Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1881-08-18
LANDING A sWORDFIsH.
Communicative Skipper DiIares ON the
Fun of Catchingzin General.
. Now, then, all togetherl'

NOW, then, all tOgetherP
A swing on the peak halyard of trim
smack, and fourteen-foot swordfish
rose in the air and was skillfully low.
cred into dray that had been backed
up to the pier for it's reception.
"That's what call q roarer," the
captain of the vessel said, holding aside
the piece of canvas with commendable
pride, SO that the reporter could catch
| its points. ssJ1st cast your eye over
that sword. See how sharp it is; and
then over the body-how the lines
round up. The whole fish is made for
speed-a regular privateer. Fine eat
ing, too. This one goes to the market,
and should judge that it weighed 400
pounds. They make the finest kind Of
steaks. The meat ia white and rich and
somewhat like macKerel; In fact,
they belong to the mackerel family, so
I'm told. It's great sport catching
them, but you get used to it, like every
thing else. I've been in the business
twenty-five years, and have caught some
pretty big fish, can tell you. We
nailed this fellow up the Sound, off
Montauk, on our way to Martha's Vine
yard, and as I had an offer to bring
some freight here I brought him in my
self. The New England coast is the
best place for them, especially around
the south of the Cape, and to give you
an idea of the Importance of the bust
ness about 1900, 900 pounds are caught
every year, worth about 100000 in
round numbers. In the Mediterranean,
around about Italy and Greece, the
business is nearly as good"
How about these stories of their
running into ships ?"
81 can vouch for one," the captain re-
piled. In 1850 found myself In Cey-
Ion, and, wanting to get home, / shipped
on the bark Maud, bound for Liverpool.
We were browsing along one day off the
Bay of Biscay, stunsails and everything
iammed On her, and was leaning on the
weather cathead when [ felt kind of
q shock-just the kind you feel when a
ferryboat strikes a piece of ice, only
sharper-and the next minute there was
something thrashing about near the cut
water that / took to be a whale, but be-
fore the skipper got for'ard it was gone.
We sounded the well that night, and
she had made about six inches of water,
and we kept the pumps going off and
on, thinking that we had started a
plank. Finally we put into Tynemouth,
in the north of England, where the bark
was owned, and went into the dry dock.
There they found Under she bilge about
ten inches of the sword of one of these
fellows. 1t had gone through the cop
per, oak planking, and all, and broken
off short. I heard of another case
where ship was struck in the Indian
ocean, and was damaged SO that the
owners came down on the insurance
companies, who tried to get out by say
ing it was put-up job; but they got
Professor Owen, the great English sci
e<tifc man, Into court, and he swofe
right and left that not only did the
swordfish do it, but they were as dan
gerons as shot from cannon. don't
remember the exact words of his testi-
mony, but he said the force of the blow
was equal to so many hundred blows
from heavy sledge or twenty four
pound shot. anyhow, they got the in
suranee.
We most generally use an iron to
catch them, though some use d hook,
and the Italians repeat some kind of
lingo whey they are out, to coax them
up. We have rest of iron rugged on
the jibboom, and the striker. stands on
this while man in the foretop sings
out to the man at the helm how to fol
low him. took party of young Bos-
ton fellows out last year. They hired
the whole business, and wanted to do
the whole thing themselves. They
pitched pennies for the places, and
when we left Holmes Hole one was
hanging over the crosstrees, another was
at the helm, and another in the seat,
lashed in like Farragut at Mobile, and
there was no end of sport. We finally
sighted fish off Sandwich, and when
we got over it the fellow in the bow let
drive and caught it right in the tail, and
off he went, the rope whistling over the
side and the boys dancin' around like
mad to keep out Of it. We generally
make the line fast to barrel and toss
it over and let the fish tire himself out;
but this didn't suit, so they made it fast
to the painter of the dory and launched
her, and tumbled in just as the slack
came taut. The dory jumped ahead
and down they went in heap,
and one Of them tumbled clean
overheard. We picked him up
and filed away after the boat First
they tried to haul the fish in, but this
started him in another direction, and
the rope got foul with the rowlocks and
over she went. They all piled to the
wind'ard and managed to keep her up,
though she half filled. He towed them
for about two miles before he let up at
all, and then they commenced to take
it, and such hauling and getting hauled
you never saw. One minute they would
make ten or twelve feet on him, and
the next he would make rush, tearing
everything and dragging the dory into
the water, 80 that one had to bail out all
the time. Before we got up to them I
saw coat waving, collar down-a sig
nal of distress-and, as they had worked
to wind ard, we sent the dingy after
them, and soon had them in tow. They
had all the fishing they wanted, and
were glad enough to give it up. Their
hands were all cut up with the rope, snd
they were wet through. One said the
4OpO SOt WOuuu IOuuQ LIS leg dIQ
nearly broke it, and altogether they had
enough to lat them over night. It was
big fellow, though, and weighed four
hundred pounds ;"
"Don't they grow larger than that ?"
Bless you, yes," continued the skip
per. who was evidently on favorite
topic. "I crossed the Bay of Bengal
once, and one evening, it was dead
calm, mind you, we saw some kind of q
craft tearing down on us about the size
Of ships cutter with leg O. mutton
sail rugged fore and aft. It came with
terrible rush, the sail waving to and
fro, scolored blue like, and in minute
had shot by astern, and we saw it was a
swordfish near thirty feet long. If he
had ever struck us, goodbye. They
call them sailor fish there, and the top
fin is about fifteen or sixteen feet hi Oh