{"id":166048,"date":"2025-09-18T19:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T19:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/166048\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T19:37:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T19:37:08","slug":"humpback-whale-nearly-strikes-ship-off-n-h-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/166048\/","title":{"rendered":"Humpback whale nearly strikes ship off N.H. coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

Then, around 1:30 p.m., two 60-foot humpback whales suddenly breached the surface about 200 yards from Sprague\u2019s boat, the Reel Joy. <\/p>\n

\u201cBoy, I wish they would come in a little closer to us,\u201d Sprague recalled telling Hamilton. \u201cWe could get a good picture!\u201d <\/p>\n

And the whales did come closer \u2014 a little too close. <\/p>\n

\"TwoTwo mariners on Tuesday nearly had their boat capsized by a breaching humpback whale.Dale Sprague<\/p>\n

Both whales leaped out of the water about 40 feet away, before one dove under the surface, heading straight for the boat. <\/p>\n

\u201cHoly [expletive]!\u201d Sprague yelled in a video he took of the scare. \u201cDude, dude, this isn\u2019t good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStart the boat,\u201d Hamilton said, his voice shaking with fear. \u201cLet\u2019s [expletive] run out of here!\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Get N.H. Morning Report<\/p>\n

A weekday newsletter delivering the N.H. news you need to know right to your inbox.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that whale decides he\u2019s going to come up and go on your boat, you\u2019re going to dive out of the way,\u201d Sprague said. \u201cYou\u2019re no match for these whales.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

But when the whales next emerged from the water, they were 200 yards away. But still close enough to keep taunting the fishermen. <\/p>\n

\u201cTwo of them turned on their sides, just started this massive flapping of their big fin,\u201d Sprague said. \u201cI think whales personally love attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really, really lucky thing to happen, to have that happen right next to us,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s something you see at SeaWorld.\u201d<\/p>\n

Truman Dickerson can be reached at truman.dickerson@globe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Captain Dale Sprague and his first mate, Matt Hamilton, were 17 miles off the New Hampshire coast on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-166048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}