The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-07-09
THE TIGER OF THE OCEAN.
STRENGTH AND FEROCITY or THE
HAMMERHEAD SHIRE.

Trnp in which He Is Taken.
Sailor though you may havo been for
score OF years and never given cause for man
to call you coward there comes time when
you feel tho creeps and your knees grow
weak" said a man who was a whaer once.
That time is when you look over the rail of
| ship rising and fDllinR on a calm and find
big hammerhead shark looking UP into your
eyes The white shark is voracIous and merci-
less. but the tiger Of tho sen, as the hammer
| head Is called. is worse than that He Is the
most repulsive looking fish that swims. He
| will take UP the trail OF n ship like n blood
| hound and his pcrsistency Is menacing and
| malignant. white shark can be frightened
| or beaten off even after scizng his prey. but
| the hammerhoad shuts his Jaws like n bulldog
| and will be cut to pieces before he will lot GO
| man in the water may dodge tho rush OF a
| white shark. but the tiger never misses his
| mark. He hasn't the speed OF the other. but 1t
| is his slower gait which makes him moro
| tain OF his victim
| while the hammerhcad shark may DO
| caught all along the Atlantic coast. his true
| cruising grounds are in the tropical seas. To
! get among the big ones you must voyage up tho
| Bay Of Bengal or coast along tho great barrier
reef of Australia. You will find the white
| shark there, too. but the two species never
| run In the same school. | do not know that
| they quarrel when they meet but certain it is
| that they avoid each other. 1t is seldom that
| big shark Is caught in Northern waters. but in
! the tropical seas twelve footcr. either white
| or hammerhead, Is looked upon with con-
| tempt One day. as the ship White Wings was
| becamed about fifty miles of the coast OF Mad
agascar hammcrhcad tshark of such sizc ap-
| pearod alongside that he was ut first taken for
| n whale. Ho remained with us for over an
| hour. lying like a log on the water and 1t
| was easy to get his dimensions. or at least his
| length. He was exactly thirty-thrce feet long
! and about the size Of n flour barrel. If tow
| line could have been made fast to that fish he
| had the horse powerto enable him to drag us
| along. While tho white shark is swifter and
more supple. tho hammerhcad has more Of
| what might be called pounding power As an
| illustration Of what he can do out CT the water
will cite the OF an Australian coasting
| schooner called the Wanderer / was in the
whaling shin Paul Jones and we were anchored
| of ono Of the Kangaroo islands. on the east
coast. to wood and water The Wanderer,
| which was northward bound came to anchor
| quite near us to make good some damage re-
ivednIoft in squat. The water was alive with
hungry hammcrhcads. and the captain Of tho
coaster put over hook. A shark eighteen feet
long soon took it and after half an hours hard
work was hauled over the rail The fish
seemed to be played out as they hauled him in,
but no sooner did he feel tho deck under him
than he began business. Tho blows he struck
with his tai! could have been heard mile
back there was a crash which told Of splintorei
nan rSsi, IN Ten minutes that ish almost made
warks, shivercd planks and broke stanchions
as Il they were sticks and chips. and harness
overheard as il sent by a powder explosion.
The carpenter managed to sever the tail with
at s ma Ra no mGS s TGP hn hk
been free, in the hold OF the schooner believe
ne would have started dozen butt-cnds and
| "a a hnr
q" In his native element big shark has two
sorts OF power-the go-ahcad and the reverse
ages. we killed a whale sXty-two feet long. In
bulk he seemed to be an island. and his weight
three boats made fast to tow the whale down to
! the ship. We had been straining our backs for
moving yet. when hammcrh"ad shark about
twenty feet long dashed in and SGT his jaws
got q firm hold he began pulling back and
shaking his head. as you have seen dog pull
tenraway that shark kept reversing his engines
m ~ ne had turned The big body VICE around |
rid of him We had TO almost cut him into |
powers OF shark. perhaps there has never |
se's TIT wnch g"yr his 2cma
BIZ U ime Who Gn
pursued bather too far and had been strand. |
the free end s " raft Tt WICK h SSa @%a
structed ont Of driitwo"d. According to their
and the thew raj" Tns sn TG"5 %GGy d i"
on it, II was bulky, unwicldy thing. and yet |
when they got shark and raft clear, Of The
Steamboat speed and seemed to make little of
tn" drag in his wake. He was passed by
still Keeping up his stroke.
.,,I have known white shark to follow tho
around after food. While the Paul Jones was
head fell in with us one day and stuck by us
for eight days and half without changing his
sailed $50 miles. None of us could figure out
how the shark got anything TO eat in all that
got n,morscl The idea that a shark follows
ship for the food thrown overheard is false
when sharks were following or skuking under
the counter and they would not move, A ham
lowed the English ship Red Lion 2lso 'T miles les
on on Toyagn to Australia. Food was thrown
would not touch It, The White Vita shark Rs Of Of
h her tF tIn seas as difnays mere erceness
compared to the ,hammerhcad In the year
~ tn" brig Southern Cross from Calcutta TO
northern end OF the Indian Ocean. She had
three passengers and n crew Of fourteen men.
whsy b En Of r"m he wreck on r1 but ,hs
beach The raft was surrounded by hammer
head sharks: and by suniown, when 1t was
seventeen chstaways was left. The sharks
the people overheard
In the year 1889. whilo we were landing
some cattle from u coaster in Portland Bay
Australin, the sling broke and large Devon
bull fell into the water This was about half
mile from tho beach and in water fifteen feet
deep The bull started for shore. but ham
merhead shark seized him by the right hip
almost ut once. The shark was only about
fourteen feet long and tho hull was strong
enough to have pulled tree up by the roots,
and yet the shark began towing him out to sea |
Boats were lowered and we went for the fish,
We beat him with ath"oks stabbed him with
knives and fired six bullets into him from a |
revolver, but he wouldn't let &c. Then wa
fastened towr9pc, 90 tn" horns, of the bun and
towed him to: the beach and the shark came
with him and was Killed with an axe on tho
sands. The flesh was not badly torn but at
the G"y fe th G ha
Gardens al Bombay were, seeking for q
snecimGn hnmmer-he head. The price offered
were caught with hooks. but none lived
beyond few hours. II was finally, dis
by the hook heh them TO dnAth. Thnn a