IN COLLISION WITH A SHARK.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9272, 25 November 1895, Page 4

IN COLLISION WITH A SHARK.

"A curious thing," writes & correapon* dent, "occurred on the last homeward voyage from Australia of the P. and O» Royal Mail steamer Himalaya, when the ship while steaming up the Bed Sea ran into ami killed an enormous shark. The sea was dead calm at the time, and the brute must . have been basking in tbe sun upon the surface, as they often do, when the ship struck it. Though under easy steam she was then running quite nineteen land mites an hour, and anyone acquainted with the huge proportions of a great ocean liner will understand the force and impetus with which the sharp seem must have been driven into its body. It was no&quite cv» in two, however, and was carried some dls* tance before the engines were stopped ana reversed to enable the ship to get clear, when it turned over and sank, apparently dead, bub some time after being struck it was alive, and lashing out furiously with its tail. lam nob sure as to what size these monsters actually grow, but this one must have measured at least 25ft in length, and its head must have been, at the broadest) part, 6fb »•> least. It is also interesting to speculate how, upon the theory that a flsn never sleeps, this one allowed its~.lf to be run into—especially as these incidents seem by oo means rare.";