The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1904-09-07
BIGGEST CAPTIVE SHARK.
DWELLS WITH Il NEW TURTLE
IN THE BATTERR AQUARIUM.

Leatherback and a Hundred Pounds
Lighter-Both Caught by Fishermen
Near New York.
Fish stories from the Aquarium, UNI
less Yised by an official of the New
York Geological society, are usually re-
ceiyed at the Ship News office with the
same faith that is placed in rumors
from Chefoo. So, when a Battery boat
man breathlessly told the ultramarines
yesterday that one thousand pound
turtle and a seventeen-foot shark in the
main tank Of the Aquarium were In
| deadly combat, there was a disposition
to scott and refer to sea serpent rumors
Of the past that had not panned out.
The boatman talked with such earn
estness, however. that he broke up the
poker game, and the whole combina-
tion. startling the Battery cops by its
unwonted activity, headed for the
Aquarium. The boatman fired his
deadliest shaft as the ultramarlnes hur-
ried off. He said that the shark had
grabbed the sea turtle by the tail, that
| tAAC Ilclu LSluIilGo Tic
and that the spray from the eomba-
tants as they looped the loop was worse
than that of the fountain at City Hall
Park on a gusty day.
Everything was found to bepeaeeful
at the Aquarium. There was a big
crowd around the main tank, and in
the tank, looking as serene as If they
had been brought up there together,
We're the sea turtle, fine big, healthy
looking leatherback, and an enormous
and agile sand shark, nine feet long by
official measurement.
The shark was not bothering the big
ileatherback, and the latter did not seem
4 TO care anything about the existence Of
the shark. The expert who has charge
Eof the big and little fishes and the
mammals of the Aquarium said that he
believed that IL baby should fall into
the big tank the sand shark would be
more frightened than the infant. II it
| got very hungry the shark might tackle
1 some of the two and three foot sand
1 sharks In the tank, but 1t would hardly
| try to eat a leatherback.
/ There never had been a shark so
large in any aquarium, the expert said,
and if the great creature had not been
almost in a state Of coma when II was
brought up from the lower bay, just
this side Of Sandy Hook, 1t might new
er have been on exhibition. One slap
of its powerful and elusive tail would
be enough to knock down even a man
as steady on his pins as the giant JEFF
4 fries. #. .sr>..5
That, the expert said, was the only
thing he feared about the big shark. It
has not man-eating propensities, In
fact. 1t would nee from man sWifter
:. than a coyote would, and 1t did not like
anything except dead flesh, anyhow.
i Nevertheless, it was a great acquis,-
ition, and, with the turtle, made the
Aquarium far ahead of anything In its
| line anywhere in the world. All the
fish exhibits at the st. Louis EXPOSE
ton, the expert said, were mere side
| shows compared with the New York
Geological soeiety's exhibition.
The big shark was caught on Friday
morning In pond net by a fisherman
named Schmoor. While pursuing fish
it became entangled in the net, which It
broke In many places in it's effort 10 re-
lease itself. The fisherman thought at
first, from the eommotion the fish cree
ated, that 1t was little less than a
whale. After it had wearied itself into
a condition Of comparative calmness
the fishermen, who use beamy naphtha
launches nowadays, lassoed the big
creature fore and aft with hawsers and
dragged 1t ashore.
They saw that there was money In so
large a fish and decided to take 1t to
the Aquarium. They put 1t in a seow
previously filled with water, and, after
making the shark fast, put the scow
athwart the wide launch and headed
for the Battery, They were forced to
go slowly, as the shark weighs nearly
five hundred pounds, and they did not
know when 1t might revive bit and
try to switch its tail.
1t took the fishermen five hours to get
to the back door Of the Aquarium, and
they found their eight men ready to re-
ceive the shark. The Aquarium expert
thought when he first looked at the
creature that 1t was dead. But Its tail
moved slowly few times and then the
eight men forced a piece of canvas url-
der 1t and lifted It to the pier. They
carried 1t into the Aquarium and let It
slide from the canvas into the big tank
For more than an hour 1t lay SO still
THAT there was an impression that Il
Twas dead. But when the Aquarium
folks came around yesterday morning
they found that the shark had done
liwkewise. 1t sized about the big poo
like an auto boat striving for record
but it did not modest the big leather.
back, which had been dumped into the
pool while the shark was recovering Iii
wits. &
Being somewhat Of an amphibion thu
lleatherback was not much incommodet
by it's long absence from the sea. ]
was caught a few days ago off Ba.
Head, N. J., by men who were hauling
a seine. 1t is four hundred pounde
and is about five feet long from nose t