Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1889-01-25

Us ffty times, in all sorts Of weather, and
lDy day and by night, and yet he never
Yet with an accident.
4 stated that no shark would bite him.
Mproved this fact a thousand times
',sTef. Harbor sharks, for reasons best
known to themselves, will sometimes
! Rss swimmer by, but they are small
~ compared to the hammer heads and
Fhite sharks Of mid-Ocean. The true
fnan-eater is not shore fish, except in
Eropical waters. When a whalet is. en-
gagged in cutting in and trying out, and
sdrifting off before the wind, your real
hsn-eater appears. l have seen them
enty-fye feet long, barnacled up and
grown like ancient whales, and evi-
dently hundred years old. These are
The demons of the deep, who will rush
upon raft and upset it or tear it to
pieces, and who seem to feel no Jain
lJpm the prick Of lance We got
Whale to the southwest Of Conception,
Ta1dred miles off Shore and Finch gave
IS 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. The one who came up astern
was Of such size that the men called out
IN amazement. He lay with his dorsal
lTm above water, and we could see every
iHeh of him. 1t was enough to give you
a chill to note his wicked eyes aud his
awful mouth.
- When Finch saw this shark he said he
lTould drive him away. The Captain or
dered him to go about his business, not
Wishing to loose a man, but Finch waited
until the officers were off their guard,
and then went overheard off the lee bow
with great splash. There was a wild
cry from the crew and a rush with ropes,
but Tom looked up and laughed and
swam around the stern of the ship The
big man-eater had backed of about 20
leet at the splash, but two others, almost
IS large, had come up on the quarters,
and there lay three of the wiekedest fish
ii the Atlantic Ocean. Everybody
shouted and gestured and half a dozen
ppes lends were thrown to Tom, but he
would not mind us. He suddenly sank
below the surface and made bee line
for the big fish, and, to my surprise, the
Old fellow darted aside to escape the
seollision.
n 1t IS truth to the letter that Tom Finch
Drove every one of those monsters away
rom the ship, and for an hour he pad
iled about in the water and was un-
harmed. In the course of a couple Of
hours the big shark returned. A piece
Of blubber was tied up in an old coat
md dropped overheard, and he made a
dash of a hundred feet and bolted it
down like flash. He then took up his
station off our quarter, and not over
thirty feet way, and the sailor mounted
the rail and made long leap right at
him. The shark went off like a streak,
and we saw him no more.
Once, when we were in the harbol of
Honolulu, Tom gave public exhibition,
and at least 5000 people saw him swim
about among the sharks just outside the
surf. Several dogs were thrown to them
to be deyoured, and gallons of blood
were poured on the water to excite them,
but never a one came within five feet of
the sailor. He had no peculiar odor
about him that we could detect, and
why the sharks feared him was as much
a puzzle to himself as to others.
Among Toms adventures was his es-
cape from the Greek pirates Of the Egcan
Sea couple of years before he joined
our ship. give this because every par
ticular of it is matter of official record
He was one Of the crew of an italian
brig making voyage to Constantinople,
pnd on the return, while becalmed among
the islands at the mouth Of the Archipel-
ago, couple of boats, carrying 20 men
each, pulled out from one of the islands
and attacked them. There were 13 men
on the brig, and, though poorly armed,
they gave the pirates hot fight before
nc vessel was carried by boarding.
When Tom saw that all was lost he hid
nimself away, and was not discovered
until the brig had been towed into
cove. The Greeks had cooled off then.
and instead of cutting his throat they
took him ashore to make slave of him.
The island was the rendezvous of bad
gang and it seemed that a portion of
them were away ON an expedition. For
TINS reason the brig was pulled into the
cove, which had very deep water, an
chored stem and stern, and her overhaul
ing was deferred until the other party
should return.
Tom was the sole survivor of the
crew, and he was treated like a dog.
lie had smattering of the language,
and ne was told that any effort of his to
escape would be rewarded by burning
allye. Nevertheless, on the second
night of his stay he stole away from his
nut to the water, swan off to the brig,
boarded her by the fore chains, and find
ing the two men on anchor watch fast
asleep, he Drained them with capstan
bar The cable at the stern was Of hemp
and easily cut. The other was Of chain,
and Tom managed to slip it just as the
tide turned. The brig was outside of