The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1899-09-29
NO 50 8 Z
SAILORS AND SHARKS.

Two facts that may seem somewhat
peculiar 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. 1t is odd that so
large proportion of the naval sailors
don't know how to swim, but it is prob
ably due to the fact that great num-
Der of our men-o'-war's 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 l put all of
my service in the old navy, so called
the men who couldn't swim was, as soor
as the fact was discovered by his ship
mates, incontinently chucked over the
side when swimming call went, and he
just had to swim. Of course the men
wouldn't let a fellow drown before their
eyes, but they would see to it that he
made hard stab at the art of SWIM
ming before they picked him up. II
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 became swimmers be-
fore they left the service. 1t is forbid
den to throw nonswimmcr into the
water now, but think it would be a
good thing if the practice were still
continued
"The officers of the ships to-day in
sist upon the apprentice lads learning
to swim, but they let the nonswimmers
among the newly recruited landsmen
go along withoat learning. There
have been numerous drowning Incl
dents in our navy within recent years,
owing to the inability of men who were
otherwise excellent sailors, in the easy
art of swimming.
Gas to the cowardliness of sharks,
that fact is well known among men who
have been much to sea in southern
waters infested by man eaters. The
fercest man eater that ever bullied
poor little pilot into acting as food
scout for him will get out Of the sea
way in mighty big hurry if a swim
mer, noticing the sharks approach,
sets up noisy splashing. A shark is
in deadly fear of any sort of living
thing that splashes in the water.
"Down among the south sea islands
the natives never 60 in bathing alone,
but always in parties of halfa dozen or
so, in order that they may make the
greatest hubbub in the water and thus
scare the sharks away. Once in a
| while too venturesome swimmer
among these natives foolishly detaches
himself from his swimming party and
momentarily torgets to keep up his
splashing. Then there is sudden
swish, and the man eater comes up
behind him like flash and gobbles
him.
81 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 bathing. The officer gave him.
self up for lost, but he made frantic
effort to wade in to the beach. He ex-
pected every minute to have both 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
surprise, he stepped up on the beach
and looked back for his shark, he saw
the man eaters fin cleaving the blue
waters OF the bay hundreds of feet away,
bound outward"