ATTACKS OX SHIPS BY SWOED-FISH. 2G5 



South Sliiclds, tlio workmen vrere surprised to discover 

 a portion of the spear of a sword-fish. The spear had 

 gone completely through the 4^ inch elm plank and had 

 penetrated two inches iuto the solid oak timbers behind. 

 I had hoped to have obtained this specimen, but was 

 disappointed. I have, however, in my museum a very 

 fair specimen of a sword-fish's spear cut out of a ship's 

 timber. 



SWOKD-FISH IN COURT. 



In the Court of Common Pleas, in December, 1878, 

 a verv interestinsr case of De Garis v. The Mercantile 

 Marine Insm^ance Company, was tried before Lord 

 Chief Justice Bovill. 



The plaintiffs, Messrs. De Garis and Arthur, in July, 

 1863, insured their ship Dreadnought for £3,000 with 

 the defendants. On the lOtli of March, 18G4, she set 

 sail from Colombo for London with cofiee. On the 

 afternoon of the 13th they hooked a fish which broke 

 the line, and a moment after threw several feet of its 

 body out of the water, and was seen with the line 

 attached. It was a sword-fish, and at foiu* the next 

 morning, the mate av\'oke the captain, and told him 

 that the ship had sprung a leak. The water was 

 pumped out two or three times, for it was found that 

 she made from nine to ten inches an hour. The cap- 

 tain took the ship back to Colombo, and thence to 

 Cochin, where the ship was hove dovrn. On her being 

 turned over, the surve3'ors discovered a nearly round 

 hole, about an inch in diameter, and it went completely 

 thi'ough the copper sheathing and the planking, but not 

 through the lining of the ship. The captain brought home 

 the perforated plate, which is now in my fish museum. 



The case for the plaintiffs was, that the sword- 



