Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-03
BY LEE F. TERRELL.

during a squat in the Gulf of
Mexico of the coast near Pana-
NN ma City, Fla. considered myself
~ = fortunate to escape with my life
and WITS and have learned since that my
party was exceedingly lucky in being able to
kill the monster and bring it to shore, for the
huge fish usually wins all battles at sea- Only
three have been captured at Panama City in
the last 20 years.
At that, we had to fight for three hours in a
desperate struggle to the death, while storm
on the Gulf tossed our small fishing boat about,
and threatened to throw us into the wave
rumpled water with the monster And we almost
lost our nervy young boatman when the har-
poon line caught around his foot and the ton
Of dynamic terror yanked him overheard
We had gone to Panama City on a fishing va
cation and there we ran into furiously rough
weather Old timers told us we probably would
MT get any good fishing for q week or two.
Nevertheless, we engaged q boat for the follow
ing morning, hoping to find some excitement.
And what excitement we did find! A ton OF
animated nightmare Juggling on half-inch
manila rope quarter OF mile away, while we
Iandlubbers who fought to capture it had no
idea what it was, or what it might do to US
after we had it!
When we walked down to the bay at O'Clock
that morning we found our boat waiting Tor u.s.
Wallace Caswell, jr the 25-year-old skipper,
was sitting at the bow in natty white duck
trousers, his neat white shoes dangling over the
side. He was clean cut, slender young fellow,
and proved to have more nerve than could
admire at the time.
AS we came aboard young Caswell greeted
u.s. and then said he was sorry, but he
would have to delay the trip a few minutes
while he went to get some one to help run the
boat IT was up all night towing raft Of logs"
he said, land may need some help today, for
I'm a little dopey-headed."
He looked wide awake enough, and we
champed at the delay while he was gone. We
didn't know at the time that he expected the
weather to be so rough that a fresh pilot would
be required to handle the boat on the Gulf.
He returned a few minutes later with an
other youngster, an unpreposseSsing looking
kid, younger than himself; but one Of the coolest
pilots ever saw. He hardly opened his mouth
throughout the trip, but he handled the boat
like master.
At last we were all ready and cast OFF for
the sea, only to turn back when our pilot cried,
~Hey Wally your old mans calling YOU"
And here we had another weather warning,
=. but deciphered this one. Young Caswell turned
the boat back and stood on the bow to hold
low-voiced conversation with the man on shore
They argued minute, and the boy motioned
for his pilot to take us on out to sea. saw
the old man shake his head, so I approached
Our skipper.
''What did your father say?" asked.
ooh, he didn't say anything much"
''He said it was too rough to go out today,
didn't hep" inquired.
"Yeh, he said something like that, but we'll
go, anyway. He's little tanner than he used to
be. But I'll take care Of you and get you back
all right"
I didn't much like the idea of going out after
such warning, and said as much, but our skip
per treasured us, and we shot out of the harbor
into the Gulf.
Whitecaps were already kicking up and the
ko0t nIlita hit wa reaSSllrinQ
to notice that we were the only ones venturing
out that morning And then our skipper gave
us another weather warning. He pointed to the
sky and said: "See that rainbow looking fringe
around the bottom of that cloud? That means
well have squat within an hour. I'll keep you
out here half an hour, and then beat the
squall back to the bar"
threw in my hook and started to fish behind
the boat. The water seemed too rough for king
mackerel for we never caught any. My COM
panion, C. H. Ledford of Atlanta, Ga, hung one
only to lose it before it broke the surface. We
caught several ladyfish useless species Of bony
fish that make you think you've got something
until you pull them up, and then leave you
disappointed.
we had been out about half an hour when
I was startled half out of my clothes as the
skipper yelled, "Devilfsh! Devilfishl Haul in
your lines"
I reeled in for dear life. Ordinarily I am
not an expert with a reel but male speed
this time! had no idea in the world what
devilhsh was. My imagination pictured the
Satan of all fishes coming after us to avenge
the little lady fishes we had been killing, or
something like that. Anyway, was of the
opinion that some monster of the deep had
eNs.si ~ NpkHa 'Ia1 SOW q jtr. $50 -
s.etla'atcl sr,J&L JBzT) .EtE'i ssts s@.4t laaf