MAN-EATING SHARK

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11163, 20 March 1922, Page 6

MAN-EATING SHARK

ANOTHER GBOGEE HORROR YOUTH TORN FROM MONSTER’S MOUTH. ■ DESPERATE FIGHT FOR LIFE. SYDNEY, March 3. Lurking in the breakers at Coogee is a prowling horror—a man-eating shark ivhich has now tasted the blood of two unfortunate youths. Coogee beach was the scene yesterday morning ''of another appalling shark tragedy, and once again, despite the paralysing horror of the scene, an onlooker arose to the occasion, and a very gallant rescue was performed. It was about 11 o’clock that the tuonstcr made its appearance, and within a few moments one of the surfers, again a young man, Mervyn Gannon, of Belmore road. Coogee, had been mutilated by a brute’s vicious jaws. Gannon was not far out; he was standing waist deep in the water, some fifteen or twenty yards from the shore, when the shark came at him like a flash through the water. He saw it apparently just as it reached him, and turned involuntarily towards it to fight for his life. One terrible snap of its teeth, and the man’s hand had heen torn off at the wrist, and only the bleeding stumps remained of the fingers of his left hand. He struggled a few yards, and fell forward on his face.

Like lightning the shark was upon him again. Great gashes were torn in his back, and the Bhark then, in a single bite, tore away the whole of one buttock and madesfc gaping wound in the other.

It was then, while the shark was tearing at the helpless, mutilated man, that Jack Brown, the life-saver employed by the Randwick Council, dashed through the terrified watchers on the beach and plunged through the surf to Gannon’s aid. FROM SHAI&’S JAWS. He seized him by the shoulders, and with a. mighty effort pulled him from the very jaws of the attacker. The shark, disappointed of its prey, turned and shot away towards the open sea. Ernest Carr, who had heen surfing there, then came to Brown’siassistance, and between them they carried Gannon, still conscious, though the blood which had flowed from his awful wounds was staining the surf crimson for /'yards around, to the beach, where willing hands were waiting to tender aid.

The wounds were dressed as well as could be, and the Eastern Suburbs Ambulance, raced the injured man to the St. Vincent’s Hospital, where he wen admitted 4a a very critical conditiofi.

GANNON REMAINS CONSCIOUS. Suffering awful agony, weak and helpless os he was from loss of blood, Gannon was keenly conscious of every detail of his experience. “I think I must have stood on the shark,’’ he told Constable Williams, who accompanied him in the ambulance, to tbe hospital. His view, however, is in direct contradiction to the story of eye-witneeses who saw the shark some yards from Gannon, as TE flashed towards him. No more adequate conception of Brown’s amazing bravery can he obtained than in his own simple, unassuming story of the affair, told shortly after his great adventure. “JACK” BROWN’S STORY. “I have been uneasy ever since young ‘Mick’ Coughlan was taken, fully expecting the shark to come back,” Be said. “I was standing on the steps watching the email crowd surfing in the channel at the centre of the beach, when a big black fin showed up not more than ten yards out.

“Rushing down to the water, I saw a sight that curdled my blood. “One of the surfers Was being attacked. He hit out at the water With one hand, and a spurt of Wood showed what had happened. He hit with the other, warding the shark off, and his other hand had disappeared in the crimsoned water.

“He then took a small shoot, which Carried him two yards towards the Chore. As he did so, the Bhark followed, turned l over on his side, ’ and bit dean through one of his buttocks and laid the other open. i “I reached him and, gripping him. pulled him towards the shore. The shark flicked' his tail, catching me on the side, and disappeared. “ ‘Snowy’ Carr was by this time near -me, and taking the hoy’s arms, we lifted him to the -beach.

“He was th e ga m eat man I havo ever seen,” said Brown, speaking of Gannon. “He didn’t give a murmur, though he was conscious all the time end. suffering horrible agony. "The ambulance men were quickly on the spot, and he held up both his arms, which were spurting Wood, for them to fix up.” Eye-witnesses of the terrible incident say it appeared to them that Brown and Carr actually had hold of Gannon ■when the shark made his third ferocious attack on the lad’s hack. AN AUDACIOUS ATTACK. 'ln thte view of oldi surfers, this was the most impudent shark attack ever known on a Sydney surfing beach. Gannon, when attacked, was not recklessly inviting his death out beyond the breakers, but was content to. stay •where the most cautious bather would feel safe. There were some twenty or thirty other persons in the water at the same time, and he was not by any means the farthest out, though on the outside of the little group. The consensus of opinion among the Coogeo fishermen is. that this was the wtme shark which killed young Coughlan only four weeks ago. “They tsi6te Wood once and they wait and Wait around the same place until they get another opportunity,’ ’ said one man. “He has heen cruising about the beach ever since, watdhing and Waiting, and this was his chance.” SURFING BARRED. Consequent upon the attack of Mervyu Gannon by a shark, and his subsequent gallant rescuo by Jack Brown, all surf-bathing on Ooogee -beach was prohibited for the rest of the day.

WHERE THE TRAGEDY OCCURRED

When Milton Coughlan was taken by a shark a month ago he was bathing in comparatively deep water in a channel at the southern end of the beach near the Coogee surf sheds. Since that tragic occurrence bathing has been restricted to the centre of the bead), and it was there, while standing in only about four feet of water, that Gannon was attacked. The surf sheds are directly in front of tho spot. (Gannon subsequently succumbed to his frightful injuries.) I