Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-10-08
A TRUTHFUL SAILOR.
RELATES THE EXPERIENCE IN WHICH
HE SWORE NEVER TO LIE.
Two Seamen, Father and Son, Swallowed
by a Shark, but Both Were Rescued In
@ Marvellous Manner-A Day That Was
Certainly Very Hot.

Marvellous Manner-A Day That Was
Certainly Very Hot.
"Have I ever seen shark? Ask my
mate-him that's rowing that ERE cou-
pie out yonder. We were shipmates to-
gether aboard the Rajapootah India
man. His father, who is dead and gone
this 90 year or more, was carpenter
aboard Of her.
"Well, one day we were becalmed on
the line, when, says young Bill-he was
young Bill then, him as just pointed
out to you-says he, I shall have a
swim round for a cooler, for, believe
me, the sun was that hot we had to
throw buckets Of water on the deck to
keep it from catching fire. .,
SIN fact, a pig we killed the day
afore we hung aloft and roasted him in
the sun, catching the gravy in bucket,
and he was done beautifully.
$50 in he goes head first, with his
clothes on, and me and his old man
looked over the side just abaft the fore
rigging to see him come to the top of
the water again.
"But no Bill could we see, and in
stead of him up came tremendous
shark. with his sides sticking out as If
he had cargo inside over and above
his regular bill of lading.
ut was then as clear to us as tho
nose on our faces that poor Bill had
dived clear down his throat.
1.-The poor old man had fit right
away, and we carried him below and
put him in his hammock and then ran
up on deck again in the hope that we
should be able to catch tho fellow.
"But it was nowhere to be seen, SO
after watching some time to no pur-
pose we went down below to see how
the old man was getting on, and to our
establishment and sorrow we found his
body nearly cold and as stiff as the fly
ing jibboom.
eve sewed him up in his hammock,
putting the grindstone that he used to
grind his tools with inside to make it
sink and laid the body on a hatch, with
the union jack spread over it for a pail.
"Then the skipper read the funeral
service, all Of US standing round dread
fully cut up, me especially, for young
Bill was my mossmate, and l was very
fond of the old man.
Gas soon as the skipper had finished
the last words, which l shall never for
get, they was so solemn, the hatch was
tipped up, and overheard the body went
with q splash, and all was over, at least
we thought so.
"But almost Immediately afterward
up comes another shark, a bigger one,
it seemed, than the first
'"Tho boatswain at once ran for the
shark hook and baited it with hunk OF
pork and slung it over the stern, and it
was not many minutes afore we had
him hooked and hauled on deck.
"Well, the first thing we did was to
cut his tail off, for he was Tapping it
about so that it shook the ship from
stem to stern, that we were afraid it
would shake her to pieces.
"After we had done that we thought
we heard very strange noise inside Of
him-a sort of grating sound, like boat
being dragged over shingly beach.
$50 we set to and cut off his head
and then ripped him up, when, what
dive think? What should we see, to our
great establishment and delight, but Bill
and his father sitting upright like two
Jonahs, the youngster turning the grind
stone and the old man sharpening his
knife, intending to cut their way out of
tho creatures belly.
"You say I said the old man was
dead? Please don't interrupt me, and
I'll tell you all about it.
"There's no doubt but what he SEEM
cd dead, but it was only his blood frozc
with horror, and the shark warmed him
to life again. What made him most I'M
comfortable, Bill said, was the slip
peryness and topsy turvyness OF the
place, for there was no rest at all, for
one minute he was standing on his
head and the next on his feet, and then
he would DO tossed from one side to the
other, sometimes getting damned be-
tween the ribs, and he wondered the
meal didn t disagree with the fish itself.
"But at last came the climax, and
Bill thought it was all over with him.
for down its throat was shot a heavy
body like that Of sack of coal right
atop OF MIN, nearly sWotherlnS HILL 81
that he had scarcely room to move or
breathe, and he must have been some
time insensible, he said, when he was
woke up with loud report.
HE thought for moment the crea-
ture had swallowed powder barrel and
it had exploded, but it was only the
bursting of the canvas shroud the old
man was sewed up in, which had blown
up like paper bag.
''The noise in its inside, Bill said,
must have astonished the shark, for he
again found himself standing upon his
head, SO he knew it was making for the
lurface, and on reaching there it opened
Its enormous jaws for air, when a flood
Of light entered between the rows of
teeth which enabled Bill ON gaining his
feet to take stock Of his lodgings, and
the very first thing that he saw was his
bid father crawling out from under the
canvas like chick from its shell.
''The old man had caught sight OF
the grindstone and soon put it into
IL q Il.