A Monster Shark.

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 149, 20 December 1902, Page 6 (Supplement)

A Monster Shark.

Catching sharks in the doldrums is a favourite diversion of sailors. The shark is generally eight or nine feet long, and his capture is prosaic in the extreme. A chunk of pork, impaled on the shark hook and hove overboard, is generally greedily grabbed. The fish is hauled on board by main force. The carpenter cuts his tail off with his axe, the cook dissects him with his knife. His backbone is cut out to make into a walkingstick. The jaws are kept for a curiosity. If the hungry sailors care for his flesh it is theirs for the cutting. The carcass is thrown overboard. Once, and only once, did I witness the hooking of a shark .which was out of th© cemmon. It was in the Indian Ocean, about a hundred miles south of the equator. The sea was as smooth as a pond and there was not a breath of air. The chip lay motionless in the glaring sun, the slumbering deep below and the sereno and cloudless sky above. Ifc was afternoon, and the skipper paced the poop, impatient at the weather, and whistling softly for the breeze that would not come. From right astern there came in sight the dorsal fin of a shark, projecting so high out of the water that it attracted the special attention of the captain. The water was clear and limpid, so that objects deep down night- be distinctly' seen. The shark floated alongside, and proved to be one ol the variety known as the tiger shark, with bands of light'orange colour on a body of bluish gray. The usual school of pretty little pilot fish accompanied him. Such a .monster he was that all hands watched his movements with interest and curiosity. The captain was the most excited man aboard. He determined to capture tho great fish and take the jaws, backbone,' arid tail home a.a curios. As he looked at the giant floating majestioally alongsids he realised that the ordinary two-inch line of manila hemp, usually attached to tho hook, would be powerless to hold him when 'goaded by a bharp barb to a savage straggle for • his life. So the captain ordered up from below a coil of flexible steel wire of great strength and lightness, and bent the end of it, to the length of chain attached to his biggest shark hook, a n&w and formidable weapon of extra sharpness. " Suppose you try him with live bait," suggested Mr Cartwright, tho chief mate. " VVhat kind of live bait? One of the boys?" enquired the captain. " Oh, no. ; try him with a fowl. There's a big Brahma cock in the coop that is neither useful nor ornamental." Chanticleer, a tall specimen of tho brocd, gaunt, bony, and as big as an average turkey, was lugged out of his pen, in spite of indignant cackles and spiteful pecks. His lanky legs were laohed to the shank of the hook and then he was thrown overboard. The shark, which had been basking listlessly near the surface, taking no apparent interest in the proceedings, with a savage swoop and a swiah of his tail, made a demoniac rush on the flapping fowl, bolting bird, pork, and hook, and closing his capacious jaw with a ferocious snap. It was then that tho fun began. As soon as he felt the prick of the hook he darted from, the ship at a twen-ty-knob clip at least, the captain and the mate slacking away tho line and snubbing him as much as they thought the wire rope would stand, until finally they .brought him to a dead stop about two hundred and fifty feet from the ship. Then a dozen men " tailed on " to the line, and we had all we could do to haul him alongside, holding on to all we got and still keeping a turn round the bollard. Never had I seen such plunging, such thrashing and such violent turmoil as that shark - made in the smooth, atill sea. Every moment we expected the wire rope to part in two or the hook to snap, but the gear was good, and it bravely endured the stress and strain. The skipper sent below for his navy revolver, a formidable weapon. He emptied the six chambers into the shark, but he might as well have peppered him with a popgun so far as results were concerned. The method finally adopted for landing him on deck was ingenious. First he was hauled to the gangway amidships, and the line that held Mm was pulled as taut as possible. Then a running noose of stout hemp was made round the wiro line and skilfully '"worked over his head and the entire " length of his body until it reached his tail. Then it was hauled taut and made fast to a bitt on the deck. The shark was now moored head and ibtern and wp.3 practically under control so long as the lines held on.- A stout chain slinir was next passed round the middlo of his body, and by means of a powerful tnckle from the main yard, tlis fall of which was t?.ken to the winch, he was ho.'cted clear of Ihe water. Both ends of a shark are dn:igerou?, the rapacious jaw and the sturdy tail, a blow from which i!f fatal in a small specimen, and how much more deadly in a colossus like ihii. Therefore, as his body slowly emerged from the sea- a. powerful strain was kept on the wire lire to which his jaws were fast and also on tlio thiok rope, who&e , noose securely held his tail, the broad flukes of which prevented Iho slipping of the rope. It was an exciting moment when we got him clear of the rail arid canted the yard to that lie hung inboard ready for lowering on deck. The principal danger was that hh tail might' get adrift, and then it would have been parilous indeed. Bufc the stout line endured the mighty strain of his spasmodic struggles, and slowly ( and cautiously he was lowered to the deck. With a few strokes of the carpenter's biggest axe his tail was severed. This always seems to paralyse a shark, no matter how full of life and vigour he may be. Ilia head was cut off. A tape measure was applied, and his length proved to be 34ft 6in, extreme measurement, from sten\ to stern. He was ripped open according to custom, bufc nothing of note was discovered in his interior. His backbone, jatrs, and tail 1 were all that were kept. The rest of j his carcass was c?st overboard ; the deck was washed-, and the incident closed. — Alex. J. Kennedy, in the Outing. In its Christmas number, the Pall Mill Magazine has excelled it-self, holding its ground as one of th» best-illustrated periodicals in the world. " A Dream of Fair Women " introduces the reader to the 'work of the< artist, Jean Jacques Henner ; Mr. A. W. Jarvis discourses on old Christmas customs, with illustrations from old prints ; those who delight in contemplating the personal life and habits of the great will turn at once to " The King at Home," by Ernest M. Jessop ; while lovers of nature will be interested in the Rev. Francis Irwin's account of " what may be done with crumbs anil patience" in the taming of garden-birds, illustrated .With striking photographs. Architecture is represented by Hugh B. Philpott's " Seven New Cathedrals," , the poetry is appropriate to the j>e?.«on, and fiction has its due place.' Eden Philpotts, Marriott Watson, Charles Marriott, F. Anstey, and Alfred Permy — a strong combination — all contribute short; stories, and there arc three more chapters of Dora Grcenwell M'Chesney's serial, "Cornet Strone."