The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-10-13
SWORDSMEN OF THE SEA
Description of Terrible Battle Between Swordfish
Whale in the Pacific Ocean--tiow These Outlaws of
the Sea Attack Their Prey.

The passengers on a little steamer
that makes daily trips between San
Pedro harbor, near Los Angeles. and
Santa Catalina Island, some thirty
miles out in the Pacific ocean, were the
interested spectators the other day of
a terrific battle between two sea mon
sters, says a writer in the New York
Post. Viewed from the deck of the
steamer, about mile away from the
scene of combat, all that could be made
out was a small mountain of mist toss
ing in the air, at the base of which a
huge black tail churned the water like
the blades of screw propeller. The
monster, a very large sized whale,
turned this way and that. lashing its
black tail and beating the water so
that the sound came like claps of thun-
der TO everyone on board the Catalina
Island boat. The whale suddenly turn
ed, and, spouting a powerful stream
of water and blood some twenty feet
in the air, dashed the water with sew
eral powerful flaps of its tail and sank
beneath the surface of the ocean.
The little steamer made for the
scene of the battle with all speed but
when the boat reached the spot where
the whale had been nothing but foam
ing water Redeemed with blood was to
be seen. There were several sailors
on board the steamer, and they all
agreed that battle to the death be-
tween a swordfish and a female whale
had been fought before their eyes.
A dozen or more old men who sit
about the docks and custom house at
San Pedro and San Diego, after a long
career in the whaling fields of the Pa
cific ocean, say that the battle be-
tween the whale and the swordfish last
week was not uncommon. Several Of
them say that they have witnessed Just
such fights. In nearly every case the
swordfish is the attacking party. Many
men who have been on whaling voy-
ages have found wounds in the car
casses of whales that were undoubt-
eddy left there by swordfish. 1t is sell
dom, however that one is able to stab
the whale to death.
A Duel TO the Death.
The swordfish is utterly without fear,
and WILL like a buffalo or rhinoceros,
charge anything that offends it, often
doing an amount of execution hardly
to be believed. Combats between sword
fish are most interesting, and may
be compared to a duel between two
expert swordsInen. Such a contest
was observed off the long pier that
extends out into the ocean at Santa
Monica, near Los Angeles, last year.
Some fishermen noticed two big fish
leaping out Of the water, and dashng
along the surface. Soon it was seen
that they were swordfsh. 1t was the
vyh he ch
cious. They had made several rushes,
and when observed were at close
quarters, striking. each other powerful
side blows like cavalrymen. This was
unsatisfactory and finally they separ-
ated and darted directly at each other
They evidently struck head-on, one
missing, while the sword of the other
struck just below the eye, and plough
ed q deep furrowi in the flesh, partly
disabling the fish so that it turned
and attempted to escape. But its ad.
versary also turned. and with a rush
drove its sword completely through the
body of It's foe. and held it fast, only
wrenching its weapon loose when Its
enemy stopped swimming.
This one lunge finished the battle
and the victor left the field. The van
quished, floating on the surface, was
picked up by the fishermen. The
wounds In the dead fish were exam
ined by several hundred people in Los
Angeles and Santa Monica. They gave
ample evidence of the extraordinary
strength of the thrust of a swordfish.
The force with which a swordfish
strikes has been variously estimated,
but that 1t Is equal to that which
drives a twenty four-pound shot from
a howitzer will be easily believed after
viewing the results.
In the waters of California three