Evening star., 1898-06-18
SAILORS AND SHARKS

1.-TWO facts that may seem somewhat Pc
ouliar to shore folks" said an ex-sailor Of
the navy, "are, first. that only about one
half OF the men-o'-war's men in our service
or In any other service, in fact, know how
to swim, and. second. that sharks are the
most cowardly of all living creatures. It
is odd that so large q proportion Of the
naval sailors don't know how to swim, but
1t Is probably due to the fact that a great
number Of our man-o'-war's men nowadays
come from the interior of the country,
where there is no water for them to learn
how to swim. In the old navy-and I put
all of my service in in the old navy, so
called-the man who couldn't swim was
as soon as the fact was discovered by his
shipmates. incontinently chucked over the
side when swimming call went. and he just
had to swim. OF course the men wouldn't
let fellow who didn't know how to swim
drown before their eyes, but they would
see to it that he made a hard stab at the
art of swimming before they picked him
up. If he didn't succeed in swimming the
first time. overheard he would go the very
next time all hands took plunge over the
side at swimming call, and thus all of the
men serving On the old line Of packets be-
came swimmers before they left the serv-
ice. 1t is forbidden to throw a non-swim-
mer into the water now, but l think it
would be good thing If the practice were
still continued. The officers of the ships
today insist upon the apprentice lads learn
ing to SWIM but they let the non-swimmers
among the newly recruited landsmen go
along without learning. There have been
numerous drowning incidents in our navy
within recent years, owing to the inability
of men who were otherwise excellent sail
ors In the easy art of swimming.
AS to the cOwardliness of sharks, that
fact is well known among men who have
been much to sea in southern waters in
tested by man-eaters. The fiercest man.
eater that ever bullied poor little pilot
fish into acting a food scout for him
will get out of the seaway in a mighty big
hurry If swimmer, noticing the sharks
approach, sets up noisy splashing. 4
shark is in deadly fear of any sort of liv-
ing thing that splaShes in the water Down
among the South Sea Islands the natives
never go in sea bathing alone, but always
in parties of half a dozen or So in order
mat they make the greatest hubbub in the
water and thus scare the sharks away
once in while a too-ventureSome swim
iner among these natives fooishly de-
taches himself from his swimming party
ana momentarily fOrgets to keep UP his
splashing. Then there is a sudden swish
ana the man-eater comes up beneath him
like fash and gobbles him. / know a
naval officer who down in the harbor of
acapulco Mexico, one afternoon few
years ago stepped on sleeping man-eater
In shallow water while in bathing The
officer gave himself up for lost but he
made frantic effort to wade in to the
beach. He expected every minute to have
both of his legs Topped off by the sharks
teeth. In wading in he of course, made a
lot of disturbance in the water, and this
Is what saved him. When, to his own sur
prise, ne hnally stepped up on the beach
and looked back for his shark he saw the
man-eater's fin cleaving the blue waters O..
ward"