The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1894-12-08
4 TRUTHFUL SAILOR.
RELATES THE EXPERIENCE IN WHICH
HE SWORE NEVER TO LIE.

tx DIVINE NGSCn ~ LIZ
Seamen, Father and Son, Swallowed
by a Shark. hut Both Were Rescued In
q Marvellous Manner-A Day That Was
Certainly Very Hot.
Have l ever seen 4 shark? Ask my
nnate-him that's rowing that ere cou-
PIE out yonder. We were shipmates to-
sether aboard the Rajapootah India
man. His father, who is dead and gone
this 90 year OF more, WAS carpenter
aboard of her.
b We'll, one day we were becalmed on
the line, when, says young Bill-he was
young Bill then, him as I 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.
In fact, a pig we killed the day
afore we hung aloft and roasted him il
the sun, catching the gravy in bucket,
and he was done beautifully.
$50 in he goes head first, with his
clothes Oh, 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 a tremendous
shark. with his sides sticking out as if
he had a cargo inside over and above
his regular bill of lading.
ut was then as clear to US as the
nose on our faces that poor Bill had
Owed clear down his throat.
1.-The poor old man had a fit right
away, aud 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 the 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 MAJ was getting on, and to our
astonishment and sorrow we found his
body nearly cold and as stiff as the fly
ing jibboom.
"We 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 messmate, and 1 was very
fond Of the old man.
"As soon as the skipper had finished
the last words, which / 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.
The boatswain at once ran for the
shark hook and baited it with a hunk OF
pork and slung it over the stern, and il
was not many minutes afore we had
him hooked and hauled on deck.
"Well, the first thing we did was tc
cut his tail off, for he was tapping il
about so that it shook the ship from
stem to stern, that we were afraid il
| would shake her to pieces.
"After we had done that we thought
we heard a very strange noise inside OF
him-a sort of grating sound, like a boat
being dragged owe a shingly beach.
$50 we set to and cut off his head
and then ripped him up, when, what
dye think? What should we see, to oul
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
the creatures belly.
"You say 1 said the old man was
dead? Please don't interrupt me, ant
I'll tell you all about it.
"There's no doubt but what he seem
ed dead, but it was only his blood frozt
with horror, and the shark warmed hin
to life again. What made him most III
comfortable, Bill said, was the slip
peryness and topsy turvyness of tht
place, for there was no rest at all, fol
Il minute he was standing on hi
head and the next on his feet, and ther
he would be tossed from one side to tht
other, sometimes getting jammed be
tween the ribs and he wondered ths