FEEDING GOLD TO A SHARK. Forty-five Thousand Dollars for inactivity.

Otago Witness, Issue 2203, 21 May 1896, Page 50

FEEDING GOLD TO A SHARK. Forty-five Thousand Dollars for inactivity.

Inactivity.. "1 snppoee," quoth James T. Gaulin, of Winchester, Mass,, who was tatting on tbe hotel verandah, " tbat I bad the honour of billing the most, valuable fish that ever swam the seas. I did it single-handed, too. I aver that this fish was worth more at the time of its death than the finest sperm whale that was ever harpooned, although we should really leave whales out of the question when speaking of fish. It was 30 years ago, and I was young and foolish enough to be a deeplea diver. Oar diving schooner aed crew bad been sent to Cuba to try to recovei some Stuff from a Spanish boat that had foundered off the coast of Cuba, just where I floo't bow recollect. ■ It vu quite a long trip

crawl out of the hole, whea I remembered j that it might hazard thn air-pipe, so I was | pulled up and Ist down again over the , vessel's side. ,_I was disappointed not to find any indication "of^the gold near the hole in the Bchooner, but set to work diggiDg resolutely in the sand. I bad gone a foot down when 1 struck the gold pieces all in a lamp. I picked out a great handful and tnrned the light on them, for I was a lover of gold then, even though it did not belong to me. "Just then I saw something that made the rubber helmet rise from'my head. It. was a ! man-eating shark. I hadn't thonght of one for bo loDg that I had neglected to bring my knife. It was rushing at me. The stupid creature never stopped to consider that with a rubber and lead dressing a diver makes a poor lunch. 1 was kueeling beside the gold. An the shark's onslaught I naturally huug to i the handful of gold as though to use it as a weapon. He turned on his side, opening his horrible mouth. A feeling of grim humour had come over me. The cruel gold bugs had sent me down here to be devoured, after saving thousands of dollars for them. I would be a spendthrift at the last. So with all my ', force I flung the handful of coins into the yawning mouth. " The shark must have thought it was a part of me, for he snapped his jaws over the golden morsel. lam satisfied that he broke some teeth. He Bwam back a little and then rushed at me again. I bad no weapon but the gold, so again I flung into the hideous maw enough to buy me a home in New England. I saw him snap and swallow it. Again and again was tha attack repeated, and as often did I burl gold into ihe shark'a throat. Pretty soon he became dizzy, as it were,' for the gold bad unbalanced him, settling in the forward part, of his body. Then he writhed, in agony, and I had to keep dodging his flurry. Then, with one terrible shudder, he sank to the bottom, weighted down by the gold. I tied a line about him, and then gave the signal to be pulled up. Then I helped to hoist the shark. We cat

for 00, and as tbe> employment of a diving outfit was an expensive thicg in those days, the boys knew that there mast be something pretty valuable in the hold of the wreck. I was quite close to our skipper, and he told me that there were several boxes oE gold coin in the wreck. On our arrival at the pork near where the wreck lay in 30ft of water, the agent of the owners of the sunken schooner told ns I something more surprising. It was that the gold had not been stowed in boxes in the cabin, as was usual, bat for some reason bad been bagged and placed in the bold, beingbilled as copper washers. This was probably a scheme to avoid any chance of the spirit of cupidity arising in the crew, for the treasure was very great, "As the confidential man, I was selected to go down first and find the money-bags, attach lines to them, and bave them taken out before the other divers should proceed with the work of taking out the other freight that the water had not harmed. I was soon in the bold, and was surprised to find that the bags were only a little distance from the hole in the side that had caused the schooner to founder. I had been told that there would be 12 bags, bub I could lay my hands on but 11 of them. Finally I spied a torn bag lying near the hole in the hull, and on picking it up discovered that It contained a few gold coins. I decided that the triple Backing had been torn open some way or other when the schooner sank. I fastened lines about the 11 bags that were intact, and bad them hoisted, afterward going up for air, for our apparatus was not very good. In a few- minutes I returned to the hold to j search for the scattered coins. Very few of ■ them were in sight. It occurred to me that ! they might have been washed outside the | boat, judging from the position of the wreck, | and the fact that the hole was far down towards the ship's bottom. I was about to

him open. Gentlemen, yon must take the word of an ex diver that there was 45,000d0l in him. Gold had killed him." Silence spread itself all over the verandah. The pale moon slid behind a cloud. The amphitheatre organ slowly wove a weird chunk of melody. The chimes begun to ring. Noonespjke. There was nothing to say. They let the wondrous narrative of the financial shark melt like a sunset into memory. — Baffalo Express.