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A Truthful Sailor

A Truthful Sailor image
Parent Issue
Day
9
Month
November
Year
1894
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

"Have I ever seen a shark? Ask my mate - him that's rowing that 'ere couple out yonder. We were shipinates toget-her abcird the Rajapootah Iudiaman. His father, who is dead and geme this 20 year or more, was carpeuter aboard of her. "Well, one day we were becalmed ou the line, when, says young Bill - he was young Eill theu, him as I just pointed out to you - says lie, 'I shall have a Bwim round for a cooler, ' for, bolieve me, the sun was that hot we liad to throw bnckets of water on the deck to keep it from catching fire. "In fact, a pig we killed the day afore we hung aloft and roasted him in the sun, catching the gravy in a bucket, and he was done beautifully. "So in he goes head first, with his clothes on, and me aud his old man looked over the side just abaft the forerigging to see him come to the top of the water again. "But no Bill could we see, and instead of him np carne a tremeudous shark, with hia sldea sticking out as if he had a cargo insido over and above his regular bilí of lacüug. "It was then us olear to us as the nose on our faces that poor Bill had dived clear down his throat. "The poor old man had a fit right away, aud we carried him below and put him in his hammock aud then ran up on deck again in the hope that we should bo ablo to catch the fellow. "But it was nowhere to bo seen, so after watching some time to uo purpose we went dowu below to see how the old man was gettiug on, and to our astonishment and sorrow we fouud his body nearly cold and as stiff as the flying jibboom. "We sewed him up in his hammock, putting the grindstoue that he used to grind his tools with inside to make it sink and laid the body on a batch, with the union jack spread over it for a pall. "Then the skipper read the funeral service, all of us standing round dreadfully cut up, me especially, for young Bill was my messmate, and I was very fond of the old man. "As soou as the skipper had fmished the last words, which I shall never forget, they was so solemn, the hatch was tipped up, and overboard the body went with a splash, and all was over, at least we thought so. "But almost immediately afterward up comes another shark, a bigger one, it seemed, than the flrst. "The boatswain at once rail for the shark book and baited it with a huuk of pork and slung it over the stern, and it was not many minutes afore we had him hooked and hauled ou deck. "Well, the flrst thiug we did was to cut his tail off, for he was flapping it about so that it shook the snip from stem to stern, that we were afraid it would shake her to pieces. "After we had done that we thought we heard a very strange uoise inside of him - a sort of grating sound, like a boat beiug dragged over a shingly beach. "So we set to and cut off his head and then ripped him up, when, what d'ye think? What should we see, toour great astonishment and delight, but Bill and his fathnr sitting upright like'two Jonahs, the youugster turning the grind stone and the old man sharpeniug his knife, intonding to cut their way out of the creature's belly. "Yon say I said the old man was dead? Please don't interrupt me, and 111 teil you all about it. "There's no doubt but what he seemed dead, but it was ouly his blood froze with horror, and the shark warmed him to life again. What made him most nucomfortable, Bill said, was the slipperyness and topsy turvyness of the place, for there was no rest at all, for one minute he was standing on his head and the next on his feet, and then he would be tossed from one side to the other, sometimes getting jammed between the ribs, and he wondered the meal didn't disagree with thefish itself. "But at last carne the climax, and Bill thought it was all over with him, for down its throat was shot a heavy body like that of a sack of coal right atop of him, nearly smothering him, so that he had scarcely room to move or breathe, and he must have been some time insensible, he said, when he was wi e up with u loud report. He thought for a moment the creature had swallowed a powder barrel, and it had explodod, but it was only the burstiiig of the canvas shroud the old man was sewed up in, which had blown up like a paper bag. "Thenoise in its iuside, Bill said, must have astonished the shark, for he again found himself standing upon his head, so he knew it was uiaking for the surface, and on reaching thereitopened its enormous jaws for air, when a flood of light eutered ï-etween the rows of teeth which enabied Bill on gaining his feet to take stock of his lodgings, and the very first thing tliat he saw was his old father crawling out from onder the canvas like a chick from its shell. "The old man had caught sight of the griudstone and soou put it into workiug order, and on the flsh once more coming to the top and again admitting light Bill at once saw what was in the wind, and they connnenced business at once, when they were startled by a sudden change in the shark 's movements, and soon they distinctly heard the sound of human voices, and they knew they were sa ved. "Well, we all was so thankful at their miracnlous escape from the jaws of doath tn'at every mother's sou of us on board took onr solemu affidavits that we'A never teil a lie oranythingof that kind aeaiu, and me :nd niv mate have

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News