Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1904-04-27
THE TIGER
OF THE SEA

vi I'LL sOHA
In the year 1870 l shipped aboard
the English brig Ruby for voyage
from London to Ceylon, calling at the
island of Mauritius, off the east coast
of Madagascar. From London to the
island not a 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 Il 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 a sud-
den rush, but only for a 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 had learned caution, however, and
he sank down until he had two feet Of
water over him. Some Of the men
dropped objects over the bow with
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 a 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 large swordfish sleeping
on the dancing waves. We were with
in 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
Si0ht IF tho Shorl- ctpI1nly ha
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, shark twen-
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 -four
barrel into his mouth.
There was no shark hook aboard,
but the captain, being willing to 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 it was fed out
piece by piece to that shark till the
last pound was gone. 1t was so stated
by officers and men, and there is no
reason to doubt their veracity.
When the pork was finished, 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 go eight days with
out eating 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 a 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 a
shark fourteen feet long. He had come
aboard with 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
q shark nine feet long in their nets and