'“PELORUS JACK.”

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 144147, 17 July 1913, Page 6

'“PELORUS JACK.”

A VERY TALL STORY. ' The Now York Times, of April 6, has a tall story about Pelorus Jack, written in that racy and picturesque manner which is bound to carry conviction. The following is the article, which, by the way, is headed “Pelorus Jack Very “Dr. Arthur Bruce I/nrland, of Hobart, Tasmania, who sailed for London yesterday, said that when he left homo six weeks ago Pelorus Jack, the famous pilot fish in Cook’s Straits, who has guided ships through French Pass for thirty odd years, was getting very weak and might pass away at any time now. “When 1 went through tho Pass about threa months ago on one of the ‘White Star steamships,” he said, “old Pelorus Jack came off to us, accompanied by Herbert, the shovel-nosed grampus ‘ho has been training to succeed him as pilot. Tho sporty old fish wigwagged feebly with his tail to the captain on the bridge, atid then slowly made for the shore, leaving his pupil in charge. . “I heard tho report of tho naval surgeon at Wellington that Pelorus Jack was suffering from hay fever, but from what I can judge of the symptoms given in the diagnosis it is more likely to be noutritis and lumbago. “Of course Herbert can do tho work idl right, as far as the piloting of tho steamers through French Pass is concerned, but he is not so refined as Polorus Jack by any moans. If a captain was cautious and somewhat slow in following the old pilot through the narrows. Jack would go astern with his tail like a propeller and wait for the steamer to como ahead again, but; Herbert just blows three spouts of water as a signal to the captain and then goes ahead full speed, not caring whether the ship is following him or not. Pelorus Jack was certainly tho most gentlemanly fish I have ever met, and I am afraid that we shall never see his like again in Australian or New Zealand waters, now that we have a Commonwealth, Government. Ho is the last of the finny aristocracy of tho Antipodes.”