A MIGHTY STROKE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 2, 3 July 1939, Page 10

A MIGHTY STROKE

SWORDFISH'S ATTACK

SHIP'S TIMBERS PIERCED

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, June 23. Captain J. R. Handley, master of the Burns, Philp island schooner Mauno, has made to his company in Sydney a report that he admits is like a "fish story," but which, he says, is true. And he produces evidence in support. Twelve years ago, the Mauno, anchored in the Gilbert Islands, shuddered, and her captain and crew thought that either she had struck a pinnacle rock or that there had been an earth tremor. A few weeks ago, when the schooner was being broken up, it was discovered that the sword of a swordfish had penetrated 14 inches of planking at an angle, and was still buried in the timbers. Along with his letter to Burns, Philp, and Co., Ltd., in Sydney, admitting the "fish-story" sound of the report, Captain Handley sent 18 inches of sword, broken into three pieces in getting it out of the schooner,, and five inches in circumference. at the thicker end. The pieces have been wired together. The Mauno, a wooden vessel, was built in Sydney, and was owned by Burns, Philp (South Seas) Co., Ltd. Captain Handley,. who saw the schooner broken up, wrote to his company from Tarawa. He said:— "One night in 1927, the Mauno was at anchor off South-West Point, outside, at Apaiang. During the evening we felt a sharp vibration by the vessel. At first * I thought we had touched a pinnacle rock, but later we concluded there had been an earth tremor. So it passed off at that. But the following day the ship was leaking, and we found that one of the timbers was welling up. Our native diver went down, to examine, and found about eight inches of sword projecting out of the third strake up from the keel. Th was cut away and the cleft closed up." When the Mauno was sent in to be broken up at Tarawa, it was found that the sword had penetrated sheathing, 2£in planking, and then sin timber adjoining, at an angle, so that the 18 inches remaining were completely hidden in the timbers. "From my own knowledge of this species of fish, the monster that attacked us must have been at least 20ft long, with a sword 3ft long, tapering to half an inch," the letter adds. "The Mauno must have appeared as a whale to it, and, to pierce such timber, it must have come at us with terrific force. I recall a Canadian vessel going into Valparaiso 50 years ago, leaking, after being attacked by a swordfish." ,