236 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [4] 



Captain Gooding says: "In regard to swordfish being in deep water, 

 if you strike a swordfish and he goes directly down in anything over 90 

 fathoms, the moment he touches bottom he will be dead, and will come 

 to the surface very easy. Whenever bottom fish are found in swordfish, 

 and they are in deep water, I always notice that there is a shoal bauk 

 very near; and we always find better fishing close to some bauk, with 

 the deep water around it." 



Many fishermen have thrUling experiences of narrow escapes from 

 being pierced by the blades of swordfish, and some of the vessels have 

 blades fastened in their planking. Mr. Edward Leavitt, of Saco, Me., 

 says that during the past summer a swordfish attacked the dory in 

 which he was seated aud thrust its sword through the bottom of the 

 dory within a few inches of himself The captain of the schooner 

 Kanger, of Harpswell, showed a halfbarrel buoy with a blade brokeu 

 off across the grain of one of the staves, without materially injuring the 

 buoy. The New Orleans Times-Democrat publishes an account of dam- 

 age done by a swordfish to the three-masted schooner Themis, of Boston, 

 on the 5th of last August, while on a voyage from Mobile to Tampico. 

 The vessel was found to be leaking badly, and as soon as the harbor was 

 reached an examination showed that the blade of a swordfish had pierced 

 "the copper sheathing of the schooner; then the outer timbers of the 

 hull, four inches in thickness; next a vacant space of nine inches be- 

 tween the outer and inner timbers, or 'ceiling;' and lastly four and one- 

 half inches more of solid wood constituting the ceiling; altogether nearly, 

 nine inches of plank aud copper, with eleven inches of vacant space, 

 including the two inches of the blade end broken off when the cause of 

 the leak was discovered." 



Concerning the pugnacity of swordfish. Captain Gooding says: 



" I have caught a great many swordfish, and my vessel has the points 

 of three swords in her planking, and it was all our ovrn fault in get- 

 ting them there. All the swordfish I ever saw struck or have struck 

 myself, if fastened close to the head, would always act more or less 

 crazy and run with no particular object; just as apt to run into the 

 vessel as anywhere; sometimes keeping a taut line and at other times 

 the line lying all in slack bights. If fastened well abreast the large fin 

 they always run from the boat or vessel to the windward, keeping a 

 very taut line, and when hauled close up to the vessel their struggles 

 to keep clear of her are more rapid, never turning on the vessel to show 

 any signs of fight. 



"The accidents to vessels are very few compared with the craft that 

 are sailing on their cruising grounds. I don't think any craft was ever 

 pierced by swordfish intentionally. I have seen swordfish a great many 

 times rise within a few feet of our craft when we were hove to, both 

 night and day. They could have hit her easy enough. 1 have also 

 been on the bowsprit and have seen them coming uj^ close under the 

 bow, but they would always turn one-side if the vessel went over themj 



