The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1885-02-10

sYcs, it was q close shave and / cot
OF easy with this" The speaker, who
was Gulf coast pilot, held up an arm
done up in splints 81 CAME up from
Pensacola TO take schooner to Tampa,
but shall have ID lie off for couple Of
weeks or so. 1t happened in this way:
started for Fort PickenS in q light
boat under sail about two weeks ago,
and when we were halfway down the
man with me speaks up and says:
Captain, sharks is sorter thick And
I'm logged il they warn't. Their fins
was a-cutting water all around the boat,
for'ard, astern and on both sides. some
going one way and some another, and
should reckon there was twenty a-fol-
lering us. / didn't like the looks of 'em
myself. but / saws: they can't damage
rs in the dingy.' hadn't no more n
got the words out o. my lips when,
blim! came q thirteen-foot shark clean
out Of the water. We both gave jump
TO the wind'ard, and the fish struck
about third in with q crash that al
most filed US, thrashcd for q minute.
sending one of the oars into the air, and
then swung its head around, and, as
was reaching for the tiller TO give it q
knock, the tail come ag'in my arm and
broke il clean in two. In q minute
more the shark was overheard, and
we sot there battling and half scarf to
death.
Accident? I couldn't say; most
likely it 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 that, can tell you.
The splash of the fish had collected
them until the water was full of 'em,
and [ didn't feel safe until was on the
beach"
"Will they bite?' asked the listener.
"Will duck swim?" replied the pilot.
"Why, my friend, in JusT or now, I'd
Just as soon swim a lake of red-hot
pitch as to swim over from Pensacola
10 Fort Pickens. There are not so many
accidents on record there, because peo-
pie know the dangers and look out for
them, but L know of ut least a dozen
cases. The last one happened last
summer. A vessel came in port for a
load of lumber, and the Captains boy,
quite good-sized lad, in fooling about
the rigging, fell overheard. The men
heard a scream and rushed to 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 head and limbs -ere gone. An
other time soldier tried to desert from
the fort and was eaten by sharks. You
see the brutes follow vessels in from of
shore, and get in the habit of swallow
ing everything that comes along, and
when man goes overheard 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
tremendous 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, 90 have seen one
take q piece OJt of an oar. Another
that Wa. hauled alongside of Il small
boat took the cutwater in It's mouth and
nearly crushed it to a jelly, leaving
twenty or thirty teeth in the wood.
"Some time ago Spanish gun-boat
dropped in there, and the officers
amused themselves shark fishing. They
had quite a circus. They would take a
small dynamite cartridge, bind piece
of salt pork to it, and Tx it to a float
and wire, and send it two hundred feet
astern. Pretty soon a shark would take
it, and they would fire by the wire, and
the fish would lily into thousand pieces.
If one was wounded the others went
for him and ate him up."-M Y. Sun.