Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1886-07-17
FOLLOWED BY A BIC SHARK.
Not To BE Taken In by Dummy-orea,
ing yellow Dog for Bait.

ANOt AZ AfD AAANn - - = At1Anln N--AANDAN-
ing Yellow Dog for halt.
In 1874 was mate of coasting
schooner voyaging between Charleston,
Beaufort, Savannah, and other points
on the southern coast, She was built at
Charleston, and l went out on the first
voyage. The name of the captain was
Martin, an easy-going, good-natured
man, and we had three men before the
mast.
We left Charleston in the afternoon,
and were scarcely clear of the bar when
monster shark was observed In our
wake. There are always sharks in plenty
in Charleston harbor, and this chap
would not have received much notice ex-
cept for his size and the grim, persistent
manner in which he followed us. He
ranged up on the starboard quarter, not
moro than ten feet away, and there he
stuck. When we had made our offing
and set orr course, the captain deter
mined to get rid Of the unpleasant visitor.
When sailor sees a shark following
his ship he feels as landsman would il
wolf was pursuing his carriage. The
shark is there to eat you, If opportunity
occurs, and you feel spirit Of revenge
stirring you up to get rid of him.
We had big shark hook on board,
and after the decks had been cleared we
brought.it out, baiteo it with chunk Of
pork, and the morsel was dropped over
board and the rope paid out until the
pork was right at the sharks nose. He
refused to touch it. Sharks are always
hungry, and sharks aren't.a bit particu
lar whether they eat pork or sailor, but
this fellow seemed to know that we had
formed conspiracy to destroy him. VIZ
made up dummy and carried it alofr
and heaved it overheard with great out
cry, but that trick also failed. Ths
shark paid no attention to the splash
but kept his wicked eyes or the man a
the wheel, and remained where we frs
discovered him.
We had slow passage down to the in
let, and as we entered It the shark sud
denly disappeared. We went up t,
Beaufort, unloaded part of our cargo
took on some cotton, and came dow
again, and we had scarcely crossed thu
bar when the big fish again took his pc
sition on the starboard quarter. 1t wa
the same when we started into Savan
nah, and the same at Brunswick, and W,
dropped him again off Charleston as w,
returned after AN absence of two weeks
We tried every way known to sailors t,
drive the fellow off, but he wouldn'
bulge. AT Charleston the captain con
suited a colored clairvoyant, and she soil
him about an ounce of pink salve an,
told him that he must buy yellow dog
grease it's paws with the salve, and US
| the dog to bait the shark hook. He paid s
flor the salve and was q whole da,
finding yellow dog. One was finall
discovered following oolored ma
about, and an offer of 50 made him GU
dog. On this occasion we left Charles
ton just at daybrcak, having been in til
halbor three days. AS day fully dawne
we packed up our old enemy, and a
hands willingly turned up to see wha
1 luNh VIC WOul0 I4NO Will bHd u0W Ddl
We creased the paws of the dog, and h
at once began to howl in the most dis
NAL manner. You'd have believed fror
his actions that he knew what was CON
ing. When we had lashed him fast to tn
hook we found that the shark ha
seared Che ship by several feet, and tha
he seemed to be bit nervous.
Well, when all was ready ever wen
the dog, and he had scarcely touched til
4 1Fater when the shark had him. He ha
dog, hook, and all at one snap, an
started to make skip when the hoo
brought him up. We took the line t
he capstain and walked the old cha
alongside, and when we had his head on
of water we fred two charges of buckshc
into it. We then drew him aboard an
finished him off, and after breakfast W
fell to and slit him open to see what Sol
of cargo he carried. Theirs was the dos
swallowed almost whole, human hanC
a beef bone, the heel of boot, pir
bottle, two feet of small chain, score {
buttons, silver-plated table knife an
two iron spoons and several other triflt
which he had picked up while cruisin
around and waiting for us to come GU
We hove him over after tho examination
and though the schooner ran on tn;
same route for the ensuing eleve
months, none of us sighted sharl
large or small. The greased-dog bushes
seemed to have given the who
fraternity valuable hint.--New Yor
Sun.