The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1893-09-15
Continued from First Pdge.)

legs speared through by the sword of
furious swordish and himself firmly
impaled to the sides of his yawl. One
Block Islander was cleft in that way
only last summer off Block Island
Sound, and year or two ago another
hunter of the marine swordsman was
spitted in his seat, The bone blade
going up into his body, and he died
few days later of the frightful thrust.
A day or two ago The Sun had a
story of harpooner on the Matte and
Lena schooner from Stonington, whose
boat was cleft by swordfsh's weapon,
which went through both its sides, and
the thrust barely missed transfixing the
sailor. Such accidents are not uncom
mon; the greater wonder is, such is
the wrathful fury of the swordfish at
the fearless temerty of the hunters,
that more men are not manned or slain
each season in this most perllous
modern sport of the Atlantic seaboard.
Inded, a wounded swordhsh not rarely
attacks the schooner itself, and only
few seasons ago one big fellow drove
headlong into an island vessel, and his
saber went through its thick walls as if
they were of paper, protruding by sew
eral inches into the vessels cabin, when
the giant, in his furious wrenching to
free himself, broke the end of the blade,
which fell on the floor
1t has been only within the past
three or four years that men began to
hunt the big ugly chaps for a steady
and profitable vocation Before that
time the world fancied that the flesh of
swordish was unfit for food, and the
Atlantic fishermen hunted them only
for the sport it afforded to the idlers at
summer seashore resorts. Then it was
learned that a swordfsh steak is about
as fine and savory a morsel as may be
garnered in the broad ocean-by far
superior, in the opinion of country
epiCures, to halibut steaks, since it is
jucier, with a peculiar game flavor
and since then there has been plenty Of
money in swordhshing but on the New
England coast alone, and more than g
score of swordhshermen go forth weekly
to the ocean hunting grounds from
ports as far down east as Eastern
Maine Swordfish steaks, juicy thick
white slabs of tender meat are sole
everywhere in the New England mar
kets at from twelve to sixteen cents Z
pound but Boston is preeminently
the great market for them Very
singularly, New York, the great fish
market of the continent, either has
never tasted or fails to be pleased with
the fish, and not pound, it is said o.
swordhsh goes to the Gotham markets
Most of the big fish, from ten to forty
in number to each craft, that the fleet
sailors from Block Island and Stoning-
ton bring to port twice and thrice a
week, are shipped directly to Boston,
though fair share of them are booked
to Providence. There is a steady de-
mand for the swords, which may be
handsomely polished, SO that they
CLEAN like ivory, on the part of sum-
mer visitors to the seashore or Curio
collectors at the uniform price of fifty
cents each. They are beautiful, unique
ornaments, unmlstakably suggestive Of
the sea- Swordfsh range in size all the
way from $50 to 600 pounds, and a
few have been taken twenty-five miles
southeast of Block Island that weighed
500 pounds. There is very little waste
about them, their hide is fairly smooth,
though tough and thick and hairy.
They cut up nicely into steaks an inch
or so many inches thick as you are
rNlaaEnI 70
packed in big boxes, iced, and sent
fresh as smelt right to the tables of the
New England consumers.
If New York hasn't really tried a
swordhsh steak, rightly cooked, Their
the great city, in the opinion of New
England country people, has missed {
tempting morseL Moreover, it is ;
cheap, extremely wholesome, appetizing
and nutritious food for the frugal toil.ns
millions.
Swedish have been taken in wonder
fully great numbers this season, and al
the sword fishermen are making MONEY
hand over fist at the sport. Then, too
the fishermen have learned better how
deity and successfully to hunt and lane
them, and almost every home returning
craft now bears on her deck the long
fierce, powerful bodies of from fifteer
to forty fish, weighing all the way from
$50 to 400 pounds each. On one da,
this week sixty-four fish, averaging 900
pounds in weight, were shipped t.
Boston from this port alone. Success
has stimulated the fishermen to devise
superior methods for taking them, anC
Capt. Frank Dodge of Block IslanC
fitted up steam yacht this week, ii
which he cruised for the game, With
steam, of course, he is not so greatly
handicapped at times by the cruising
vagaries of the big game. His best
record for a single cruise in his new
craft is a load of twenty-seven fish. In
returning from hunt, as he approaches
the island, he signals to the people or
shore the number of his catch with
blasts from his steam whistle.
A Speculation on Death.
When the typhoid fever epidemic
.,,oe mhap ,uare