Show MANEATING SHARKS A Pacific Mail Steamship Captains Description of Them 1C Clark Russell or Robert Louis Stevenson had in one of their sea romances ro-mances described the wrecking of a ship the upsetting of life rafts by shoals of ravenous sharks and the devouring de-vouring of fortyfive of the crew they would have indeed been termed romancers ro-mancers by the public said a former captain in the Pacific Mail service yet this was the unhappy fate of the crow of the British ship Hupeh wrecked recently in the China seas People here and along the Eastern seacoast do not know what sharks areas are-as compared with the huge and voracious vora-cious maneatera oC tropical waters Whenever a goodsized shark la seen off one of the New Jersey coast resorts re-sorts It Is made a matter of news hi the press and timid people wont bathe Jn consequence Tn the warm waters of the tropical Pacific they flourish to enormous size and in the harbors swarm around I he Pacific Mall steamers in schools like gigantic minnows It is actually terrifying to lean over the steamers rail and watch these bloodthirsty tigers of the sea glide through the still waters fighting like demons for scraps of ihlnS refuse thrown overboard by the cooks In the harbor landlocked and placid of Acapulco on the west Mexican Mexi-can coast they are as thick almost as salmon in the Columbia The third engineer en-gineer and a fireman on one of tho vessels I commanded were returning to the steamer one afternoon both a trifle under the Influence oC slimulans In some manner they capstasd the small boat in which they were rowing and before my eyes and those on the deck were sucked down In a whirlpool by the sharks the straw hat of the engineer alone floating beside the up turned boat to tell the tale oC their untimely end It was a horrifying pulsestopping sight Every sailor onboard on-board of Pacific vessels knows that one of the most terrible deaths awaits him if he falls overboard when the vessel Is lying in harbor In the Atlantic At-lantic ocean his chances of being saved are good Washington Star |