Sword-fish Captures, &c. 141 



Though got around Britain, their numbers are far too few to 

 be of economical importance ; but they form extensive fisheries 

 on the American seaboards, and likewise in the Mediterranean. 

 In our country the interest attached to the sword-fish has 

 chiefly hinged on pugnacity, viz., attacks on whales, or cases in 

 Court where polemical evidence has arisen for and against the 

 penetration of their swords through the planking of ships.* 

 These we need not enter into ; but, instead, refer to records of 

 sword-fish capture on our Kent and Essex coasts. 



The earliest notice of the Sword-fish in Kent is in Boys' 

 list, 1792 (op. cit.). One 10 ft. long was captured 20th October, 

 1843, in the neighbourhood of Deal, viz.: " a little way to the 

 South of the outer beacon leading to Sandwich Haven." It 

 had got stranded in 4 ft. water, and a crew in a six-oared 

 galley managed to noose its tail and secure the prize. (Yarrell, 

 Zool. 1843.) In Wood's Nat. Hist, one is referred to seven feet 

 long as taken off Margate. There was a cast of a specimen 

 over eight feet long in Buckland's Museum of Economic Fish 

 Culture, South Kensington, captured by the Ramsgate 

 fishermen, 1870. In October, 1888, a bargeman successfully 

 secured an example in the Long Reach, Milton Creek, Sitting- 

 bourne. It measured 5 feet 2 inches from the tip of the sword 

 to tail extremity. We find mention of a dead one which came 

 ashore on the coast of Essex in 1834 (Zool. 1847) ; again on 

 23rd October, 1862, some oystermen discovered a Sword-fish 

 alive in a creek on the river Roach near Potton Island. In 

 plunging about trying to get to deep water it had driven its 

 sword into the mud. The length of the fish was 9 ft. 1 in., the 

 sword 3 ft. ; weight about 2J cwts., and girth 46 inches. The 

 tip of the sword was broken off, and supposed to be an injury 

 of old standing (C. Parsons, Zool., 1862). In the beginning of 

 November, 1866, an unusual fish was observed by the Leigh 

 fishermen hanging about for several days. Latterly it got into 

 the creek and was there captured. It was sent off to London, 



*~inn. and" Map Nat. Hist., XIII. (1844); land and Water, II. (1800); and Rep. 

 U. S. Fish Comm. (VIII.) for 1880. 



