Fighting a Swordfish at Night n 



a chance of their boat filling, tried to maintain 

 this position, my left hand on the engine lever, 

 my right on the wheel, with Joaquin in the 

 bow to keep an outlook. And here I saw, or 

 tried to see, Pinchot make the fight of his life 

 with a swordfish. I imagined the fish was tow T - 

 ing them at a rate of five miles an hour, and 

 it should be remembered that the line was not 

 much larger than an eye-glass cord, of twenty-four 

 strands with a breaking strength of two pounds 

 to a strand. He had out from one hundred and 

 fifty feet to three hundred feet approximately, 

 and the towing was by the tip of the rod, the 

 butt being in a socket on the seat. 



The work cut out for Pinchot sitting in a 

 skiff going at five miles an hour, stern first, 

 against a sea, in the dark, was to reel in a fish 

 fighting mad or crazed by fear, that was any- 

 where from ten to twelve feet long, 1 and weighed 

 from one hundred fifty to three hundred fifty 

 pounds. If by any mistake over forty-eight lift- 

 ing pounds was put on the line it would break; 

 the pressure being applied by the thumb upon 

 a leather pad on the wound line. The reel had 

 a capacity of six hundred feet, with a click and 

 an anti over-running appliance. 



1 The record swordfish for the season 1909 at Santa 

 Catalina was three hundred forty-seven pounds. The 

 notable specimen now hangs on the walls of the Tuna 

 Club, taken by Hon. C. G. Conn. 



