Captain Dale Sprague and his first mate, Matt Hamilton, were 17 miles off the New Hampshire coast on Tuesday, enjoying a peaceful day of haddock fishing.

Then, around 1:30 p.m., two 60-foot humpback whales suddenly breached the surface about 200 yards from Sprague’s boat, the Reel Joy.

“Boy, I wish they would come in a little closer to us,” Sprague recalled telling Hamilton. “We could get a good picture!”

And the whales did come closer — a little too close.

Two mariners on Tuesday nearly had their boat capsized by a breaching humpback whale.Dale Sprague

Both whales leaped out of the water about 40 feet away, before one dove under the surface, heading straight for the boat.

“Holy [expletive]!” Sprague yelled in a video he took of the scare. “Dude, dude, this isn’t good.”

“Start the boat,” Hamilton said, his voice shaking with fear. “Let’s [expletive] run out of here!”

Both men instantly recalled an incident from last year, where a humpback whale landed on a fishing boat off the New Hampshire coast, capsizing the vessel and throwing two people into the ocean.

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“If that whale decides he’s going to come up and go on your boat, you’re going to dive out of the way,” Sprague said. “You’re no match for these whales.”

Sprague ran down into the cabin and grabbed two life jackets. For a few tense moments, he and Hamilton stood on the deck, bracing for a possible impact.

But when the whales next emerged from the water, they were 200 yards away. But still close enough to keep taunting the fishermen.

“Two of them turned on their sides, just started this massive flapping of their big fin,” Sprague said. “I think whales personally love attention.”

Rattled, Hamilton suggested they reel in their lines and head back to Dover. But Sprague said they should keep enjoying the day, saying they had been treated to a rare and beautiful sight.

“It’s a really, really lucky thing to happen, to have that happen right next to us,” he said. “It’s something you see at SeaWorld.”

Truman Dickerson can be reached at truman.dickerson@globe.com.