KILLED BY SHARK

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 50, 1 March 1937, Page 7

KILLED BY SHARK

NEWCASTLE SURFERS

VICIOUS ATTACKS

COMPANION'S GRAPHIC i STORY

(From "The Post's" Hepresentatiye.) SYDNEY, February ;18,

Jack Welsh, 32, an expert surfer, was attacked and killed, probably..: instantly, by a huge shark' at Bar Beach, Newcastle. Watchers'on the beach had seen the shark and,rung the.b;ell,~and Welsh's two companions sw.anifor'the beach, but Welsh was attacked before he could reach safety; ' The'shark-made two onslaughts, 6ft of it's body showing above'the water in the second attack.^-

A'graphic, story was told by Herbert Street, council' lifesaver,! who, with N: Atkins, was swimming almost alongside Welsh. "I,heard Welsh,say, 'Oh,'..very; faintly,"., said Street,.' "and .^turning round, I saw him half-way out of the water. His. legs and part of his body ,were projecting and his hand was •under the surface. Then I saw the shark. It leaped out of the water until about half of it was visible, and, then turning like a Catherine wheel, it dived at Welsh's legs which were disappearing under the water. That 5s the last we saw of Welsh. We knew that further search for him with the shark-cruising about was suicide,'-end together, Atkins .and I' made for the beach. We' got to, within fifty yards of the shore,- .where it • was possible to stand up,.''when we' saw Noel Smith, a member of the club, preparing to go out with' a'belt: -"Don't.try-it, 'Noel.' I said. 'It's useless...You'll.never get him that way,'-" '. /..'••■'■••' ■■':-...

Atkins, who felt something that' was either a graze from the shark or- a surge from its powerful' movements, and Street swam ashore" and warned would-be rescuers that it , would be dangerous and useless to take a Sine to the of the attack. '" A few minutes later Welsh's body, came to the surface near the shore. Street and another man waded in and carried it to the beach.' ■■ It was- terribly'- mauled. a ßbth ' legs had ■ been ' terribly' gashed "above the knees, arid Welsh was undoubtedly dead when taken from the water. • ■ . - ;

"It's a fine day for sharks," Welsh had jokingly said to a girl "whom ~he met while on his way'to the-beach. But for the roughness of the surf he would not have been swimming at Bar Beach. He vyas to have been an official'at a'championship carnival at another beach,'but the carnival was posfc. poned because the weather was unsatisfactory.'-' 'Welsh suggested to A.; MeRae, .then,'that they might as well; go to Bar Beach "for a swim. "T won't'go in if, there are any bluebottles," he said. There were no bluebottles,, and Mcßae ; and. Welsh ' swam; out. The point at which Welsh wafe attacked: was in open ■ water,1 about 12ft deep on the seaward side':1 of .a submerged reef. When-Welsh and Mcßae entered the water the tide-.was-low, and'they had to go more than ordinary distance' for. a.shoot. The sky was so overcast and the wind so keen that there were fewer than a dozen, people in the' surf. They included Street,/ Atkins, and R. Newbiggin, the national, junipr-sprint swimming champion. Newbiggin.caught a shoot from almost the exact point' at which the shark attacked Welsh. Welsh said, to Mcßae: "I think-well catch the next shoot in, Mac." Mcßae agreed arid caught the shoot. Welsh missed it and kept on swimming near Street and Atkins. Almost immediately the shark made its first attack. '