Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1904-01-30

I
| The defunct old whaling town of Mar
! tha's Vineyard is full of retired sea can
taihS, Who, having made n competency
! by Following the sea in the palmy days
/ OF whaling. are now living in compare
/ i've aftiuence III town where human
/ wants are few. These old captains are
( fuil of interesting stories of hairbreadt
escapes, and not few of these yarns are
amusing.
| One of the best. known of the old sea-
farerS Is Capt. Cyrus Ii. Fuller He is
now dried mp old tar of ~ winters.
VITA snow white hair and brazen cont
pleCted, the result of exposure Ia arctic
frostS and torrid sun. Capt Fuller is
| won't To tell an amusing story of some
thing that happened many years ago in
the South seas.
Wall. we WIS bowling along at
good clip, Capt Fuller said. in telling
ms story. in latitude - degrees south
and longitude 12J degrees west 'arly in
the year 1860, with all sails a DRAWN.
WIS fuSt matte On that voyage, when
the helmsman came for'ard and reported
shat there was a tremendous big fish fol-
lerin the boat.
Il Went To the starn and sure huff
there was one of them big man-eatin'
sharks keeping right abreast the shin.
wan, shlver my timberS. he was "A pow
ertul critter, the biggest one ever | see
Wall, when you're out in mid-ocean il
! -
That shark was powerful hungry and We
amused oursers for a while feedin' him.
lie was powerful hungry and was not ii
bit particular, and gobbled up every
thing. Hard tack was only an appetizer
for him. and we hove him some salt
boss. The taste of flesh, even il il was
TWO years old. nearly set the old Teller
crazy. Finally we began to play tricks
ON the shark, an tin cans an sch like
things was hove overheard They was
guiped down as gleefuliy as the other
things.
When night shut down." the old cap.
tain continued. the old critter was still
totlcrm us aud III the mornin' he was
stu there. keeping his fierce hungry eyes
en- us. We stopped feeding the shark.
Tor he would have eaten us out a ship
in a short time. He got our table leav-
ms. however, but this was nulhiu' 10 his
awful appetite You better believe.
What was nj first m amusement for
Us fclers S0on got to be manufOnouS
You know n sailor is likely to fall over
board most any time and il one of us
telerS had once left tn, ,;unwale nf
dat ere ship ii would have zen all day
with him, for that shar yoGd have
gohbled him mp before VI. could have
said Jack Robinson Wlten the third
mornin came and that critter was stilI
Iollerm us we began to be worried.
Every ;ime we went tn the gnnwaie
those hungry eyes devoured us. There
was almost y hypnotic mower in them
orhs When we had sluug our ham
Knocks we could still see them eyes gla~-
irg ut us. \ council OF war was held
and we resolved ON that sharks destrue-
ton.
"Fust we got out our best harpooner,"
Capt. Fuller continued "He was a
crack marksman, but try as hard as he
would he could not hit that fish We
hnatly came to the conclusion that the
only way Ia end that shark was through
his stomach. This was a step toward
| the solution. The second mate suggest
ed pison, but we didn't have no poison
| 70 amount 10 anything on board snip.
! So that plan had 10 be given mp. Wall,
| would We believe it, il fell TO the lot Of
| the cabin boy to find a way to get rid Of
that fish. and this is the way we did IT,
| we sent n snilor down in the blge 10
| get good sized ballast stone He came
| up with one about ten inches through.
Although we hadn't got no whales for
several weeks, our trying kettle and hue
was in place We built up tremendous
fire IN the Hue and put the ballast rock
in IL. To over AN hour we deaped the
fuel into that ere tue When we took
the stone out II was white hot We
had hard work To get the stone to the
gunwale, but we managed To do so. and
overheard ii went There was Il tre-
mendous hiss when il struck the water
and quick as cash that shark had Cob
hled it up. That was the end of the
critter That appeased his hunger all
right | guess and we had no further
trouble from our man-cnting shark.