PELORUS JACK

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 128, 1 June 1935, Page 26

PELORUS JACK

A NEW SETTING

To the average New Zealander the story of Pelorus Jack is very well known, though its particular breed and technical name may not be. Who has not heard of the one fish in the world for whose protection special legislation was enacted? Everyone knew old Pelorus Jack, the hybrid porpoise that regularly accompanied the S.S. Pateena and other ships of that day as they approached the Sounds on their way to Picton. Jack was loved by everybody. He was the romance of Cook Strait. His haunts were, within well-defined limits at the approach to and within the Pelorus Sounds, from which Jack got his name. So far as it is known, he was never seen at the opposite side of the Strait. Jack's name and fame spread throughout the maritime world, and like other fish stories Jack and his escapades became distorted; but in whatever form it came up our Pelorus friend was ever a popular hero. He disappeared in the end, but no one knows how or why. In his book of experiences at sea Commander G. J. Whitfield, of the Union Castle Line, makes reference to Pelorus* Jack. To New Zealanders the commander's version must be amusing. "Every sailor," he writes, "has heard of 'Pelorus Jack,' the pilot shark of New Zealand. We called at Wellington on our war voyage , around the world, and no story of the port would be complete without a mention of this fish. On my present voyage at dinner the other, night the story cropped up, and hardly a voyage passes without some passenger asking me if the yarn is true. Personally, I never saw the fish, but the old pilots of Wellington

have told me that the story is true in every detail. The yam goes that Pelorus Jack, a monster tiger shark, used to swim about the mouth of the channel leading into Wellington Harbour waiting for ships to approach. Immediately he saw a vessel he would hasten to meet it and, swimming a few yards in front of the ship, just below the 'surface of: the water, he -would pilot it safely into the harbour. When the ship berthed he would demand his dues, and generally received a lump of beef or pork in payment. His end was supposed to have caused an uproar in the Antipodes, for he was shot by the captain of a Swedish vessel who was ignorant of the, shark's reputation!"