Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1884-06-21
ADVENTURES WITH SHARKS.

|
"Yes, it was q close shave, and got of
easy with this" The speaker, who was q
Gulf coast pilot, held up an arm bound in
splints. II came up from Pensacola to take
a schooner round to Tampa, but shall have
to lie of for a>couple of weeks or SO. 1t
happened in this way; I started for Fort
Pickens in light boat under sail about two
weeks ago, and when we were half way
down, the man with me speaks up and says,
captain sharks is sorter thick and Pm
dogged il they wern't. Their fins was a
| cutting water all around the boat, for'ard,
| asteru, and on both sides, some going one
| way and some another, and should reckon
there was twenty a-follering us. | didn't
| like the looks or 'em myself, but says, they
can't damage us in the dngy.' l hadn't
no more'n got the words out of my lips,
| when, blim came a l3-foot shark clean out
of the water. We both gave jump to
| wind ard, and the fish struck about third
| iu with crash that almost filled us, thrash
cd for minute, sending one Of the oars
| into the air, and then swung its head round,
and, as was reaching for the tiller to give
il a knock, the tail came against my arm
and broke it clean in two. In minute
| more the shark was overheard, and we sot
there bailing and half scarf to death.
Accident? | couldn't say; most likely
il was. Sharks often leave the water when
they're chased ,and it may not have seen
the boat but we didn't waste any time after
had collected them until the water was full
of 'em, and didn't feel safe until was on
the beach"
"Wil they bite?" asked the listener.
"Will duck swim?" replied the pilot.
"Why, my friend, in July or now, I'd just
as soon try to swim 4 lake of red hot pitch
as to swim over from Pensacola to Fort
Pickeps There are not so many accidents
on record there, because people know the
dangers and look out for them, but know
of ut least half II dozen cases. The last one
happened last summer. A vessel came in
port fora load of lumber, and the captains
boy, quite good-sized lad, in fooling about
| the rigging fell overheard. The men heard
scream and rushed 10 the rail, but the
| only sign they saw was red cloud in the
| water. They got out the boat, and
| finally recovered the body, but the
a soldier tried to desert from the fort and
was eaten by sharks. You see the brutes
| follow vessels in from Off shore, and get III
comes along, and when a man goes over
they rush for the splash. I've seen 'em
moving around on the bottom like drove
of hogs They generally swim slowly when
not chased, but they can work up tremen-
dous race when they are chased, and I've
seen one jump twenty feet into the air..
ITO show you how hard they can bite"
said the pilot, 81 have seen one take piece
out of an oar. Another that was hauled
alongside of small boat took the cutwater
in its mouth and nearly crushed it to Jelly,
leaving twenty or thirty teeth in the wood.
"Some time ago Spanish gunboat drop.
ped in there, and the officers amused them
selves shark fishing. They had quite, Il
circus. They would take q small dynamite
cartridge, bind piece of salt pork to it,
and fix it to float and wire, and send it
200 feet astern Pretty soon shark would
take it, and they would fire by the wire,
and the fish would fly into thousand
pieces. If one was wounded the others
went for him and ate him up."-N. !. Sun.