The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-03-21
Shaking at
Norfolk Island.
By REV. STACY wADDY.

There is no more exciting sport than
that known as Shaking" This is the
record of days experience on Norfolk
Island, in the Pacific, 800 miles northeast
of New Zealand. 1t was at the end of a
successful whaling voyage.
The moment a whale is dead. Master
Shark noses him. and sends the word
around. and the water is soon alive with
his friends and relations. Also the shark
boat puts off from the shore. and comes
about a quarter Of mile out 10 meet
the whale being towed in. Now, the first
thing that has to be done to a whale.
before he is towed to shore, is to tie up
his mouth. His under jaw drops when
he dies. and the mouth would act like a
great drag: 50 one man must dive down
under the whale with a rope. while an
other chambers on his back and takes the
rope and hauls up the jaw and fastens II
there.
III stands one man to make the dive {;
another, with an oar. bashes and prods
a shark or two that arc close by the jaw,
70 make them swim away; and down
goes the diver into the water thick with
sharks. UP the other side and into the
hoat again. 1t is true no man has ever
vet been nipped by shark on these oc-
tdSlOnS. DuC IL must De with TatneT 4
nervous trcmor that you dive almost into
the jaws of huge monster that could
easily swallow you whole without biting
For the sharks at Norfolk Island are not
the savage little six-feet ground sharks
Of Sydney. that will almost come out Of
the water to get at you. and tear OFF
your leg or your arm; they are as long
as twenty feet, and II you take the pair
OF jaws that belonged to a shark that
size, after he is dead. and put them
over your shoulders. you Will find that
they Will go clean over your head and
shoulders without touching you at all.
\ man would he hardly a mouthful to a
monster that size.
And now the whaleboats are only
about a quarter of A mile from shore.
and the sharkboat meets them. and
shouts We'll DONE and then gets to
work. In the bow, bending over and
all alert and watchful. kneels the har-
pooner; for this s-the sport-to harpoon
sharks just like whales. instead of catch
ing them on a line with a bait. He gives
quick. low orders to the man rowing:
Up little-steady. Pull your right one
strokc-easy now" Up goes his hand;
out goes the harpoOn. and there is a
whirl and a scurry OF foam and blood.
and a big fiftecn-fOot shark is or. with
the harpoon painted well in his back
close 10 the top fin.
The rope is Coiled in tub. and Il goes
ont like lightning. A shark does not
sound" which means go straight down
for the bottom. like whale that is har-
pooncd. but dives and darts here and
there and everywhere. As soon as he
can. the harpoonCr. and the steerSman
too. get hold on the rope and begin to
pun on it. to put more strain on the
shark and check him and tire him. The
wound of the harpoon begins to take
away his strength: he is hauled in and
in. till he is Laundering on the surface
Then perhaps another iron is put into
him: or A lance is used to despatch him.
This is shorter than a harpoon: and il is
not thrown. but thrust into his heart.
just behind the I'm on his side: and in a
few minutes. IL all goes we'll, he is a dead
shark. and can he lowed away to shore, !
and the boat comes back for another.
Shaking is only a new sport at Nor
folk Island. begun a few years ago: for
before that no one thought that sharks
were worth anything. and the men who
practice it now do not do 1t for the eN-
Cttcment, but for the profit. And in the |
few years it has been going on no one !
has yet been killed by a shark. But there /,
are thrilling stories told OF many a very
narrow escape. Here is one. 1t hap
pened to a son of one OF the missionaries |
belonging to the famous Melansian mis-
sion, Which has its headquarters at Nor
folk Island. He was only a lad. and he
went out in the sharkboat one day Just |
for the sport. They got fast to a big
shark about eighteen feet long. Sud
denly it rushed for the boat. turned over
on its back. and opened a huge pair Of
jaws like a cave. They measured the
jaws afterward: they would have been
big enough to swallow an OK, 1t seized
the boat before the steersman would |
swerve away, and just crunched it up.
Its occupants all went into the water.
But fortunately no lives were lost. and
they got ashore. And when this lad. who
had been sitting just where the shark
caught the boat. looked at his trousers,