Morning journal and courier., 1881-08-04
Fishermen Among Sharks.
An Exciting Time oft in Prince's Bay
 Driven Home by Man Eaters.

An Exciting Time oft in Princes Bay
 Driven Home by Man Eaters.
 [From the Jersey City Evening JouruRLl
 Catching weakfish is fun when there are plenty of weakfsh, but whsn the sharks take - a hand in the game and give the fishermen 8 fight it is not always so amusing. Tuesday afternoon Mir. s. hemingway and MT. Kat tanstroth, Superintendent of the New York Bay Cemetery, went to Prince's Bay, Giford's station, on fishing venture. They went down at night, intending to go at daylight Wednesday morning, when the catch IS usually the best Let them tell their own story. They say
 We roughed it Tuesday night in the fisher mans shanty. Dick Fitzgerald made us con- fortable and at three o'clock in the morning we were up and dressed in a hurry, when Jolly Dick came in and said: HGintlemin, your coffee is now ready, want you to hur- ry off quick and get on the ground as soon as possible the wind is just right from the southwest; and, gintlemin, you will slaugh- ter them tod day if the sharks don't trouble you" We started for our boat As it was not yet daylight, we could not find the good fishing ground, and had to wait for daylight. We selected our ground and dropped anchor, and commenced work Weakfsh are plenty, run large, and bite well. We were having good time when large, black shark, regu- lar man eater, made his appearance. about fifty feet from our boat. Kattenstroth hook ed large weakfish and just as he was about raising the fish into the boat the shark made a dart and took the fish and part of his line away as fast hooked fish and were in the act of raising them, the sharks would make plunge and take our fish and parts or our lines After a while we looked around and could see number of sharks, man eaters, from eight to twelve feet long; still, the weakfish were plenty once in while we would be smarter than the sharks and get fish into our boat but the most exciting time. and when our courage weakened, WAS when Hemingway hooked large weakfish and was reeIing him in as fast as possible, Kattenstroth saw the shark go for fleming ways fish He dropped his pole, got hold of the line to bring the fish into the boat, and when he was in the act of
 lifting the fish two large sharks made dash, as if to see which would get the fish first. The fish were out of water some distance when the sharks made the dash. They seemed to come from different directions and made such plunge that they took our fish, struck our boat and nearly upset 1t, and it looked as if one shark was jealous of the other for getting the fish. At this time the water was as smooth as mirror. The sharks commenced to fight close to the boat; there must have been hundreds of sharks in the fipht:for acres around us the water was beaten and the waves rolled the boat trembled, and it looked as if the water was beaten into river of soapsuds. Every moment we ex- pected to be upset and have to take hand ourselves in the fight. Just then Katten- stroth sung out: "Hemingway, for Gods sake let us get out of this place and go home! I would give thousand dollars to be back at the cemetery" We slipped the anchor rope and pulled for the shore. Sharks were never known to be so plentiful in Princes Bay as this season.