The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1890-02-01
MAN EATING SHARKS,
Iasl ermen Have m Unpleasant Adventure
With School OF Them.

shall never forget the time when ]
was hand in small fishing vessel
that tended the London Market, says
q writer in the Boston Globe. The
weather was very warm and fish scarce;
some of the old hands thought some
kind of destructive fish were playing
havoc, for set our travis where we
would they were skinned as clean as
though the job was done by hand.
One evening two men that went in
dory No. brought the news that
sharks were plenty and that we had
better ship to some other berth. The
anchor was catheaded, sails hoisted
and course laid out that would bring
us to Jefferies bank, which lies about
thirty or forty miles off Portland, The
next morning at daylight we were in
our dories and proceeded to set our
fishing gear. My partner and | took
the outside on the western end and all
went well; we were hauling in fish for
half an hour with every promise OF
good catch.
Twas hauling the trawl at the time,
and felt a sudden tug and yank that
nearly took me out of the bow OF the
dory.
knew it was sharks in minute,
and stopped hauling to see If they
would show up. Suddenly there was
a twitch and pull harder than ever,
and hauled away as lively as possible,
knowing he would bite the line it he
could clear himself.
l pulled and he tugged, but ] kept
him coming all the time. First, he
would tow us in one direction and then
in another, so l surmised we had him
by the tail, and told my partner to have
a sharp knife ready to cut him away.
After long and hard pull got him
to the top of the water and found that
he had taken two good bitches around
his tail and was working hard to get
clear. The next thing to do was to get
his tail on the rail of the dory and cut
clear. A strong pull by both of US
placed him at our mercy, then looked
overheard to see the kind of chap we
had, and if anything would make
fisherman feel blue it would be look
from that man-eating shark that we
were fast to. He would curl up in a
bow, look at us with those cold eyes,
and slap his body about in a very dan
gerous manner but the line was strong
and we had him secure.
The only thing we could do was to
cut off his tail and let him 90 clear of
the trawl, and my partner held onto
one side of his tail while l used the
knife. In minute he was clear, and,
with back and belly fins to propel with,
dove for the bottom, leaving trail of
blood after him, that | knew would
cause trouble. He came up with a
rush, jumping full length out of the
water, and dropped SO close to our
dory that the splash nigh swamped us.
We hauled away clear of him, and af-
ter we got our gear we started to row
for the vessel. After rowing a short
distance we were in the midst of q
school of man-eating sharks that had
scented the blood of their manned rela-
tive. My partner was rowing a new
pair of oars and they attracted the
sharks. They made snap after snap at
the blades, and as our dory was deep
loaded with fish they appeared to think
We would be an easy prey.
SO hard did they press us that the
new oars had to be taken in and the
fish thrown overheard to distract their
attention.
We were within quarter mile of the
vessel and had succeeded in shaking off |
all but one of them He was small |
cuss and would purr up alongside the
dory like cat and never left us until |
we reached our vessel and were safe |
aboard