Untitled

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12488, 15 March 1909, Page 4

A desperate tug-of-war between four men and an octopus took place the other day in the Lower Harbour, says the Dunedin "Star." One of the men on the suction dredge was taking soundings as the vessel steamed across to deposit a" load of spoil from the new cut into the old channel close bo the Kaik beach. At one cast of the lead sonic difficulty was experienced in pulling it to the surface, but the leadsman thought only of floating seaweed until he found that the lead resisted his efforts to pull it on board. Looking over the side he saw that a large octopus had entwined two of its arms round the lead and line>and with its other tentacles was clinging to the side of the vessel. Another man camo to the assistance of the leadsman, but the united efforts of the two men failed to drag the lead and line from the embrace of the octopus. Two more dredge hands came alongside and fastened a boathook into the body of the octopus, but the combined efforts of the four men were unequal to the task of pulling it bodily up the ship's side or getting the lead line clear. It was nard for four men on

deck to acknowledge defeat by an octopus down at the water line. There followed a determined onslaught. that resolved itself into a life and death struggle for the octopus, but, despite the iron hook digging into its vitals, the tentacles retained hold of the line and of vessel's side. Suddenly the boathook came' tiway from the writhing mass — »he iron hook, half an inch in diameter, had snapped — the tentacles released their Jbold, arid the octopus quickly disappeared under the bottom of the. dredge. . The men on the dredge estimated the arms of the octopus to be about 9 feet long. ■ ,'