Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1879-05-08
SHARKS.

SHARK 1fiag8H Dfttt&n Ship 81 oue "
more d her hands. White the vessel
= ii the harbor, Or riding in The ofiHg.
a man iun1hles overheard, or Is capsized
from I boat OF attempts to swim ashore,
and y sorn 10 pieces BY sharks within
laIs oI help sad sound Of human voice.
I'E s4firx unries. 81 Lixerpool. has
81 ss.rsset IA tlse NIef II s n hsf
Iok + duly recorded Z terrible cai-
astfophe os This kind. She was anchored
oil small river, known as the Pro5o-
lingo, on the coast OF Java, and one Of
her crew. q Welshman, of the name
Of Owen, went With four others TO
bathe. They were all good swim
mers, and Owen, who was the most
skiiful, had yentured some little dis
tanee from the vessel, when be was
suddenly heard to utter q piercing
shrek. A large shark, rising suddenly
from the bottom, had bitten him imme-
diately below the fifth rib, and literally
torn him to pieces. A rope was thrown to
him, but his Injuries were so terrible
that he Immediately sank. His COM
panions escaped uninjured, but Of Owens
body no trace was recovered. The
shark which attacked him was. We are
told, judged to be some fifteen feet in
length. Such dimensions, although
large, are yet rot unusual in the Java
nese seas.
The size Of the shark has been i'm
mensely exaggerated, but as 10 the dam
gerous nature of the creature there can
be no manner Of doubt. Ancient mari
ners are prone to long stories, which II
Is. their delIgh; to dress up and magnify.
Tales are told of sharks that have reached
thirty, thirty-five, forty, and even fifty
feet. We may take such measurements
for what they are worth. The white
shark, the most dangerous OF its kind,
is seldom more than ten or twelve feet
from head to tail. No shark that ever
get swan could bite a man in two, or
cut oi his leg.
The teeth Of the shark, no doubt, are
very terrible. They are arranged row
behind row. and the muscles OF the Jaw
are of enormous strength. But they are
fitted for rending and lacerating rather
than for cutting or severIng. Their ac-
ton is not that of the shears, but rather
OF the harrow or scarifer. A shark Of
ten feet, or even eight, VIII seize a man
by the thigh and strip the flesh from off
his leg down to the heel, or, with firm
grasp of the limb. and powerful twist
of its body in the water, may possibly
tear the leg out ofthe socket. Such an
injury, of course, is as instantly fatal as
il the assailant had cut its victim in
half. There is, indeed, no need TO ex-
aggerate the size OF the shark; for a
snail shark, il hungry, is practically as
dangerous as large one.
Any old fisherman knows that a dog
fish will attack cod or ling twice its
size, and, with five or six well-disected
bites, tear it 10 pieces. is thus that
shark deals with man. Following
him, and descending below him, it
rolls over, and mounting, With its jaws
uppermost, inflicts a wound sufficiently
deadly TO cause instant collapse. II is
the old story of the wolf attacking the
deer or the buffalo. Indeed, the high
ly-colored stories among sailors as to
the size, strength, and VoraciiY Of the
shark, do much 10 create a dangerous
sense Of security. When a ship is
swinging at anchor in the tropics, the
hands will think nothing Of venturiug
overheard for plunge, If such few
sharks as are seen about are little, if at
all bigger than men; or, late at night,
they will drop noisclessly over the side
and swim ashore. Their simple faith
Is that unless q shark be large enough TO
almost swallow a man whole, he Will
not attack him; while it is also part of
the forecastle creed that the shark sleeps
at night.
Many an English sailor has paid the
penalty OF his life for rashness of this
kind: and the ignorance current among
sailors Of the shark and It's habits -,
when we remembered how The brute
swarms in tropical seas, something al
most astonishing. The old story Of the
two pilot-fish which always accompany
the shark, and guide ham TO bis prey. is
still gravely repeated. and as gFavely
believed. IL is also an article OF nauti-
cal faith that the shark knows when
there is dying man on board of a ship,
and will follow the vessel for miles
guided BY some sinister and almost de-
moniacal instinct. As a matter Of TACT,
there are always pilol-f>h to be seen IN
the wake of a vessel, only that they are
not noticed unless a shark in their com
pany calls attention TO them; while a
shark will, for reasons Of bis own, In-
variably follow a vessel, whether there
be sick man on il or not
The shark is not so much the tiger as
the vulture of the sea. He is a cow
ardly, stupid. voracious fish, discharg-
ing the functions Of marine scayen-
ger. In the tropics he hangs round the
harbor mouth, gOrging himself on any
oifal that may come in bis way; and he
follows ships for much the same, snap
ping every 'suncon~idered trife" that
may be thrown overheard, from moul-
dy biscuit or piece Of pntrid pork 10
condemned jacket or q worn-cul pair Of
boots. Fa rff
Like the vuIture, he hesitates to
attack anything with life in IT: bot If
hungry becomes for the time possessed
By courage not hrs own. We shall
never exterminale him, and bis pres
ence IN tropical waters must always re-
maiR constant source of Danger
Meantime, he has at least this merit,