| Show f FLOYD GIBBONS f s t iF fy tU Adventurers Adventurers' Club t f d l e f 11 i. i t t N j i t t 1 I The Fish Fish That Caught a ill ManBy Man Alan an By FLOYD GI GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter ND did you know that your old Headline Hunter was an angler Y Yes cs sir Ive I've got a big stuffed sailfish over my desk I hooked th that t seven-foot seven baby weighing ing 67 pounds with light tackle in the Gulf stream off the Florida coast It took me an hour to land the son son gun gun of-a-gun and old Izaak Walton Gibbons had bad sore hands bands for a n week afterward Never mind what luck Ivo had since then Im I'm not talking about that But what I am talking about Is the stor story of ot a real fisherman and his battle with a giant ray that mado made my fish look like a minnow Elmer E. E Garretson of New York city Is the gents gent's name who caught the ray Elmer was engaged some years ago to open up a fishermans fisherman's camp on Soldiers Soldier's Key Key Key-an an Island some fifteen miles off of Miami Miami Miami-In In waters that abound with all kinds of tropical fish both large and small I guess the place Is about the best fishing ground In this country and theres there's no limit to th their lr size Sharks big enough to bite a man In two and pound sea turtles play around In those blue waters like carp In a pond Catches Sight of Sea Monster One day while Elmer was Idly glancing at the water from the dock he be saw a D ray ray ray-as as big as n a barn door loafing door around the coral channel near the key That was Just about the biggest thing Elmer had ever eer seen swimming and he decided to try and catch It lt Now a ray Is a mean customer Besides being a tremendous size the fish which fish which Is 10 a sort of sea bat with enormous flippers Is Is armed with sharp long bone daggers Those daggers are arc operated by the tall of the fish and can make a frightful wound But Elmer had a reputation to sustain and he wanted that giant ray So he got out his small motor driven dory packed his rifle harpoons and lines aboard and with a guide Charlie Haggerman started after him Ray Tows Boat to Sea Well wen sir Elmer spotted the tile monster lying still sUll on the bottom and standing up in the boat made his throw I The harpoon sped true to the mark and burled buried Itself In a ton or so of at filet de sole Wham Mister Big Fish when he felt that harpoon go Into his neck gave his flippers the throttle and hit for the open sea tea like a racing car carl The line shot out so fast that It smoked In a jiffy the dory sped through the channel and Into deep water Elmer didn't want to lose that precious line and he didn't want to lose Jose that fish So he and Haggerman pulled as hard as ns they could to draw the boat up closer to the fish The They didn't have a chance to draw the fish to them so they Just tried to draw themselves to It you know like Mahomet who went to the mountain when the mountain wouldn't come cometo cometo cometo to him And Elmer says sas that ray sure was a n mountain 1 I Giant Fish Crushes Motor Dory In UIn this way Elmer writes we drew v n near r the fish To my delight he rose to the surface so I grabbed a rifle and got set In the bow of the 4 The Giant Black Fish Fell Right on the Boat boat bOlt for a shot He Be was so big I 1 couldn't miss I drew a quick bead on him And then It happened Before I could shoot the ray turned and with a tremendous flap of its kite like kite like wings Jumped clean out of the water at us The pull on the line drew the boat under the fish with such force that It sent Haggerman sailing through the air Into the water And its it's a good thing it did because the next second the giant black mass fell with a crash right on the boat The boat deck crumpled in as though It were made of cardboard instead of hard mahogany and the giant form seemed to cover the entire boat I fell backward from the shock but not fast enough An agonizing pain shot through my leg and I fell prone with four tour of at atthe the rays ray's da daggers gers above my knee These daggers are from six sir sixto sixto to eight Inches long sharp as ns a needle and lined with saw sawlike saw like teeth The daggers I saw with horror were Inches in n my leg lOne One of at them had gone clear through an and I 1 could see ee Its jagged point protruding Ing on theother theother the theother other side I 1 Dragged Overboard by Infuriated Ray The nest next thing I knew I was being dragged over the side of the boat bont AT ATTACHED TO THE FISH I 1 managed to grab one of ot the hooks on the the side as the fish slipped into the water Haggerman was now hanging on the other side of the boat and only this dots kept It t from capsis ing But the ray didn't stop there He lie started flailing me with his powerful powerful powerful power power- ful tall tail as my body hung over the side In the water 1 I II I thought my arms would be pulled out of their sockets They would have been had the boat been tied but as It was I II Iwas Iwas I was the tow line and pulled the boat after me Haggerman meantime had climbed Into the boat As the ray beat me with his huge wings I begged Haggerman for a knife He couldn't find one but gave me a pair of pliers While I 1 held on to the boat with one hand and Haggerman too held heldon heldon heldon on to me mc with the other hand han I forced force the pliers In between the fish and my leg and one by one broke off the daggers at their base The rhe pain was terrific It was like operating on ones one's own leg but I had bad to do It lt Pulled Into Boat Nearly Dead Finally the last one snapped and I was pulled Into the boat moro more dead than alive A tourniquet saved me from bleeding to death Hagger Hagger- Haggerman Baggerman man then attached the fish line to the anchor an and threw It overboard and we wo were free Boy or boyl boy What an experience Elmer was free but he had to pull those poisonous daggers out of his leg before they killed him As the boat staggered back to the key half full of water he took the pliers using sea water as an antiseptic p p p. lied fled I the Jagged darts out of his leg with his own hands To me that part of at the Job was the hardest of ot all Elmer was In n the hospital for tor two weeks and It was a year before he could walk properly and the thc worst of ot It he be says was that the sharks ate up most of ot the ray before the other fisherman could rescue him What remained was only three or four hundred pounds of fish That's all alII I wro o-wro Service |
