68 Ma?i Against Shark 



San Juan, Puerto Rico 



Two years ago, I found a hand in the belly of a shark. Yesterday the hand 

 came back to haunt me. 



I had come here on a little vacation from shark-hunting. On the steamer on 

 the way over, I was chatting with a man and his wife at dinner, and, as it 

 usually does with me, the conversation soon turned to sharks. I showed the 

 couple a few of the shark's teeth I usually carry to illustrate my stories about 

 the shark's rapacity. The inevitable question— "Will a shark really eat a man?"— 

 came up. I replied with the certainty I have held for the past two years. But the 

 man persisted in his questioning. "How do you know? " he asked. "What makes 

 you so sure? " 



I told him that I had grisly proof not particularly suited for the dinner table. 

 "It is a photograph," I said, "and not a very pretty one." He insisted on seeing 

 the photograph. Finally, somewhat disgusted with the man's macabre curiosity, 

 I took out the photo and showed it to him. He took one look at it and gasped, 

 "So you're the man who found him!" 



"Found who?" I asked, not immediately remembering the name of the 

 victim whose arm I had discovered. 



"Edwin Atkins!" my dinner companion replied. "The widow of that poor 

 fellow is marrying my best friend." 



Later, I learned the whole story of the tragedy. Edwin F. Atkins, Jr., his 

 wife, their two young sons, Edwin, 5, and David, 3; a nurse and a governess 

 had all boarded a two-motored seaplane, the Cohmibus, in Key West. They 

 were bound for Havana, along with another passenger, a New York banker 

 and broker named Otto Abrahams. Also aboard the plane were a pilot and a 

 mechanic. 



About 20 miles from Key West, the plane's starboard motor began to miss. 

 The pilot, C. W. Miller, spotted a ferryboat and decided to try to land the 

 plane near it. The day was calm, but the seas were surging. 



As Miller brought the plane in, a wave nearly 20 feet high struck the plane's 

 pontoons and hurled it upward. The plane plunged downward into the swells 

 and smashed nose-first into the sea. As it struck the surface, another huge wave 

 hit the plane and spun it around. 



The impact tossed the passengers out of their seats. Mr. and Mrs. Atkins had 

 been holding the children on their laps. When the plane crashed, the children 

 were hurled from their parents' arms and were never seen again. Atkins tried 

 to make his way back to the cabin, but Abrahams, realizing the children were 

 surely dead, grabbed Atkins and managed to get him out of the water-filled 

 plane and onto a wing. The governess, Grace McDonald, also clambered out on 

 the violently bobbing wing. 



The ferryboat, H.M. Flagler, meanwhile, was speeding toward the downed 

 plane. Despite the mountainous seas, the Flagler's skipper. Captain John Albury, 

 launched a lifeboat, which fought its way toward the now rapidly sinking 

 plane. 



As the lifeboat neared the plane, a wave suddenly erupted and threw Miss 

 McDonald off the wing. Passengers aboard the Flagler, lining the rail to see the 

 drama, screamed as Miss McDonald vanished beneath the sea. 



