Morning journal and courier., 1886-09-21
For Sharks, Devil Fish and Stfnga-
 

l I rees.
 i From the New York Sun1
 "one of the strangest voyages I evel made, said Captain Croxon of New Orleans twas in the summer of 1858. I had three. masted schooner named the Southern Belle and was in the coasting trade. It was about May l and had run into New Orleans with consigned cargo, when a stranger game aboard one day, looked the craft all over and finally introduced himself as Joseph Harper, a native of the State. He said he was man of wealth and leisure and was thinking of chartering 8 schooner for four or five months He was quiet, mild-spoken man, we'll edu- cated and a perfect gentleman, but there was something just bit queer in his actions He looked at you in furtive way as if he thought you mistrusted him, and he had a habit of giving sudden start and looking all about him as guilty men are supposed to do.
 FfWhat sort of charter do you suppose he wanted to make? You'll hardly believe me when tell you that he took seat in my cabin and gravely informed me that he be- ieved it his duty to go forth against sharks, stingarees and devil fish. He wanted & staunch craft and he proposed to go along and help make war on the reptiles men tioned. He didn't act like a crank and could not laugh at him, and he didn't appear to be insane so that could cut the matter short. He offered to fit the schooner out for 8 six months cruise and pay me so much per month in cash, and he talked business just as straight as any man you ever heard. put him off for day or two, but he came again. Then l made some inquiries about him and I found that, while he was stran- ger to all, he had plenty of funds and was all ,.iey ir,h Az, r the sole owner of the schooner, and as his offer was far better thing than could hope for in another direction, I began to think more favorably of it. The result was that he put several thousand dollars to my credit in the bank, bound me in legal way to cruise where he directed and then went ahead to fit up the schooner. From the hour of signing the papers he lived aboard Not only that but he shaved clean, put on a sailors suit and completely disguised his identity. My mate, whose name was Bur rows, thought strangely of this and insisted that the man was lunatic; but after bit we concluded that he 8 crank who was all right except upon the one subject, and no further action of his surprised us.
 "Carpenters came aboard to fix up quar- ters for him, and when that job was finished a runway was made to draw up captured sharks upon, and small steam engine was put aboard for hoisting purposes He hired
 
 board to take charge of the latter, and we took aboard ten tons of coal to run it. He provls1oned the schooner and he bought the very best of everything. The stores for the crew were better than those supplied for any coasters cabin, and the cabin stores were equal to those of any passenger steamer. He had half hundred shark and other hooks made, bought chains, ropes and lines, and one of the last purchases brought down con- sisted of twenty-five barrels of salt beef for shark bait. He wanted to take on two hun dred live dogs, but convinced him that the beef would answer just as we'll.
 "Our first objective point was the Florida coast, and after reaching Santa Rosa Island we began our work. From that point clear around the coast to Charleston you can hard ly run amiss of sharks and stingarees, though you won't have much luck in hunt ing for an octopus of any size. Our man was greatly excited when we got on sharking ground, and he couldn't keep still until we had made half dozen captures. The first day brought us seventeen-an man eaters. When one was hooked we drew him close up by hand, slipped running moose over his head, and then he was hauled around to the runway and the ropes were carried to drum and the engine started. We had an extra deck of rough boards for the fish to land on, and the sharks were dispatched by blows of the axe and lance. Harper was as much ela- ted over each capture as general would be to win a battle, and careful record was made of weight, length and species. We were at it a whole week before he tired of the slaughter, and he might have held on longer if sharks had been more plenty. They finally became suspicious of or took alarm from some unknown cause, and at the end of the week the baited hooks were no longer a temptation. Our catch was from seventeen to twenty eight a day, making total for the week of one hundred and sixty eight, each one of which was large enough to bite man in two, while score more were monsters which could have got away with a horse in two three bites.
 'We then ran around to the Georges to fish for stingarees. This fish or reptile, or whatever you may call it, haunts the sand bars and feeds mostly on soft shell clans. We had to anchor the schooner and go out in small boats, and we made but eight cap lures during the week we lay there, I rath- CT expected that couple of weeks would cool Harper off, but the case was just the op- posite. Every fresh victim seemed to add to his zeal, and we ran further into Appalachee Bay and put in another week at sharking. The fish were there as thick as flies around sugar bowl, and in the seven days we cap tuIed one hundred and eighty When one had been drawn aboard and dispatched we had no further use for him. The remains were thrown overheard and the living would fight for him before our eyes. We got one chap there fully twenty feet long. and when- ever coaster came near Harper would have boat sent off to tell her what luck we were having in killing off the common ene- my. At the end of the third week he be- came restless with desire to capture an octo- pus and we set sail across the gulf for Cuban waters. I had heard of the creatures being plenty to the south of Cape San Antonio and made for that locality. We in pretty close to the Isle of Pines, found safe an- chorage, and the iron was hardly down be- fore Harper had our boats in the water to eX anime the reefs thereabout. We were searching three days before we found one, and he was small fellow who was more anx- ious to get away than to fight back. Then wrecker recommended the islands to the east of Santa Cruz and we up anchor and stood for the new grounds.
 We passed to the south of Santa Cruz and brought up among the Antigua group, fish ing for sharks and catching matter of fifty on the way. We soon had cause to believe that we had struck the right place. The very first boat out discovered devil fish on a reef within quarter of mile of the schooner. and as a harpoon was darted into him. he flung four or five of his terrible feel CTS into the boat, and would have taken one of the men overheard had the feelers not been severed with a hatchet. The man who was gripped was partially paralyzed tor a couple of days and unquestionably suffered much pain Harpers first act or returning to the schooner was to present the man with a twenty dollar gold piece, while the rest of the boats crew received half the amount. | It was plainly understood that the engineer, | cook, steward, mate and myself should be exempt from these boat excursions, but liar l per still had seven active men left him. We | were not idle, however, in their absence. l The shark hooks were always out, and it was | a poor day when we did not have at least | dozen sharks aboard.
 ssWe cruised around the islands for mat | ter of six weeks, having the best of luck. | and we should have put in several weeks | more but for what happened to Harper one l day. He had become perfectly crazy on the subject of devil fish, and would have l hunted them by night had the men been l able to stand it. We had killed about | thirty, large and small, when boats put off | one afternoon to inspect 8 reef on the east | side of Guadeloupe. There were numerous | channels cut through the reef, and as the | boat was working through one of them a ,,onatar octoDus was discoyered in four |