Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-01-04

IAaHu, anu We were bearing up TOT Valparaiso from the Juan Fernandez Islands when I caught sight of floating human body on the lee bow, ,hd half a mile away. We had only light breeze and the sea was scarcely disturbed, and from my perch aloft could see even the fish as they played about us.
 l had scarcely hailed the deck when the fioater raised his head, kicked his feet under the surface and, after waving his arm as a signal, he began swimming down to us The sight of man out at sea, provided with nothing whatever to float him, was queer enough. but there was something much more queer ill store for us. have seen the natives Of almost every country n the water, but never saw anything like the speed this floater made as he came down to us. He just smoked through the water like yawl with her sail set to q stiff breeze. All the men mustered forward to get sight of him, and as he came alongside he checked his way. took long survey of our craft, and coolly called out:
 "What ship is that9n
 ''The American whaler, Yankee Land nan- swered the mate
 "Want any hands?'
 "Yes, we'll ship you," replied the captain
 "Very we'll, sir-I'll come aboardn
 They threw him rope and he soon stood on deck, the only unconcerned person on the ship. He asked for a chew of tobacco, wrung the water out of his clothes, and when the cook brought him some grub he did not ap- pear over hungry. He refused dry clothes, saying that he felt better when damp and when he had finished eating he explained:
 My name is Tom Finch I Iquit the Eng fish brig Saxon two days ago. can steer a boat or faSten to whale with the best of you. Give me a lay and let me turn to-"
 "You quit the Saxon two days agor queried the captain.
 ''Yes, sir:
 'SWhere was she?'
 "A matter of fifty miles to the northwest, sir.n
 "At seal"
 "Yes, sir"
 "How did you quits"
 Said good-by to my watch and jumped overheard, and have been floating ever since.n
 There wasn't a man in the ship who be- heved his story Indeed. what intelligent man would believe it? And yet it was gos- pei truth, as we discovered when we reached Valparaiso The Saxon was there, and half dozen of her crew had seen him go over board, as stated.
 A man fish had come aboard of us There never was a mermaid, but he certainly was q merrnan. lie was next to amphibious. He was With us for sixteen months, and during that time was the wonder of our crew and of every other crew We met He was q stalwart. good looking chap of 35 but his interior may have been built on the fish principle. Ho swan as swiftly as some kinds of fish, and that without seeming to tire him. He could not be drowned, and no shark would bite him. 1 said he was queer man. The reader prob- ably agrees with me. I give my word and hOnnJ thota c+nto true, and can be proved true.
 Our carpenter was laid up with a broken leg, and when Finch announced that he could use tools he became carpenter temporarily. Alter we left Valparaiso, no longer doubting the story of his two days float, he gave us a marvellous exhibition of his skill as a swim mer In running back to the south we struck the lag end of a cyclone and got a terrible sea. Our big ship was pitched about like a pea, and the waves walled up on us now and then until their crests seemed to tower fifty feet above the rail. Everything was lashed end double lashed, and the cook could not make us even cup of coffee for twenty hours. While we were lying to and hanging on for life Finch stripped to his shirt and pants and went overheard for lark The best man among us would have been drawned Ill five minutes. He was in the water two hours, and when he came out he did not puff as heavily as man who had run across the street. A hundred times in these two hours We thought he was lost, but he had no more fear for himself than as if he was on dry land ln the sixteen months I saw him go over- board as many as fifty times, in all sorts of weather, and by day and by night, and yet he never met with an accident.
 l stated that no shark would bite him. He proved this fact a thousand times over liar Dor sharks, for reasons best known to them selves, will sometimes pass a swimmer by but they are small fry compared to the big hammer heads and white sharks of midocean The true man eater is not a shore fish, except in tropical waters. When a whaler is en- gagged in cutting in and trying out, and is drifting off before the wind, your real man eater appears. l have seen them twenty-five feet long, barnacled up and mos; grown like ancient whales, and evidently hundred years old. These are the demons of the deep, who will rush upon raft and upset it or tear 1t to pieces, and who seem to fee1no pain from the prick of lance. We got a wnale to the southwest of Conception, hundred niles off shore, and Finch gave us his first exhibition. We had an eighty barrel fish lashed head and tail to our starboard side, and were just hook ing on to the first blanket piece to hoist away, when three or four monster sharks appeared ~HS SAAS that the men called out in amazen,ent. He lay with his dorsal fin above water, and we could see every inch of him. It was enough to give you All to note his wicked eyes and his awful mouth.
 When Finch saw this shark he said he would drive him away. The captain ordered him to go about his business, not wishing ts lose man, but Finch waited until the off cers were off their iguard, and then went overheard off the lee bow with a great splash. There was wild cry from the crew and a rush with ropes, but Tom looked up and laughed and swam around the stern of the shlp The big man eater had backed off about twenty feet at the splash, but two others, almost as large, had come up on the quarters, and there lay three of the wicked est fish in the Atlantic ocean,. Everybody shouted and gestured, and half a dozen ropes, ends were thrown to Tom, but he would not mind us. He suddenly sank be- low the surface and made bee line for the big fish, and, to my surprise, the old fellow darted aside to escape the collision.
 It is truth to the letter that Tom Finch drove every one of those monsters away from the ship, and for an hour he padded about in the water and was unharmed. In the course of couple of hours the big shark returned. A piece of blubber was tied up in an old coat and dropped overheard, and he made dash of a hundred feet and bolted it down like a flash Ha tlxap tOoly ny, Iic ctotio,, off o,,,,