Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-08-20
TIGERS-ef THE SEA

"a poor little A,h,v two-foot shark that
saw caN up on one Of the Jersey beaches
the other day brought lot Of shark men,
cries back to me-" said youngish middle
aged man who put in a number of cruises.
boy and man. In the navy. Il had quite
few shark experiences when I was on the
old line Of government packets and I
found them out,t FIN just as much afraid
of sea tiger now las you'd be of a ships
kitten tapping condensed milk out of
ward-room saucer on the galley deck. only.
Of course, I'd do lot more moving when
shark was ABOUND and looking me over
than l would ira the presence of the kitten.
The first time shark ever got gay with
me was when was a tike of prentice on
the Old Swatara, down in the harbOr of
Mazatian, Mexico. 1 was starboard side
cleaner. ana one afternoon was cooked In
swing, sWaDbinS paint. and with my bare
feet hanging not above a twelfth of q
IA thom from tfle%wate
All OF sudden l noticed a little gilt
tering, gosgle-eyed and snout-nosed fish
a-rub5ering around lot in the little space
or water directly below where my feet
were swinging. He looked so perky and
impudent that was for throwing a CAKE
OF saltwater soap at him, but then l got
20 nguf1ng that the cat could look at the
king and that 1t wasn't doing me any harm
to have this little fish watch me polish off
my cleaning station, and so let him look,
ana presently l became so busy in trying
10 hight a. furtfve cigarette without the
onicer OF the deck spotting me that I for
got about the little snout-nosed fish.
presently an old bo'sun's mate walked
over to the starboard rail and looked down
at me.
Hey, you cub,.s he called down to me a
minute after he had taken his position at
the starboard rail. you'd better be gittin'
them toOtSieS o. your'n some few away
from tn watpr'S cd If don't want
to go shy pair O. feet for the balance o
the cruise. See that pilot fish lookin at
you an beckonin' his big shark mate down
below?'
This old bo'sun's mate was great
stringer to the prentices, and l was SO
sure that he was !sfrinSing me then that
l barely looked upsat him. 1t was good
thing that didn't look up just then-Id
probably be in the Snug Harbor, with two
wooden legs now, if l had looked up at
him Just at that instant.
For, continuing to look down as l
worked. 1 saw something whitey-gray
swishing to the surface of the blue water
something about twenty foot long, and the
for'ard ten foot of it, as 1t seemed to me,
all teeth, rows and rows of them-and then
1 got busy
Shin up, you whelp! the old bo'sun's
mate bawled al me through the funnel that
he made of his hands; and just as l
grabbed the port rope swinging the DO sun $
chair and started to go hand over hand up
to the rail. there was a shower OF salt
water that sounded like the breaking OF
water-spout just below me-and had my
first close view of a belly-up maneater.
He shot up above half fathom above
the water for me, but l already had hold
on the rail, and he missed me by quite
stretch. But as long as l was as a. sac,
cleaner 1 never swabbed paint from
bo'sun's chair after that with bare feet
My bare feet had been the bait for that
big shark, guided by his little pal the pilot
fish
bout threa wars after that I got some
more shark education at Papeete, Tahiti.
gang of seamen gunners-l was Just OUT
of my apprenticeship then-one day got per-
mission of theaofffcer of the deck 10 take
beach swim Sc we lowered away the
long boat sped her to the coral beach,
stripped and Went IN the buff, about eish-
at was very. hot and gummy weather.
and so we were not thinking about sharks;
although a thousand of them assembled
about the ship every time the COOK dumped
bucket of galley refuse througn .h .o SM,'
t TN aodi ve ever bee since particularly be-
cause there wasn,tia man or boy on board
thing about swimming. That's how 1t came
that. as soon as We jumped into the water
On the papset9 aBeath that day, proceeded
to outswim all the rest just TO snnw e was
ohont 100 wards ffYotn the beach. The only
naaso, Whv 1I4urned around then was be-
cause Cause i hsard IIet of noise from the
when turned saw about a, hundred re-,
lows from bur ship lined up on the oeaeh
at the edge of ne w ,nIr a sump ant me- and
reIIinp With all their might. But some
hing else that saw was a lot more I'M
nortant to me Than all that. mere , WEI
vet and shiny shark fins between me ana
tha beach some of them weren't hore
than ten yards from me- Inc ms W.
moving slowly on the surface OF Inc "a az,
0I Could see my pipe out in PLAIN we"
,ha, 7 stopped and tread water anu Iei
,,onsiv stamped the surface of the water WIN
Nv hands l noticed that when l siappett
the water particularly hara me sha aana and
-ara nearest to me sort OF edSeo odcA az" 81
;aIad nj q greater distance from me- ~
7 kent on slapping the water. 20 oe+
.'rhe sharks were waiting for me W 80
.,.aa nc that's all. They knew that woulon
. l4o., ok right through them, and they
i,eau TOO that I couldn't swim rignt aneau
few thousand knots TO the "a, 80
the Marauesas or the flJis' any a,nina
we're content TO take it easy each hsut.,s
on getting what was eoiiiis ~
the moment arrived. ftor mo IN one
of those sixty-foot long ana two.ao ura,,,ant
canoes with the outrigger arrangeHaen.
"a rniuar in the South seas. and, IN the DOW
of the canoe, and directing them, was an
old e-juicer of quartermaster from
Eri
g, Smash. han keep a-splashin', blast yr
b,a zin, heye-balls FIR a Yankee pup-heeJit!
ba WED the old lin1ejuicer at me as the
oanoe approa ched where l was in the mid
ale of the semi-circle of waiting sharks,
and with that l began to slap and kick the
water like sea skate fouled in the mud
II was a lot ratified. but as the canoe
annroached l noticed that all of the ma
lives that weren't helping to pull the canoe
were leaning over the side and slappng
and churning the water with all their
might and main. and making all of the
roise out of their countenances that they
knew how to- That settled it. The sharks
disnersed like bunch of stampeded noun
tain goats and was hauled into the canoe
and bawled at by the old lime-juicer for
nv bloomink Yankee heejiocy until we
nulled up on the beach.
"That was when l first found out by
actual experience what every deep-going
sailor in the South seas knows, that the
shark is the worst coward that swims.
and that he is twenty times more afraid
Of a splashing human being In the water
than a water moccasin Is Of bowling
small boy in an inland creek.
How Ripple Marks Grow.
From the London Engineering.