I remember reading that book. I think they saw one of the killer whales with a divot out of its head where it had rammed the keel in the attack. Them fish meant business.
I sailed across the Atlantic in 1976 on a 33’ wooden sloop. They had the paperback “Survive the Savage Sea” and I read it on the voyage. Near the Azores, we saw pods of sperm whales almost every day. Once, we sailed right through a pod, sperm whales in every direction.
We were very nervous, especially because the Azoreans hunted sperm whales using traditional wooden whaleboats launched from shore.
We were wondering if they had a collective anger toward small wooden boats. Any of them could have sunk us with one head ramming. This is one of the reasons I built a steel sailboat.