Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1891-09-17


What strange thing has como
athwart my hawse in the last dozen
years? ?" unused Capt. Carnes of the
brig Mary, ss he shifted his quid.
@Well. 1 might tell you of bit Of ad.
venture that happened to my vessel
one day among the Windward Islands
of the Caribbean Sea. We were Just
to the east Of the group, and about tif.
teen miles away, when there came q
dead calm. The sea was like q mill
pond, and the sun beat down like ball
OF fire. One Of the men, who was
aloft for something, discovered large
shark prowling around the brig, and
gave the men permission to bait for
him. They baited the hook and
tempted him, but he would not even
smell of the pork. He was straight
out man-eater, and he wanted sailor OF
nothing. He made two or three cir
cults about the vessel, his dorsal fin
showing above the water, and he then
settled down off our port quarter, about
twenty feet away, and kept his eyes
fastened on the heads OF the men above
the railing,
well, sir, there was something so
aggrayating in that shark settling
down there, as if determined to stay
until some of us tumbled overheard,
that we made up our minds to drive
him away after some fashion. We had
harpoon aboard, and one of the men
used it to give the fish several bad
gashes, but after each wound he'd
make q circuit and come back to the
old spot. You may rip a shark from
stem to stern, and he won't seem to
mind the hurt. BY and by the men
got so hot that they asked leave to man
the boat and either kill the grim devil
or drive him away. / consented. and
O sailor named Williams scrambled
into the yswl as she swung at the
davits to cast off when she was down.
The falls had scarcely been manned
when one of them parted, and the boat
dropped stern down. The sailor was
pitched ten feet away, and as he struck
the water there was a yell from every
man on the brig. He pitched right at
the shark, and we expected to see him
grabbed up in q second. Indeed, we
all saw the fish whirl and makea rush,
and as the sailor swan alongside and
seized q rope a terrible combat began
in the water. We knew that one of the
fighters was the shark, but it was
minutes before we made out that the
other was q swordfsh.
II calculate that rumpus lasted all of
fifteen minutes. They fought on the
surface and under it, they circled and
came back, they went under the brig
and around her, and the sea was
churned to perfect foam all the time.
The affair finally ended by the shark
turning belly up, as dead as ham,
mer, and guess there wasn't foot of
him which hadn't felt thrust of the
sword. He bled like q stuck hog, and
was only fairly dead when the sword
fish took q run for the brig. He
backed off about fifty feet, and came
full tilt, and, as true as I'm sitting
here, he made her SILVER as he struck.
That sword of his struck good oak
plank. sheathed with copper, but moth
ing stopped it until it showed for six
inches In the hold. We saw him as he
backed off, and knew that he had lost
his weapon. It was terrible hurt.
and when q breeze sprang up and
filed our sails he was still foundering
around the sharks body, seeming to
have lost his compass points altogether.
"On the way down to Trinidad the
brig made considerable water, and
when we came TO unload her cargo we
found the sword sticking into her as I
have told you. A portion of it was
afterward carried to Boston, and is
probably there yet"