East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1913-04-19

Rosenberg of this city and himself
: formerly jeweler in the Sawtelle and
Schaefer stores of this city, writes to
his father from Honolulu that he
has just had his first shark hunt and
he describes the event in a way that
is interesting. A singular coincidence
is that almost at the same time, Mr.
| Rosenberg received the letter, the
Pacific Motor Boat came out with
story of the same hunt and young
Rosenberg is easily recognized in one
of the pictures. The following por-
ton of the letter will serve to show
the manner in which the big maneat-
ers are caught:
| Dear Dad:
This is not going to be a letter, but
story entitled my First Shark
! Hunt for I've spent the most excit-
ing day of my life. Yes, even more
exciting than the Roundup, more so
to me because 1 took part in it. I'm
going to start from the beginning
First horse is gotten. 1 have very
good friend whose father is a horse
| doctor and when an old or sick horse
is gotten the old man gives him to
us for shark hunt. Then a party is
gotten up who rent a tug for the day.
First a rope is tied around the horses
head, he is then shot and when killed
pulled in the water and the trip is
started with the horse trailing along
behind with a rope.
We go out about six miles and
stop. pull in the horse and bleed him
by cutting the throat. He is then
lei drift out with the rope still around
him about flftg yards and then We sit
and watch, and while waiting the
kanaka Ga native) told us what to do.
for there was only four of us to do
the dirty work, two natives young
doctor and myjelf, the rest of the
party being new comers and older
people. Also few ladies who char
tered the tus for the excitement and
pleasure.
After waiting about twenty minutes
Buck spied shark who would swim
arGgnd the horse and then dive down
and come back and swim around with
out touching the horse. After awhile
three more fins were spied and then
things were getting interesting. They
would swim around and around, get
ting closer all the time and after an
hour after seeing the first shark one
of them bit I'll never forget the bite
as long as I live, those immense jaws
| coming out of the water and landing
/ on that horse. Then the fun began.
I The kanaka. Doc and l pulled the
| horse in slowly and then with all our
| might for the horse was not small
/ nor the shark either. After getting
| a hold the shark never let's go until
| he has his mouthful. When near the
/ boat the other kanaka throws the
| harpoon, the sharks jaws close,
| seeming to cut the horse in two
which he did for he bit a little be-
I low the rump and he took the whole
| leg, bit through bone and all and
then the fight starts. His tail flaps
| around and soaked US with water.
After the harpoon is thrown we drop
| the horse, the four of US grab the
| harpoon rope. I pulled until l saw
blue in front of me and from reports
| / guess the others did, too, but he
was too strong and got about 80 feet
| of rope before he got it fastened to
one of the stays, the shark fighting
fiercely and every time he gave US
an inch of slack, when getting ready
to plunge we would cinch 1t in and
in about twenty minutes had him
alongside the boat still fighting. Then
the kanaka tied his rope like larfat
and when the big tail came out Of the
water he had 1t lassoed as good as
any Oregon cowboy could have done
1t. The tail is this shape, V, so when
the rope was on 1t 1t was to stay.
Then we hauled again until the tail
was above the boat and fastened II
tight and in fifteen minutes or so the
shark was dead. They say he browns
but / guess the blood rushes to his
head and kills him. Well. the same
happened three times but we only
got two to take home because the
biggest one broke away just as we