ATTACKS ON SHIPS BY SWORD-FISH. 26 



r 



South Slneldij, the workmen were 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 

 j)enetrated two inches into the solid oak timhers 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. 



SWORD-FISH IN COURT. 



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

 a very interesting case of De Garis v. The Mercantile 

 Marine Insurance Company, was tried before Lord 

 Chief Justice Bovill. 



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

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

 the defendants. On the 10th of March, 1804, she set 

 sail from Colombo for London with coffee. 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 four the next 

 morning, the mate awoke the captain, and told him 

 that the sliij) had sprung a leak. The water Avas 

 jDumped 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 down. On her being 

 turned over, the surveyors discovered a nearly round 

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

 through the coj)per 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- 



