St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-02-17
DODGING A SHARK.
How a Sailor Escaped From a
Terrible Death,

Johann Christensen, a Swedish sailor
employed as deck hand Oh board the
fruit schooner Nancy BOehm, plying
between this port and Tampico, Mex.
was recently the hero of an adventure
with large shark. in which the man
narrowly escaped with his life. though
losing foot, says the st. Louis Globe
Democrat.
Christensen was amusing himself
upon the wharf of the Mobile Steamship
company by playing with lutte dog,
which lie kept sending into the water
after sticks and bits of paper. One of
these being thrown further than usual,
the spaniel, in bringing it out, ventured
into deep water, and the next moment a
large, dark shape rose from the shadow
of the wharf and made a break for the
dog. The intelligent creature, seeing
his danger, turned instantly and made
for the shore, Christensen encouraging
it with cries.
The shark, finding itself out of its
depth. seemed to grow bewildeaed, but
chased the dog closely, every now and
then endeavOring to turn over upon
its back. 1t finally succeeded in this
and made snap at the spaniel, which
was fairly dragged from the water by
Christensen, who waded out as far as
he dared. He could have easily made
the shore, when mis- footing gave way
and he fell forward on his face in the
water. He says the shark passed clear
Cling to right himself. The sand, how
ever, afforded him but little support,
and. seeing his terrible enemy return,
he made Tor the deeper water, SWIM
ming as rapidly as possible. Els object
was to reach the pile of the Wharfing
and to climb one of the beams, but be
tore he could lay holt upon the timber
the shark was upon him.
An expert swimmer, the sailor dived
to the bottom. followed by the ocean
wolf, which was at the disadvantage of
being in water SO shallow as to greatly
impede his movements, and it is tn this
alone that Christensen owed his life.
Dodging the sharks rush, he struck out
for shore, but seeing that the animal
was close upon him, again dived. By
this time a large crowd gathered on the
wharf and shore watching the scene
with breathless interest, and suggesting
various impossible schemes OF rescue
for the imperiled man. But no one
dared fire upon the shark for fear of
hitting the Swede instead, and the only
aid that could be given was to throw
ropes to Christensen, who was begin
HfHS W SllOW StSiiS VI Sl0d1 cNilduSllOu.
| A stain of blood soon Mortified the be-
| holders. and on Christensen's next APP
| pearance Oh the surface of the water it
was seen that his left foot had been
| completely severed close to the ankle.
He was bleeding profusely and swim
| ing with difficulty, while the shark fol-
! lowed only few feet behind. He sue
| ceeded, however, in reaching the end Of
| the rope thrown to him, and taking hold
of this was quickly drawn to land, where
| he tainted. The shark seeing his prey
escape turned about and was making
for the gulf when dozen shots struck
| the water about him. 1t was not known,
however, whether or not he was struck.
| for sinking instantly, he was seen no
| more, but early on the following morn
| ing his carcass was found stranded on
| the beach a mile or two below the city.
| He measured nearly twenty feet In
| length and was one of the species known
| as the "hammerheaded shark" a vari
| ETY. rarely found out of the Indian ocean,
| but which sometimes migrate in great
numbers. ChriStenSen's wound was con-
sidered very dangerous one, and seri-
Gus fears were entertained for his life,
but he is recOye ring SLOWLY