MAN CAUGHT BY A SHARK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 249, 14 October 1908, Page 4

MAN CAUGHT BY A SHARK.

LINER'S PASSENGERS WATCII A TRAGEDY. IPassengers by the I'. and 0. steamer Arabia, which arrived recently from Bombay, witnessed a tragic spectacle during the voyage, a member 01 the crew falling overboard and being eaten by a shark before their eyes. When the liner was off Cape Finisterre there was a shout of man overboard,'' and a young storekeeper named William Newbury was seen in the water. The ship was quickly swung around in her course, and a boat was hurriedly manned and sent away in the direction of the man who was swimming for hi s life. Hia efforts were anxiously watched from the deck of the liner by passengers and crew. He could be seen pluckilv breasting the waves, and as the boat drew nearer and nearer to him there was every hope that he would be saved. .Suddenly there was a rush through the water and a swirl. Ail agonised shriek reached the onlookers, and the swimmer disappeared. The boat reached the spot a l'ew seconds later, and the water was found crimsoned with his blood. He had been seized by an enormous shark which lia.l been seen following the vessel for some tunc. How Newbury got into the water lias not been explained, but it is believed that he must have fallen overboard accidentally. The passengers had already been saddened the day before by the death on board of Colonel Sir Frederick Brydges llenniker, commanding the 2nd King's Royal Rilles. Colonel Hennikcr, who fought in South Africa, and who was only rorty-six years of age, was making the voyage in order to undergo, ail operation in England, lie was very ol when he embarked at ISombay, and it was only the devotion of his medical man that kept him alive until lie had passed through the Red Sea. The successor to the baronetcv is li-s. brother, Captain A. J. Hcnniker-Hugliau, R.N., who assumed the additional surname of Hughaii. Owing to the great heat in the Red Sea eighty-two men out of the crew of 371 suffered from fever and other ailments during the voyage.