The Biography of a Maneater.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 15, 13 April 1910, Page 42

The Biography of a Maneater.

(By

CHARLES F. HOLDER

IT was down on the Pagos reef, where the green melts suddenly into seas of turquoise, that the man-eater first saw light. He was born amid scenes of blood and sudden death; ushered into the world amid pitiless attack, and saved, of all the hellish brood, by the swirl of 'waters, the uplifted sand cloud, caused 'by savage kinsmen in their ruthless charge and cannibalistic feast. His first act was a drama in the struggle for existence. There was no one to teach him how to swim, to breathe, to eee, and instinct, that inheritance of the ages, bade him lie limp and motionless. Being of the same colour as the sandy bottom, a livid tavyny gray, he crouched, and was buried by the -shroud o'f falling particles as they sifted down through the green and opalescent water. He wa« about, one foot in length, lank, plialble, soft and tender. He did not have si bone in his body, indeed never had; he was an emibryo killing machine of gristle, with just the suggestion of sharp teeth around his jaws. For hours he lay, a mound on the sand, resting easily on his big pad-like pectoral tins and tail that fell over upon his side: then a.s darkness camo, he moved restlessly, flung his tail to one side, and was surprised to find that ha shot forward ami found himself in midwater. He could move, was buoyant; then fear came again, and alarmed at his exposed position, afraid of he knew not what, he swung the limp 'tail, shot ahead and ran blindly beneath the edge of a •wall of projecting branch eoral which formed a elu-val de frise to the eiiannel. No more fortunate position could hava been selected: indeed, it was prophetic <rf the good luck which followed the maneater all his life. The jagged points of the coral were go manv bayonets over his recumbent body. TTe had found a snug harbour, land that it was safe was evident by the •numbers of crayfish which occupied a similar position along the line, brandishing their serrated whips ami assuming nii air of hostility and bravery which was the merest presumption. As night came on the young shark shifted From side Io side, working the naml out so that he could lie with ease, gradually forming a nest in the soft Fund the shape of his yielding body. His eyes, which were of the exact shade of li'i-s skin, but spotted with black, now befan to t ike in objects near al hand. He was terrified at the strange sights, which, as tile darkness deepened. flashed and scintilla ted in every direction: now as rial like objects, again as comets pulsatwirg on through the water with a fiery train: and as large fishes surged by. the entire mass of water -blazed with such a golden radiance that the young maneater tell back against the coral of his den trembling and quivering with fear. The verv bottom of the sea was paved with wonders. Small animals bored their way upward through the sand emitting a i-park of light, which grew and expanded, out of which darted a firebody -which made its undulating way to the purfaie. There were strange noises—crashing, tumbling concussions now and then, which shook the ledge, and ever and anon the water about him moved and the delicate lirelike jelly fishes seemed to sway to one side. It was a night r>f terror to I lie young shark, thrust into the world defenceless and half made up. All night lie lay quietly, now’ and tigain prodded by the serrated spine of an inquisitive erayliish, while once a. uprawling many armed octopus crossed fiver him a nerve-raeking sensation —as this infant man eater had nerves, nnd realized it until he was six feet in length, when they gradually became obliterated. In time the light of day <ame, ami Im observed that tho water over him was much lower than it had been: it had dropped away, as it were, and then, seeing that Im was partly covered by sand, he fell asleep, and di*

not awaken for some hours, when he saw that the water over him was deeper, that in some way it had risen. He now began to feel like trying his tail again, and the sandy plain being clear, he twisted about, flinging his tail boldly to one side, and rose high into the clear spot, so high, indeed, that he became alarmed as the field of vision opened up, and ducking his head, swung the remarkable tail from side to side and plunged down, so rapidly that he ran his head into the sand and lay there, frightened and dazed. But the motion was too delightful to resist, and again he gave the long swing and rose upward, then allowing himself to drop he found that he was balanced to such a nicety that when he moved his tail he sped directly ahead, and so fell into a swing from side to side, and moved on and on. The white sand led gradually upward with coral on all sides, and as he wandered on, he observed that the smaller inhabitants of the place fled from him. He suddenly- came upon a very high and beautifully-coloured fish twice liis own

size, and was about to drop to the bottom and hide, when he was amazed to see the angel-fish dart away. Then, for the first time there crept into the maneater’s brain the idea that he was a power, that for some reason he was dreaded and feared, and at once his side swing became a swagger, and he shot through the water with such rapidity that he rose up the side of the sandy slope and eame into a region of delights, his home or ranging ground for many a •lay. He felt the water moving over him in waves. He could see that it was now and then breaking, forming a foam that was hurled downward with such force that the water all about him was filled with minute globules or particles which, when he breathed, seemed to fill him with new life and vigour. His gills opened and shut rapidly, and with difficulty he restrained the desire to surge ahead at full speed and test his powers. He was now moving over great coral heads tinted with olive and dotted and spangled over their surfaces with brilliant, flowerlike objects. On every side were gorgeous plumes waving to and fro, some in brown, some in yellow, while elumps of reticulated fans of vivid yellow and lavender added to the brilliancy of the scene. Amid these objects were countless small fishes, all in radiant colours. Lying on the sand were long brown

shapes, like worms, and blooming from every crevice were flowerlike anemones, their petals moving gracefully in tidal measure. The sea floor over which the young man-eater swam was set with a mosaic of algae: masses of scarlet, blocks of tender green, bits of blue, yellow and white, every dead coral rock, every vantage ground being painted in splendid

But the man-eater saw none of these. He swam heavily on until, exhausted, he fell into the friendly vaselike shape of a huge head of coral, and lay panting beneath a great lavender-hued gorgonin. For two days he was caged there, not having the strength or intelligence to rise upward and escape. On the second day a young crayfish fell upon his head, and instinctively the jaws of the young man-eater opened and closed upon the victim. A crunching sound, and the shark, tasting flesh, scenting prey, swung himself about, shaking the morsel as a. dog would a rat, tossing the mud high, above the surface of the head, clouding the water, out of which he rose. He had eaten, tasted blood, though white, and from now on his one object was to destroy.

For several months he lived this life, slowly making his way over the splendid tropical floor of the ocean, sleeping at times in the crevices of rocks, or between coral heads, or under them, foraging where he could, darting clumsily upon octopi, crabs, even starfishes, or any miserable creature which could offer no resistance, thus early in life displaying his sordid nature. The young shark never left the shallows, and at the end of a year, nurtured on good diet, had materially enlarged. He was now three feet in length; his tail long and powerful, his body noticeably bulky. But the greatest change was in the mouth. The first row of teeth were well defined, sharp and serrated. The eye was a little larger, but still the colour of sandpaper, with no expression. He had begun to change his diet. He discovered that crayfish and other crustaceans went out on the shallow flats at night to feed, and that rays came there to hunt them; so one night, instead

•f coiling up in a coral head, the maneater, following a little channel through the reef at high tide, swam across a lagoon of sand overgrown by short seaiweed. Concha were lumbering along on this grassy floor, and in the submarine 'herbage were big yellow crayfish, tough and dangerous.

Suddenly there came floating along a ray with its birdlike motion. As it drew near, the shark rushed blindly upon it and by sheer bulldog ferocity seized and held it. The ray doubled, lashed the enemy with its whiplike tail, then doubled and flung its sharp serrated epines against the shark, inflicting a wound that was followed by a pink cloud that slowly permeated the water. The bead-like expressionless eyes of the maneater turned inward almost out of sight, but in no way did ho exhibit pain; he held on, gripping harder, scenting the blood fiercely, tasting the flesh of his victim. When the ray became passive he swung it, gripped it again, and bearing down upon it, tore and lacerated it, striking down the weed with powerful blows of his tail, sending the crayfishes dashing across the submarine mesa. Engaged in this fierce attack, the man-eater was suddenly struck, knocked aside by a sand-shark twice his size; but he circled about with savage menace, retreating only when fairly put to flight by his opponent. Every night now he foraged, learning that nearly all animals feed at night in this land of plenty.

du all his wanderings the man-eater never exhibited any interest in a certain locality; he never returned to the same jflace twice. He had no sense of location, no mental action that gave him an interest in a locality sufficient to produce a desire to return, no memory beyond that which blood produced. He slept or rested when he grew weary, and often swam continuously- for days; at .times at the surface, when his fin would make broad showing above the water, .cutting it like .a knife. He swam on, Eternally on, but generally in a circle— Sin instinctive movement, which kept him near the lagoon. At the end of three years the maneater was six feet in length. He had increased prodigiously in bulk, and was especially heavy just behind the head •which was enormous am l threatening. SVhen his jaws gaped, as they sometimes did, to throw out some parasite, an (array of teeth would be seen, the front row upright, pure white, larger than a mail’s thumb-nail and perfect triangles, itheir edges like saws. Back of these were ten or twelve rows of similar teeth lying flat in the mouth, unsuspected, but called into action when blood was lasted and some victim attempteif to escape; then all these fierce knives isprang erect and sank into the flesh of the enemy, making escape impossible. The shark had changed in many essentials. He was lighter in colour, nearly jvhite beneath; the upper lobe of the tail was longer, lithe ami capable of remarkable power; but the eyes now appeared smaller, and were, if anything, more inexpressive, and gray. The moijtion was dignified, yet there was the Mme peculiar swing given by the tail, and when he wished to turn, the massive head was jerked slightly in the given direction and the tail swung to moot it. lie had now several boon companions.

Three or four remoras had joined partnership with him, fishes about a foot in length, black, with a peculiar sucker on the top of the head. When weary of following the shark they merely attached themselves by the sucker to his back and. were towed along. The others were several little striped pilot fishes, which hid beneath the shark’s head. They were very curious and darted out at every strange object that appeared

The man-eater a>t this time had developed a remarkable power of scent. z\. dead animal half a mile away could be traced up the wind or current with marvellous quickness and fidelity. His plan when a scent was found was to beat up against it like a ship against the wind, swimming with great rapidity, turning the instant it was lost; and as this war always on the surface, with his big dorsal fin out of water, he was not a pleasing sight to men in a boat who had left their fish hanging overboard. The spectacle of a shark of extraordinary bulk darting about in so erratic a manner was taken by some as menacing, and they resented it in various wavs.

All this time the man-eater had remained in one general section, not straying beyond a radius of five miles, but as years passed he became a wanderer, and when about fifteen feet, or more, in length, like a very ghost compared to the nurse sharks he once slept near in the lagoon, he left shallow water and took to the open sea. It was about

this period that the shark became a public character. He began to swim up and down the reef, taking as his route that of many of the coast steamer*. It is not to be supposed that lie had gained any idea of locality. He haunted this region merely because he had certain limitations. He swam north until the water lost the temperature "which suited his nature best, and to the south until it grew too warm. A certain skipper of a steamer which sailed from a northern port sighted the shark early in 1861 oil’ Carysfoot Light, the shark following the steamer for several hours, his dorsal fin high above water, crossing and re crossing the steamer’s wake in a peculiarly rapid manner. For three consecutive trips the shark was observed, and then one. of the passengers fired at him, cutting a notch out of his dorsal fin, by which the shark was known for years, nearly always being sighted in a fifteen-mile tuu from (’ape Florida to Havana. The shark was named ‘Old Bill,” and there was not a superstitious sailor on the run who had not taken a shot at him or attempted to capture him. The man-enter could not be induced to take a baited hook, and it was believed by many of the men that he followed the vessel waiting for a wreck; and when a certain ship disappeared in a hurricane ami went down with all on board in the Florida straits, it was said that ‘’Old Bill” went down with her. In any event, he disappeared for months. He was now eighteen feet long, of enormous bulk. He rarely went north of Hatteras and then only in summer, when he followed the shad schools north, making the turn at Long Island »in lune and the coast of Maine some time later in Rummer. His habits had changed, 110 preyed upon dead animals, ami became a scavenger, and would follow a cattle ship half way acrons the ocean to feed

upon a dead steer. He appeared to be too heavy to run down a horse mackerel, and then smaller fishes evaded him altogether, though occasionally he found a school of mackerel surrounded by a net and would dash into them, crazed by the scent of blood and slime, and gorge himself with them. He was utterly insensible to pain, as ■while entangled in a net he was lanced several film's by an infuriated fisherman; but the men noticed that he did not stop eating, paying no attention to the wounds; and when his size was seen, the skipper ordered the men aboard the Fchooner. On another occasion when entangled in a net near Gloucester, five miles of! shore, he destroyed it, rolling over and over, biting the net, tearing it into countless pieces. A dory man attacked him with a harpoon upon which he turned savagely, gripped the cutwater in his teeth, nearly crushing it and lifting the boat several feet. The men pulled off at a glimpse of his size, and the next day some of his teeth were found in the planking. One summer he came up the coast searching for some cattle steamer, 'but finding none he swam on, and attracted by the fishing boats, followed several. Food was scarce. Horse mackerel eluded him. One day he ate a huge jelly fish in desperation, and next seized and rent a mass of kelp in which a dead fish was wound, which brought on a frenzy

for food and blood. A schooner was fishing near by, and as the men hauled up fish, he would take them off, carrying away the lines and tilling his mouth with hooks, to which he paid little attention. Finally the fishing stopped, and he came to the surface some distance off and seeing a dory anchored, swam up to it, then circled around it. His appearance must have terrified the man, for he grasped an oar and struck at the shark shouting for help. It was said later that the shark deliberately tried to tip over the boat by rising beneath it; but it is an historical fact that over a dozen men and women on the schooner saw lhe maneater rush at the dory, rise over it amidships, saw the unfortunate man waving his arms, then saw him strike at the shark with the oar; but the man eater fell partly on the dory, crushing it down, and then both disappeared. This incident occurred off Nahant, ami for several summers the shark haunted the New England coast and the Gulf of Maine. He repeatedly attempted to capsize boats oft Boon Island, and terrorised the dory cod fishermen and others by rising beneath them and swimming about their boats, lhe “Big Shark,” under which alias he was known, is still remembered by the old fishermen of the coast. I'he shark had (‘arm'd his title of “man-eater” beyond question, and hi- nature changed with the acquirement. Though starving at times he haunted vessels, paying little attention to the large migrating schools of fi-h which most sharks follow up and down the coast. In his -<»ggy, brutal min I he associated ships and this new game, and the small grey eyes had learned to distinguish between the animate an 1 inanimate parts of a vessel; a floating, rippling flag over the stern of a propeller did not deceive or attract, but men who were hanging in the chains or over Lho

rail painting or scraping ship sometime* saw a strange but mighty shadow below them and-crawl aboard, terror stricken, with an undefined fear. lhe man-eater had at one time been quick of motion, a swift hunter. Ife had learned the tricks and customs of the fishes. He knew when the bluefish hordes, the millions of shad came in from the deep submerged submarine plateau upon which they wintered, and with others he had followed them, lurking about the mouths of rivers, often creeping in. devouring other sharks or eating the hundreds of shad in nets. He lurked about the gulf-coast islands for some time and laid in wait for the silver king, the tarpon that came up from the South American coast in February, and he soon learned to watch until a fisherman had hooked a tarpon, ami more than one will recall feeling a sudden strain and seeing a huge white-bellied figure rise five feet with the tarpon quivering in his maw. Again, he followed the horse mackerel in the spring, lurching along far beneath them, yet keen on their scent, following the ptvuliar oily exudations from their scales which followed them for miles, as a hound would a fresh trail, making rushes at night and often running a school inshore, losi.v* them on the sands where the fisbermcr lanced them and wondered why thoy came ashore. This and more the great shark bad done, but now his enormous bulk, his slow movements suggested a different life; the huge creature had reached t’he demoniacal climax of his development, 110 had fourteen or more rows of white, serrated, knifelike teeth; h« movtd with great deliberation, and was apparently incapable of rapid movement; but this was not altogether true, th* shark was really a type of activity. He could dart ahead or from side to side, or turn upon his side with matchless grace, but •he rarely did; he now ploughed slowly along searching for the objects which suggested the game of his choice. It was this change' of hibit that made the great white man-eater an ocean wanderer. He avoided the shore and attached himself to a large ship which sailed from Boston to Liverpool, trailed it, like a hound on the scent, for days. Laid by it in storms and calms, and every bucket of refuse thrown over brought the man-eater up from astern wtih a rush. He finally lost the trail of this ship in chasing something she threw over, and was 1000 miles or more at sea. lie swam in every direction hoping to pick up her scent or wake; now madly, again swimming slowly. He dived down a quarter of a mile, searching for the bottom which was three miles beyond, but. was driven up by the cold, to swim along tin* surface on calm days. The marvellous turquoise tint- of the ocean’s heart, its splendid virile life, its strength, its ponderous movements, its silvery tracery, the frosting of the sea as it broke, made no impression upon his sodden brain. ’l’he wonderful illumination of the sea at night, its real comets and constellations of vivid phosphorescence. were not seen by him as he moved along. It mattered little to this blood hunter that the ocean was a realm of beaut ies, that each crystal drop was buoyant with life and countless lovely forms. He failed to note the splendours of the huge jellies whose tentacles of living lace brushed over him in a cloud of colour—lavender, blue and pink -all were unseen by this incarnate appetite without sensation or desire byond carnage. Swimming aimlessly along one day. the shark crossed a familiar scent. Several mother Cary’s thickens were fluttering over the surface after some substance foreign to the clear waters. At once the great bulk shot into action. It rushed across tin* line, caught the scent, lost it, turned savagely and caught it again, then dashed on into tin* wake of a great ship bound for Kio. For days he followed, now astern, again lurching along the quarter with one ugly eve cast upward; again sailing along tho surface, his big dorsal fin cutting the w at er. He was fired at ; hooks were tossed over baited with salt pork, but th<‘ man-eater paid no attention to them. Ho crossed the line with the ship, gi -w gaunt and ugly, and was forced to catch a porpoise or starve', so w<dl did the wind hold, and finally entered the harbour at Kio. and failed miserably in an attempt to capsize Ihe hunt of a pilot Meeting an outgoing steamer, th' man.eater trail* d it up the coast to Barba#, does. Hero In* found a small sailing ve* sel bound to th,' westward, and -n reached Aspinwall, in the Caribbean Sea. The water w:ls inL’i! 1\ h"l. and lie laid <»!>♦

in deep water, cooling his massive bulk, during the day, going inshore at night, Occasionally chasing the great rays whose leap from and return to the water sounded like the discharge of a cannon. One day the shark entered the harbour late in the afternoon and swam in the direction of the anchorage. The crew of one ship were in bathing. They had a topgallant sail overl»oard. and were swimming in it suspecting the presence of sharks. The man-eater swam Ixmeath and around it. and was seized with a frenzy at the scent that drifted away. He began to swim rapidly, first in one direction, then in another, then circling the ship about twenty feet below the surface, then rising. At this time one of the

sailors, more venturesome than the resr, swam out into the channel, and the shark catching the scent, swung its tail from side to side, ami darted upwards, baring its notched fin to the sunlight. ‘‘Ahoy there!” <-amc from the foretop. *Coine aboard!” The lookout did not utter the word ahark, but the swimmer turned ami •truck out. “Way third cutter!’’ rang out from the quartermaster. The boat struck the water with a naked men fell into her. ami. seizing the oars, gave way. Men never pulled like this before ; yet tin- man in the bow. boathook in hand, urged them on in God’s name. The swimmer was still twenty feet away when the shark shot ahead assuming a titanic shape. Ho turned plightly, though not upon his back, ami for a nrennd the man In the bow saw its ghastly form against the blue, then in a moment of horror realised that he was too late. The white shark with the notched flu

wag noticed at Aspinall several months later, where desperate efforts were made to capture him, then he attached himself to a northbound steamer, and followed her through the Straits of Florida, by Cuba, up the Bahama Banks, leaving her by a singular fatality where he was born, near Cary's Foot Light on the Florida coast. Here he was attracted by a fleet

of wreckers. He lingered here a few w’eeks, then dogged a tramp steamer to Bermuda, and one day went to sea on the trail of a British cruiser. But she was only going out for gun practice, and as the huge sullen brute came boldly to the surface and circled about the vessel, glaring at her with his beadlike eyes, the big lateenlike dorsal cutting the water, one of the

men asked permission to fire at him, and clever!} sent a ball through his gills. Then came the culmination in the career of this insatiate monster, wounded to (he death, but so insensible to injury that the scent of his own life blood reached his brain before the sense of pain, his first move being not alarm, but desire. Frenzied by the lust for blood, rapine and slaughter, the man-eater turned and dashed through the deep red cloud, and was rushing savagely from bide to side in search of himself, when a second shot cut tlu* soft spinal marrow. 'Hie great mass dropped inert. For the first time the powerful tail did not respoml : the huge lips gripped tightly, the rows of gleaming teeth stood erect for a moment, then the small expressionless ryes convulsively turned inward, the pilot Indies darted wildly about the dropping head and open gills, the black and white remoras were along his tawny sides hard and fast; the man-eater was dead. In one of the great British museums is the mounted and splendid specimen of

a shark. The length is given as 25ft, and the card attached to it states that it is an adult specimen of the white shark or man-eater, Carcharodon. It was donated by the officers of one of His Majesty’s ships. It is a perfect specimen of this rare shark, if we except the wound or notch on the dorsal fin.