TOWED BY A SHARK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19366, 24 July 1925, Page 3

TOWED BY A SHARK

FISHERMAN’S EXPERIENCE. RESCUED BY A STEAMER. SYDNEY, July in. Sharks on the Australian coast havo given the newspapers much “copy” with which to regale their readers, many of the stories being of tragic encounters between men and the monsters of the deep. But no story has been more thrilling and dramatic than that which befel a holidaying fisherman on the South Coast of New South Wales this week. Air Henry Read and his wife and family were staying at Sussex Inlet, about 140 miles south of Sydney, and shortly before noon on Monday he saw the fin o'f a large shark in the channel off the beach. He asked a local resident what chances there were of catching the shark, and although receiving a discouraging answer, Air Read decided to “have a go.” He pushed off in a rowing boat, with shark tackle. After about ten minutes waiting, the fin of a large, shark broke the surface of ,thc water near lhe boat. With salmon for bait, Air Road threw out his line and began to row, with the line trailing.

Tn five minutes there was a tremendous tug. The shark was hooked. As Air Read paid out the line, there was an upheaval in the water as the monster fought for freedom, and for a few seconds it seemed that it must break the lino, but the shark suddenly changed its tactics and headed out to sea. With the line made fast, Air Road held the boat’s head on the course taken by the shark. Past a beach and an island the boat sped. If the sea had been calm, the chase would have been merely exciting, but the sea was making fast, and big waves faced the little boat as it sped seaward in the wake of the shark. The manner in which the boat climbed the waves made the nowfrightened fisherman dizzy, but he still hoped to take the shark, and so kept the line attached to the boat. The mad face kept up for an hour and a-half. By then, Mr Read was feeling so ill. and his plight had become so serious, that he reluctantly cut the line.

He attempted to pull the boat back to shore, but he found that he could make no progress against lhe heavy sea. Help came unexpectedly, when the steamer Narani. bound to Sussex Inlet to load timber, came into sight as the boat was riding the crest of a wave. Hoisting a sweater on an oar, Air Read managed to attract the attention of the master, who manoeuvred his vessel to give, the rowing boat his lee-side, and hoisted the boat and Air Read aboard. He then steered to Sydney, as the seas were too heavy to allow him to enter Sussex Inlet. So ended an adventure for a “big-fish” sportsman which had given him the biggest thrills of all his long experience, and one, he hopes, that will never be repeated.