Ashland weekly tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1919-1924, 1921-11-30
Diver BATTLES
HUGE DEvILFlSH
Desperate Fight for Life That
Was Waged at Bottom Of
Cape Town HarbOr.
MONSTER HACKED TO PIECES
Comrades Use Hatchets to Free Help
less Man-creature Measures Eleven
and Half Feet From Tip to
Tip Of TentaoIes.

Cape Town, S. A.-The Union Castle
liner Dunyeyan Castle collided some
time ago with the harbOr here,
dislodging many Of the enormous
blocks Of concrete forming the~pler,
which fell into the bottom Of the sea,
at this point between thirty and forty
feet deep.
The officials of the harbOr board set
to work TO repair the damaged pier
and recover the dlslodged blocks, by
no means an easy task.
One Of the most experienced men
engaged on the diving operations was
ii. Palmer, who had had fifteen years
experience of underwater work In
various parts Of the world.
One day Palmer went down in the
ordinary course of his work and was
engaged in putting chain around a
seven ton block Of concrete when he
noticed curlOus-looking object pro-
truding from cavity below the block.
The water was comparatively clear.
Bending down, Palmer examined the
object which had attracted his atten-
ton. He was beginning to wonder
what II could be when, without the
slightest warning, 1t began to move
toward him. A huge tentacle shot
out from below the stone, moved
swiftly sideways, and in an instant
had seized his leg In vicelike gripl
Feelers Grab Him.
Horlifed, the diver staggered back
ward, but as he did so another great
feeler appeared from under the
masonry and alighted upon his arm,
holding 1t helpless.
Wildly the man struggled to free
himself from those awful arms, but
in vain. Where the innumerable tiny
suckers touched the naked flesh OF
his hand they stung and scared like
an electric wire and he felt himself
being drawn slowly but surely toward
the dark hole under the stone.
For moment the unutterable h0r-
ror of his position held him spell
bound even his brain seemed numbed.
Then slowly with a gliding motion
that was horrible to behold the crea-
ture beneath the stone began to
emerge. As II came out Palmer beheld
with shudder the cold, staring eyes
the Nparrot-llke beak of an enormous
octopus or devilfish
Desperately the tortured man strove
10 wrench himself free, but the more
he struggled the tighter grew the grip
q !es aalgyls Coils. - I
Instinctlvely Palmer had kept one !
arm free from the encircling tentacles
He noticed mechanically that the Oc- /
topus had let go its hold of the
and had wrapped itself en-
.irely around him; S
81 Drawn to the Surface.
Making desperate effort to throw
Dff the stupor of nausea and fear
which benumbed his faculties, the
liver reached up his free arm and
pulled his signal cord with all his
strength. whereup0n the men above
started to haul him up. The octopus,
;till clnging relentlessly to Its prey,
was drawn to the surface: II
The horror of the men above when
hey behed the diver emerge from
he water in the lOathsOme embrace
If the great deviIfish can be better
imagined than described. While some
lrogged the now all but unconscious 1
Palmer UP the ladder, others ran for
latchets and knives and fierce at
-ack was made upon the creature. In
spite of every onslaught, however, the
Iuivering tentacles still clung OBJ
,iinately to the diver, and 1t was not
mtil the creature had been almost
hacked to pieces that the men were
,ble 70 free their comrade and adj
minister restoratives.
When the dead octopus was laid
,ut on the pier it was seen to be Of
yreat size. II measured eleven and
, half feet across from tentacle tip
% tentacle tip.