KILLED BY A SHARK.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 522, 19 February 1876, Page 3

KILLED BY A SHARK.

{Age, February 7.) A young man named Peter Rooney, eighteen years of age, a marble mason by trade, and residing with his mother in Little Leichardt street, off Lonsdale street, while bathing yesterday morning near Emerald Hill, was seized by a huge shark, and torn in so frightful a manner that death soon afterwards ensued. Indeed, but for the courage of a man named Mannix, the young man would have been actually devoured in the presence of his companions, who were quite unable to render him the least assistance. About six o’clock in the morning Rooney and his mate, a lad named Johnson, with several others, proceeded to the jetty on the Emerald Hill beach, and not far from the baths, for the purpose of bathing. The deceased was an expert swimmer, and swam from the jetty to the baths, and remained seated on one of the piles for a short time. The water in the immediate vicinity was shallow, but at some little distance the shore dips suddenly. Young Rooney, not aware of the risk he ran, jumped from the spot where he was resting himself, and struck out for the deep water, while Johnson kept in shore and made for the jetty. The latter had just reached the landing when he heard a terrible shriek and a cry for help. On looking round he saw his unfortunate friend struggling in the water, and frantically endeavoring to escape from the jaws of a shark, said to be about 15 feet in length. The monster had caught the unfortunate lad by the back of the thigh of the left leg, and was dragging him further out into the Bay. The poor fellow cried most piteously for help, and Mannix, who is a oabdriver, and who was on horseback, with great pluck at once plunged into the water, and rode in the direction of the boy, who was gradually being borne away. Just as he was sinking, Mannix, with a powerful effort, seizedfhim by the hand and drew him towards the horse, the noise of which in the water caused the shark for. a moment to relax its hold. Mannix thereupon drew the lad well out of the water, but before he could place him out of the reach of the monster’s jaws the shark rushed forward, and, with one snap, carried away the greater part of the ealf of the same leg that had been previously bitten. Mannix, with his burden, turned the horse’s head to the shore, but was pursued by the shark, which went between him and the shore, as if to cut him off. The noise of the horse and the cries of the people collected on the shore seemed to frighten the creature, and he gradually sheered off into deep water. Rooney never spoke from the moment he was rescued. The flesh was completely torn away from the left thigh, and the bone exposed from the hip to the knee joint, and as the main artery was severed the poor fellow soon bled to death, On the beach being reached he was placed on the sand, his head resting on his mate’s knee. He was unconscious, and in a few minutes ceased to breathe, death being caused by shock to the system and loss of blood. The body was conveyed to Melbourne and placed in the morgue, but was subsequently removed to his mother’s residence, in Little Leichhardt street.