The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1886-04-08
FOLLOWED By A BIG SHARK.
Not To BE Taken in by a Dummy Greas.
ing a Yellow Dog for Bait.

| In 1874 I was mate of coastinl
schooner voyaging between Charleston
! Beaufort, Savannah, and other point.
on the southern coast. She was built a
Charleston, and 1 went out ON the firs
voyage. The name of the captain wa.
Martin, an easy-going, good-naturec
man, and we had three men before ths
mast.
We left Charleston in the afternoon
and We're scarcely clear of the bar when
a monster shark was observed in oul
wake. There are always sharks in plenty
in Charleston harbor, and this chan
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
more than ten feet away, and there he
stuck. When we had made our offing
and set our course, the captain deteD
mined to get rid of the unpleasant visitor.
When a sailor sees a shark following
his ship he feels as a landsman would if
wolf was pursuing his carriage. The
shark is there to eat you, if opportunity
occurs, and you feel a 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, baited it with a 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 a conspiracy 10 destroy him. We
made up a dummy and carried it aloft
and heaved it overheard with great out
cry, but that trick also failed. The
shark paid no attention to the splash,
but kept his wicked eyes on the man at
the wheel, and remained where we first
discovered him.
We had slow passage down to the in
let, and as we entered it the shark SUD
denly disappeared. We went up 10
Beaufort, unloaded part of our cargo,
took on some cotton, and came down
again, and we had scarcely crossed the
bar when the big fish again took his 20
sition ON the starboard quarter. 1t was
the same when we started into Savan-
nah, and the same at Brunswick, and we
dropped him again off Charleston as we
returned after an absence of two weeks
We tried every way known to sailors to
drive the fellow off, but he wouldn't
bulge. AT Charleston the captain con-
suited a colored clairvOyant, and she sold
him about an ounce of pink salve and
told him that he must buy a yellow dog,
grease its paws with the salve, and use
the dog to bait the shark hook. He paid 50
for the salve and was a whole day
finding yellow dog. One was finally
discovered following a colored man
about, and an offer of SO made him our
dog. On this occasion we left Charles
ton Just at daybrealk, having been in the
harbOr three days, As day fully dawned
we picked up our old enemy, and all
hands willingly turned up to see what
luck we would have with the new bait.
We creased the paws of the dog, and he
at once began to howl in the most dis
NAL manner. You'd have believed from
his actions that he knew what was COM
ing. When we had lashed him fast to the
hook we found that the shark had
neared the ship by several feet, and that
he seemed to be a bit nervous.
Well, when all was ready over went |
the dog, and he had scarcely touched the |
water when the shark had him. He had |
dog, hook, and all at one snap, and |
started to make a skip when the hook |
brought him up. We took the line to |
the capstain and walked the old chap |
and when chad his head out |
IF water we fired two charges of buckshot |
INTO it. We then drew him aboard and |
finished him off, and after breakfast we |
ell to and slit him open to see what sort |
If cargo he carried. There was the dog. |
'wallowed almost whole, a human hand, |
| beef bone, the heel of boot, a pint |
1ottle, two feet of small chain, a score Of |
silver-plated table knife and |
wo iron spoons, and several other trifes |
!. hich he had picked up while cruising |
Iround and waiting for us to come out. |
We hove him over after the examination. |
md though the schooner ran on that
anne route for the ensuing eleven
months, none of us sighted shark, |
arge or small. The greased-dog business
eemed to have given the whole
a valuable hint.-New York /
Jun.