Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-01-16
NAVIGATING SHARKS.
lishefmen Have an Unpleasant Advent.
ure with . School Of Them

E1shermen Have an Unpleasant Advent
ure with School Of Them.
shall never forget the time when I
was hand in small fishing vessel that
tended the London market The wealth
er was warm and fish scarce; some of
the old hands thought some kind of .
destructive fish was 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 we had better ship to
some other berth. The anchor was cat
headed, sails hoisted and q course laid
out that would bring us to Jefferies bank,
which lies about thirty or forty miles
off Portland. The next morning at day
light we were in our dories and proceed
ed 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 prom
ise of good catch.
was hauling the trawl at the time,
and felt sudden tug and yank that
very nearly took me out of the bow of
the dory.
stopped hauling to see if they would
show up. Suddenly there was twitch
and a pull harder than ever, and Il
hauled away as lively as possible, know
ing he would bite the line if he could to
clear himself.
Ipulled and he tugged, but 1 kept the
line coming all the time. First. he
would tow US in one direction and then
in another, so 1 surmised we had him by
the tail, and told my partner to have q
sharp knife ready to cut away.
After long and hard pull I 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 1 looked over
board to see the kind of chap we had,
and II any thing would make fisher
man feel blue it would be look from
that angry man-eating shark that we
had fast to. He would curl up in a bows
look at us with those cold eyes and slap
his body about in a very dangerous man.
ner, but the line was strong and we had
him secure.
The only thing we could do YVES g
cut off his tail and let him go clear of
the trawl, and my partner held onto one
side of his tail while used the knife.
In minute he was clear, and, with
hack and belly fins to propel with, dove
for the bottom, leaving a trail of blood
after him, that I 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 after
we got our gear we started to row for
the vessel. After rowing a short dis
tance we were in the midst of school
Of Man-eating sharks that had scented
the blood of their MANNED relative. 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 at
tention.
We were within quarter of 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 a cat, and never left us until
we reached our vessel and were safe
aboard.-BoSton Globe.