TOLD BY THE MARINES.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume V, Issue 1360, 22 June 1918, Page 12

TOLD BY THE MARINES.

TWO TALL SHARK STORIES. On Tuesday night, while the Ktni was on her way from Westport to Lyttelton, she encountered a heavy sen when off Capo Farewell, and unaccountably lost her now log, consisting of clock, rotator, and 100 feet of line with fin attached, the whole apparatus being valued at about £2O. It was surmised by some of the crew that a shark might have snapped at the bright object rushing through the water. The fin, as it is termed by mariners, would measure, perhaps, some 14 inches in length, by about five inches in diameter; and its brilliancy would render it an alluring mouthful for a shark. As most nautical men are aware, the bait generally used by fishermen for bonita ami dolphin, is some bright metallic article, or even a coloured rag which envelopes the hook. At the same time, fish of' the shark species are not as n rule over fastidious in their choice of dietary, for, as they follow a ship, almost any old thing "chucked'' overboard will be unscrupulously gulped. A well-known sea captain now in port "-.*piits a vain'' that sonic years ago. when he was -on the barque Gainsborough, he saw a slunk which was following the barque off the Cape of Good Hope swallow several pairs of old boots that were Hung singly overboard by the ship's cook. At length, just out of curiosity, to test the monster's "carrying capacity,'' the cook procured ;; redhot brick, which he wrapped [\\< in sonic non-inflammable material, smearing the outside with grease. The brick lirtd scarcely touched the water when ii was swallowed by the shark, but the morsel soon proved to be anything hut pain table. The victim bounded' frantically several feet oul of the water, plunged and leaped all ately in its agony, and in a very short time, to the no small gratification of the cook, was j.l'i silently astern, llonting belly upwards.