The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1894-11-08
ADVENTURES AT SEA.
FROM AN OLD SAILORS LOG.

In the year 1868 [ signed papers
with Capt Delano of the brig Jose
phine for a voyage from Sidney to
Auckland and return. She was an
English craft. and was loaded with
general cargo and had made many
voyages across the New Zealand Sea.
The crew consisted of captain, mate,
cook, and four men before the mast,
and every one but the cook was white
and spoke English. | was then eighteen
years old and just out of my appren-
ticeship | should have had a second
mates berth, but the Josephine car
ried no such officer. The captain stood
his own watch, and there were occa-
sions when the mate had to go aloft
with the men. Capt. Delano was a
good sailor and good hearted man,
and there was nothing in the grub or
the dicipline to find fault with. We
left Sidney one morning with a fair
wind for the fifteen hundred mile
voyage, and had any one predicted
the queer adventures and the TRACE
dies which were to befall us he would
have been looked upon as a lunatic.
A portion of the story [ am going
to tell you appeared in some of the
Australian papers twenty years ago,
but only portion, and that full of
errors 1t was only month ago that
| was asked to send my affidavit to
certain facts to a lawyer at Melbourne,
and SO to the whole series Of adven-
lures IS fresh in my memory.
For the first three days out we had
fair winds and a smooth sea, and the
brig made fine progress. At mid
night On the third night the wind
shifted, blew up q squall which las
half an hour, and then died away as
flat as you please. We were left rol-
ling on the waves for an hour or two,
bnt when daylight came the surface
of the sea was without a ripple, while
there was not the slightest breath of
air moving above, The sun came up
like ball of fire, and the greenest
hand aboard knew we were IN for a
calm. 1t was terribly hot by mid
forenoon, and our humane captain or
dered all hands to knock off and make
themselves as comfortable as possible
By noon the brig was like an oven.
The decks were SO hot that even the
cook with his tough feet dared not
walk them unshod Down in the
fo'castle it was sitting, but as it was
worse on deck we had to stand it.
Ii was about noon when the cook,
who had gone to the side to throw
over some slops. called out to us to
come and see the largest shark which
human eyes ever beheld | craWled
up from the fO'castle, always curious
to see one of the monsters close at
hand, but expecting that the cook had
great y exaggerated, and when look
ed over the rail [ was astOunded.
There lay a shovel-nosed shark of
such dimensions that | dared not
credit my own eyesight. he lay
parallel and not over ten feet away,
and when, after a few minutes, cap
tain and all hands had reused up to
look at the fellow, we got his exact
length by tape line along the deck.
He was thirty two and One-half feet
long, with jaws capable of cutting
DulIOGh III TWO CiI OIlb Suup iIt ldN
with his great dorsal fin baking in the
hot sun, and SO near that we could see
every little detail. All agreed that
he was the largest shark any one had
ever seen, although all of Us had sail
ed on the warm seas, and some OF the
men had turned away when the cook
climbed upon the rail ana said he
would stop a little for a game with t h
big fellow. He meant by that that
he would have a talk with him. |
have met numbers Of ships cooks who
claimed to have made up" with
sharks and We're not afraid of being
hurt by them. The cook sat just OPP
posite tue sharks middle, and he had
begun to chant, when | passed for
ward intending to find missile, and
haaye it over and scare the mCster
away. L had just found an old bit Of
iron and got back to the rail when
there was a splash and yell. The
cook was in the water through some
careless move of his. [ had my eye
on the shark, and his movements
were like lightning With one hirt Of
his tail he slowed himself around, his
great jaws opened, and was looking
right down upon him as he took the
cook in clear to the middle and bit
him in two so slick and clean that the
upper part of his body rolled away
from the shark nose and remained
on the surface directly below me.
After half a minute 1t began slowly
to sink, but was not yet out of sight
when | saw the shark seize it As he
grabbed it he rushed away and we
saw him no more.