" Davy Jones' Inkpots."

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 222, 10 February 1874, Page 7

" Davy Jones' Inkpots."

Mr Lee says in Land and Water: —l have known many .amusing instances of the squirting of water or ink by the cuttle-fish, startling the victim of it by its unexpected suddenness. My friend, Tom Hood, unaware of this propensity of the animal, hastened to lay hold of one he had hooked in Looe Harbour, and receiving its jet d'can full in his face, exclaimed that " he did not exactly know what he had on his line, but he thought he had caught a young garden engine." There is a communication, .between the ink-bag and the funnel or syphon-tube, so that when the ink is ejected it is forcibly thrown out together with the water. The very effort for escape, as the Rev. J. G. Wood has well remarked, thus serves the double purpose of urging the creature away from the danger, and discolouring the water which it moves. This author also mentions an incident of a naval officer's white-duck trousers being "decorated" with its liquid missile, the aggrieved individual asserting that it took deliberate aim for that purpose. Not long ago' I had a Saturday night's talk with some Sussex fishermen, with whom my friend J. PL Lord and I had often before held pleasant conversation on matters appertaining to their craft. Cut-tle-fish, sometimes called by sailors, "inkspewers," were mentioned, and one of the party related the following'adventure of a shipmate who was present. I must tell it in his own language. "We was out fishin' one quiet night," lie said, " and had just got our trawl- awash, and was a-goin' to hand it inboard, when lUII, here, all of a sudden let go his holt, roars out like a stuck pig—' Oh-h-h —What the is that ?" and tumbles back'ards into an empty.tish-basket. We hadn't no time to 'tend to him till we got our haul on deck, but I guessed what was up, and when we looked round we pretty nearly split our sides with laughing There was Bill a leanin' back agin the skiff, wipin' his pyes, to get some muck out of 'em, as he said made 'em smart, and his face for all the world as if Davy Jones had emptied a tar barrel over his head, and he looking as doleful as a schoolboy as had upset the inkstand over his hands and smeared his face all over with it in rubbin' the tears away while he was a-cryin' for fear the master 'd lick him. Well, sir, it was one o' them scuttles as we're talkin' about, as we'd brought up, and they can shoot straight and no mistake. It's my opinion as Mr Scuttle sighted Bill's nose as soon as he come atop of the water, and aimed- right at it, for you can sec, sir, as Bill's nose looms as red as Beechy Head light in a fog, and any scuttle as misses it must be a fool. Bill won't forget that dose of ink for a good while yet—will 'ee, old man ?"