The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1893-05-04
THE MAJORS BIG FISH STORY.
Catching Peculiar Marine Monster In
the G ulf OF Mexico.

Maj. H. ?. Ritzius, the United States
recruiting officer here, says the
Rochester Post Express, tells a great
fish story. 1t happened in 1870. 10
begin at the beginning" said the
major this morning, "in 1868 | was
stationed at Ship Island, in the Gulf
OF Mexico. Col. Bliss was in command
of the post and | was adiutant 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. Several 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. Whcn
fall came they went away. but returned
III The summer of 1870. Col. Bliss cN-
pressed desire that one of the fish
should be caught.
Accordingly the quartermaster. a
couple of soldiers. and myself started
out in small sailboat one morning.
We had provided ourselves with har-
poons, with plenty of rope attached.
Pretty soon we sighted one of the fish
and soon had harpoon in him. He
Immediately dove down and remained
under water foy SOrle time. He was
moving off, however, rs we could tell
by the way our linc was paving out.
Pretty soon he reappcaTed, aud we
sunk another harpoon in him. lie
dove again. This performance was re-
peatcd until we had eight harpoons in
the fish. BY this time we had been
tOWcd ont 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 wa near
ly winded. When lie came up again
we could see he was nearly dead, as he
made but feeble efforts to get away.
1t was not long before the revenue cut
ter Wilderness, which was cruising
near by, hove IN sight and took us
aboard. Our prize, which we should
not have been able 10 tow in, was
secured by ropes TO the cutter and
taken to the wharf. We managed to
get it on one of the hand cars used to
carry PROVISIONS trpH2 t6 t6bff fflHe Heh2Ef 2Esf, to the
post ~ wsto placed .,~,.--~.--He: e:
and measured.
"Fhe fish was IS feet long. 10 feet
wide, and feet through. This may
sound 'lishy,' but those are actual
measurements. We could not weigh
the monster entire, but cut him up into
pieces. He weighed 1,S)) pounds in
all. His mouth was t feet across and
3 feet deep. He had no teeth, so we
supposed he lived on matter gathered
in the water rs he swan along. His
flesh was not good TO eat, but was of
the same consistency as unreilned cod
liver oil. There were but few bones
in the body, and we could see where
our bullets had gone entirely, through
it. don't know if the shoal OF fish
appeared afterward, 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
Smithsonian institute at Washington,
but none of the people there had ever
heard of such a fish. He was broadest
across what might be called the
shoulders, attached to which were fins
floats, they might be more properly
caiied--with which he propelled him.
self | have often wondered what
species Of fish he was, but | suppose l
shall he yer find out"