The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-03-08 00:00:00

SHARKS ON THE WEST COAST OF
AFRICA.

A correspondent (D.M.) in Land and Water says :
Sharks appear to be very odd creatures. Sometimes
they appear to be so voracious, and sometimes the re-
verse, and from what I have seen and heard of them
it does not follow that their indifferent fits result from
being satiated with food. On the West Coast of
Africa sharks of the same age appear in some cases to
herd together. I have seen a shoal of little sharks not
more than eighteen inches long, and I saw one of the
little fellows follow an old tin, that had been thrown
overboard, as far as I could see, biting at it. On
another occasion my attention was called to a shoal of
sharks that had been passing the ship for some time
before I saw them. They were swimming from two to
three fathoms under water, and were all apparently
the same size (about six feet long), and young
sharks. I watched them for about half an
hour, and how far they extended laterally
I cannot tell. We had a shark line and hook
towing astern baited with a 41b, piece of pork.
Several in whose track it was came and smelt it, but
none offered to take it. They were evidently on a
voyage, steering a course, and going about four knots
an hour; we were going about two knots. One day
two sharks about eight feet long came near the ship. I
In clear water we put over a shark hook and a 41b.
piece of pork. One of them, after playing about for
some time, took it. Now we have him, we said, and
began hauling in. He made a desperate struggle; but
just as we had him apparently all right, off he went
with everylcrap of the pork very cleverly. He never
could have been hooked, but must have held the pork
between his teeth, the hook lying flatways in his
mouth. Lagos is a very bad place for sharks, Woe
betide the man who is capsized an Lagos bar! It
used to be a great slaving port, and loads of dead
slaves were committed to the deep; so that, no doubt,
the sharks became familiarised with human food, but
there is no doubt th9.t the natives believe that
sharks are more dangerous in some parts than
others. When at Sierra Leone, a shark, judged to be
eighteen feet long, was seen near our ship; yet, I was
told, by undoubted authority, that a Frenchman at
one time was swimming about the harbour for a
couple of hours, and that an English naval officer,
now dead, had often jumped overboard from his boat
and swam on shore. On one occasion a coxswain of
one of our man•of-war's cutters tipped overboard near
St. Thomas's, West Coast of Africa, and before the
boat could pick him up there was nothing left but his
hat. At Fellah Coffee, West Coast of Africa, a most
plucky thing was done by a Krooman belonging to
one of our gunboats. The ship's company were
bathing overboard in a sail alongside; a Krooman
jumped out of the sail, and a large shark that pro-
bably had been watching under the sail soon had his
leg off. Another Krooman jumped overboard to his
assistance, and succeeded in getting him to the side of
the ship, where he was hauled on board. The shark
was all the time 897111102iDg about in an ext.ited
manner, as if he wanted another leg. The Krooman
died, of course, from hwmorrhage.