Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-07-20
DAILY SHORT STORY
The Tiger of the Sea.

of dagascar From London to the
island not n single shark was sighted.
Thirty miles off the island, as the voy-
age was resumed, a shark, judged to
be twenty feet long, suddenly appeared
on the port quarter not over fifteen
feet from the side of the vessel.
We tempted him with all kinds of
bait, but he refused everything. First
we gave him piece of pork on hook.
He paid no attention to it. We chang
ed to beef, then. to chicken, but he
would touch neither.
1t was noon next day before we tried
the shark again, but we had no better
luck. He simply ignored the bait. The
men began to whisper about accident
and death. and the captain brought
up blunderbuss loaded with slugs and
took fair shot at the fellow. He was
only about n foot below the surface,
and the heavy charge struck him at
the base of the dorsal fin and nearly
tore it away. The shark made q sud-
den rush, but only for few feet. The
smoke had not yet blown away when
he resumed his old position. His start
was one of surprise instead of pain.
he sank down until he had two feet of
water over him. Some Of the men
dropped objects over the bow with Il
great splashing, but the shark paid no
attention to the noise.
For nine long days and nights he
kept the place where we had first seen
him, and during this time we had two
or three squalls and two days Of heavy
weather So long as a man leaned
over the rail to watch him he kept his
wicked eyes fastened on that man, and
when any one was aloft and laying
out on yard the brute's jaws could
be seen working as If he had the taste
of a sailor on his tongue. He might
have followed us to the end of the voy-
age but for a curious incident
On the morning of the ninth day we
approached a large sworCifish sleeping
on the dancing waves. We were with
in a hundred feet of him when the
creakIng OF the yards or the voices OF
the men disturbed him and he came
tearing down on the port side and ran
right over the shark and away out Of
sight. If the shark was not struck he
was at least badly frightened, for he
made off and we did not set eyes on
him again.
While the American bark Rocket,
from New York to Santos, was lying
becalmed on the equator, a shark TWEEN
ty-four feet long suddenly appeared
on her starboard side amidships and
only few yards away. He lay head
and tail with the ship, and the car
penter got his length to an inch by
measurements along the rail. The
spread Of the monsters jaws was such
that he could easily have taken a flour
barrel into his mouth.
There was no shark hook aboard,
but the captain. being willing 70 divert
the crew, gave them leave to throw
over a lot of pork which had become
unfit for eating. There were four full
barrels OF this pork, and II was fed out
piece by piece to that shark till the
last poua& was gone. 1t was so stated
by officers and men. and there is no
reason to doubt their veracity.
When the pork was finished, a piece
of beef was thrown over the port rail.
and the shark dived under the ship
and seized it. How much longer he
would have gone on eating no one
could say, as there was no more to
give him. He seemed to be as raven
Gus for the last piece as for the first.
How one shark could hold all that
meat and another 20 eight days with
out eating a thing is yet another Ques-
ton for discussion.
While off the southeast coast of
Java In the New Bedford whaler
Joshua Lee we one day came upon a
native craft floating on her beam ends.
She had q crew of six men aboard,
but they were frightened and helpless.
The craft had no cargo In her and had
taken considerable water through her
single hatchway, which had been left
open.
We sent a boat and cut away her
masts and righted her, and then a
strange discovery was made. There
was three feet of water In her hold,
and dashing about in the water was q
shark fourteen feet long. He had come
aboard with a sea, and instead of being
left on deck had gone down the hatch
way. The natives abandoned the wreck
for the whaler and three weeks later
she was drifted ashore on the Sandal
wood island with the shark still alive
and rushing about, although he had
had nothing to eat and the water was
very foul.
On that same cruise the whaler ran
into the port Of Barring. Java, to make
repairs. Some fishermen had caught
shark nine feet long In their nets. and
he had been lying on the beach three
hours when l saw him. Some of our
barrel. knocked out both heads and
slipped the shell over the shark and
drove it down to his bulge. He was
then rolled into the water, and the tide
fioated him out In quarter Of an
hour he was swimming about and
headed for the open sea.
Sixteen days later, when 300 miles to
the south, that selfsame shark came
alongside. There could be no doubt Of
his identity because he still wore his
xvnodou The I'm Frpl had SHRINK