STRUCK BY A SHARK

Taranaki Daily News, 29 November 1926, Page 15

STRUCK BY A SHARK

BOATSWAIN OF TAHITI INJURED AN EXTRAORDINARY HAPPENING. Passengers by the Tahiti, which ar. rued at Wellington on Monday morning from San Francisco, via ports, w’ere treated to an exciting shark episode while the vessel was at Rarotonga. A nine-foot shark, which was hauled up on to the foredeck of the liner, after a fierce fight for half an hour, had its re veuge by striking Boat-swain William Banks a- crashing blow on the head with ’is tail, inflicting two uglv wounds necessitating surgical treatment, and stretching him out on the deck in a dazed condition. About 6.30 p.m. on Monday of last week a Rarotongan was fishing from his boat alongside the Tahiti, off Rarotonga, where the liner was loading fruit The native hooked a nine-foot shark, and it dashed away with torpedo-like speed. The native, however, skilfully “played” his catch and saved his rather light line from snapping. After half an hour’s excitement for a large number of onlookers on the Tahiti, the Raroton gan got the shark near the surface. Boatswain Banks let down from the deck of the liner a 2-inch rope, with a running bowline, which he dexterously looped oyer the head of the shark. Tim shark dived, but the line slipped along its !«>dy, tightening with the and was quickly fastened securely above the tail. Some twenty pairs of hands lent a willing pull on the rope, and slowly the struggling monster was hauled np on to the deck of the Tahiti. The boatswain, being an old sailing ship man, claimed the tail of the shark as his prize. It is the custom on windjammers to nail a shark's tail out on

the end of the bowsprit,, presumably as a warning to other wolves of the Banks thanght that he would nail the* shark s tail in an elevated position on the foremast of* the Tahiti. He stooped down to cut the shark’s tail off. but the next moment he was sprawling on back with blood gushing from deep wounds on the top of his head and above his left eye as the result of a blow from the shark’s tail. As Banks was dazed and evidentlyj ‘ severely injured, Dr. T. J. Henry, the ; ship’s surgeon, who was at his dinner. • was called upon for aid. He found ; that Banks had received a cut four inches i long on the top of his head, which - laid bare the skull, and another cut two { inches long, and also to the bone, just ; above the left eye. which was black• : cned. The wounds were too jagged to ■ stitch, but after they had been dressed ' • p. nd bandaged the bleeding ceased, Yesterday Banks still had a black eye j and sticking plaster along the top of i his head (which had the hair cut short I around the wound), and another patch | of sticking plaster over his left eye. He • stated that all he remembered at the | lime was stooping over the shark and , then a dazing blow on the head whieh l “put him out.” The shark, which weighed, about *2So’b. , i.as soon killed, and the edible portions • of the carcase were cut out and given | to the Rarotongan. who hooked the ! monster While fighting for its liberty • jin the water the shark almost capsized > • a native catamaran in which was a ’ f Rarotongan, who was endeavouring to] I harpoon the shark. The water all around | was infested with sharks, dozens of ■ . which could he seen from the ship’s i deck, having been attracted by a bucket | of galley refuse which had been thrown • into the water. As sharks -around Rare. tonga do not draw the colour line, the native harpocner would have been snapped up in an instant if he had been eansi red. Banks’s chief complaint yesterday was

that after all somebody else purloined the coveted tai! of the shark. The boatswain of the Tahiti is widely known in Wellington, having been engaged in the San Francisco service for some three and a-half years. Dr. Henry stated to a Dominion reported that during his lengthy experience he had not seen or heard of such an episode as that at Rarotonga, and Bank's wounds were 1 surprisingly severe. ( ■ ■ ■■ ■■■ ■ mH. j