,
the opening to the throat is very narrow, not more than an inch and a
half across in the largest whale.
[Illustration: WHALE FISHING]
Instead of teeth the mouth of the whale is furnished with a curious
framework of a substance called _baleen_; you will know it by the name
of whalebone; it is arranged in rows, and projects beyond the lips in a
hanging fringe; the food of the whale consists of shrimps, small fishes,
sea-snails, and innumerable minute creatures, called medusae, which are
found in those seas where the whales feed in such vast quantities that
they make the water of a deep green or olive color.
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