The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1893-05-13
A BIG FISH Q
Catching a Peculiar Marine Monster In the
Gulf of Mexico.

Gulf of Mexico.
Maj. III. 7. Ritzius, the United States
recruiting officer here, tells a great fish
story. 1t happened in 1870. "To begin
at the beginning" said the major, lin
1868 l was stationed at Ship island, in
the gulf of Mexico. Col. Bliss was in
command of the post and l was adiu-
tant. In the summer eight monster
fish appeared in the harbor. They
would come quite. close to the wharf
and jump half out of the water. Sew
eral of the soldiers shot at them, and
from the trail of blood they left on the
water we knew they had been hit.
Nevertheless they appeared again the
next day. When fall came they went
away, but returned in the summer of
1870. Col. Bliss expressed a desire that
n of the fish should be caught.
Accordingly the quartermaster, a
couple of soldiers and myself started
out in a small sailboat one morning.
We had provided ourselves with har-
poems, with plenty of rope attached.
Pretty 500 we sighted one Of the fish
and soon had a harpoon in him. He
Immediately Owed down and remained
under water for some time. He was
moving off, however, as we could tell
by the way u line was playing out.
Pretty soon he reappeared, and we sunk
another harpoon in him. He Owed
again. This performance was repeated
until we had eight harpoons in the
fish. BY this time we had been towed
out ten miles and were rapidly nearing
the sea, which we could not face with
our small boat. We disliked to let 90
|the fish, however, as we could tell by
his struggles that he was nearly winded.
When he came up again we could see
he was nearly dead, as he made but
feeble effort to get away. It was not
long before the revenue cutter Wilder
ness, which vas cruising near by. hove
in sight and took us aboard. Our prize,
which we could not have been able to
tow in, was secured by ropes TO the cut
ter and taken to the wharf. We man.
aged to get it on n of the hand cars
used to carry provisions from the wharf
to the post, and conveyed it to the bar
racks. There it was placed on a scat
folding and measured.
The fish was eighteen feet long. if
teen feet wide and six feet through.
This may sound 'fishy,' but those are
actual measurements. We could not
weigh the monster entire. but cut him
up into pieces. He weighed one thou-
sand eight hundred pounds in all. His
mouth was four feet across and three
feet deep. He had no teeth, so we sup
posed he lived on matter gathered in
the water as he swan along. His flesh
was not good to eat, but was of the
same consistency as unrefined cod liver
oil. There were but few bones in the
body, and we could see where our bull
lets had gone entirely through it. 1
don't know if the shoal of fish appeared
a~fterward, as we were ordered away
that fall. We were unable to find out
what species of fish it was. We sent
one of the photographs to the Smith
sonian institute at Washington. but
none of the people there had ever heard
of such a fish. He was broadcast across
what might be called the shoulders. at
tached to which were fins-foats, they
might be more properly ealled-with
which he propelled himself. / have
often wondered what species of fish he
was, but | suppose | shall neve- find
out."-Rochester Post-Express.