The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1945-12-04
SHARKS 72-HOUR VIGIL


shark. In reporting the rescue of four
Cubans from a raft, a press service sent
out under local dateline this gem:
For two days and a night giant
shark swan around the raft. The men,
who suffered badly from thirst and cold,
were fearful that the giant fish would at
tack the raft, they said (To whom did
hey say it?) At times he swan so close
they could have put their hands on him"
Before relating the experience of J.
Frank (PiIo) Roberts, chief clerk in the
county tax assessors office; Claude AL
bury, for many years United States immi-
grafton officer in Key West and now re-
tired, and the writer, who were surrounded
by schools Of sharks while the three chung
to an overturned boat, let us consider the
voracity Of the shark.
Nothing on land and nothing else in
the sea is as vOracious as the shark 1t eats,
eats, dSgorges and devours again It's sole
aim is to eat. and, except when browsing, it
is forever on the move, searching for food.
What did the shark, which swan around
the raft for two days and one nght-72
hours-live on while it was circling the
rat?
Would hog, the most voracous thing
on land, circle a sty, out in the wide, open
spaces, for 72 hours without eating any
thing? Would hungry man circle res
taurant because he knows foods in it,
for II hours and not go elsewhere@to look
for food? -' eR~~'
The voracity and rapacity too of the
shark were we'll illustrated when. in 1924,
34-i0ot rhinOdOn typicus, the largest of
existing sharks, swan in toward Boot Key,
10 miles to the northeast, to die, but was
harp0oned before he died. The rhinodon,
male, was toWed to Key West by tug to
be reconstructed for the New York Museum
Of Natural History. The towing had bare
~ begun before schools Of sharks attacked
the rhlnodon, biting huge chunks out of
his sides and gOrging them. Tugmen said
they saw as many as eight sharks at a time
Sllthering up the sides of the rhinOd0n and
tearing at its flesh. And they saw sharks,
whose stOmachs could not hold any more,
disgorge, return to the attack, swallow
chunks of flesh, disgorge and attack again,
in demonstrating their dominant instinct
to derour, devour, dev0ur
Imagine that shark swimming around
the raft during its 72-hour vigil without
eating
Roberts, AIbury and the writer had
$50 fish aboard the boat when it capsized,
and the scent from the sinking fish attract
ed sharks.
The boat was 15-foot dingey with
a lego mutton sail. The mast was I'M
stepped, because it Was carrying the bow
toward the bottom, and set adrift. Within
10 minutes so many sharks had gathered
around the boat, Roberts cried out:
This is too much for mel and climb
ed into the dingey which was down to its
scuppers, grabbed an oar and stood on the
aft thWart, forced foot under water by
his weight, and began to paddle, and while
he padded he counted II sharks.
Look at that big brute there!' he
shouted. Hes longer than the boat
Albury and the writer looked to where
Roberts was pointing and saw a sulky tiger
shark that really was longer than the
dingey.
watch him. the writer cried, clap
ping ms IlSuL MANU- on lHe water. Inc Tiger
darted away and returned few minutes
later, but another clap caused his dorsaI
fin to cut swiftly through the surface like
a tilted cIeaver. And the tiger didn't re-
turn.
Roberts and the writer knew, because
of their experience on the Union Bank, now
covered by Trumbo Island, that that clap
sounded like the loudest thunder to the
tiger.
The sharks left after they had de-
voured all the dead fish and made no at
tempt to attack Albury and the writer, who
remained in the water the entire time the
sharks circled the dingey.
The man-eating shark is the carcha-
rodon rondeleletii, found chiefly in the In
dian Ocean The LARGEST now are only 40