IN THE ROYAL NAVY.

Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 21, 2 January 1907, Page 5

IN THE ROYAL NAVY.

If the shark, as a possible element of danger, is capable of exercising so potent an influence, what is to be said of him when present in person, and armed with a full-fledged appetite ? Even then pluck rises to the occasion and comes out triumphant. Witness the case of Thomas McDermott, boatswain of the Swallow. This cutter was cruising off the south end of Zanzibar Island one autumn day, when a boat was sent’ off to Uzi Island. Several of the men went ashore to cook supper, and the two left in charge thought the circumstances favourable enough for a bathe.

The boatswain was idly watching them, when he suddenly espied a large shark making Tor one of the men, and only a few feet away. For the glory of the English name, it is to be hoped that any t other sailor would have done what McDermott did then. There was no time to give an alarm ; there was time, in fact, for nothing except one desperate thing, and the boatswain was the man to do it. With a huge leap he sprang right across the shark and dropped with a terrific splash in the water almost on the top of the fierce monster. The sudden noise a--1 armed it. With a rush it shot away and before it had time to realise the truth the men were all safe in the boat. This is one of those shark stories which sound extravagant enough for elementary fiction, but. it is gospel truth, and if after reading it anyone is mad enough to say that British pluck is a forgotten quantity, he deserves as bad a fright as the brave boatswain administered to the baffled sea tiger.