Big Game at Sea 



had not taken a shot at him or attempted to capture 

 him. 



The man-eater could not be induced to take a 

 baited hook, and it was believed by many of the men 

 that he followed the vessel waiting for a wreck; and 

 when a certain ship disappeared in a hurricane and 

 went down with all on board in the Florida Strait, it 

 was said that " Old Bill " went down with her. In 

 any event, he disappeared for months. He was now 

 eighteen feet long, of enormous bulk. He rarely 

 went north of Hatteras and then only in summer, 

 when he followed the shad schools north, making the 

 turn at Long Island in June and the coast of Maine 

 some time later in summer. His habits had changed. 

 He preyed upon dead animals, had become a scaven- 

 ger, and would follow a cattle ship half way across 

 the ocean to feed upon a dead steer. He appeared to 

 be too heavy to run down a horse mackerel, and the 

 smaller fishes evaded him altogether, though occasion- 

 ally he found a school of mackerel surrounded by a 

 net and would dash into them, crazed by the scent of 

 blood and slime, and gorge himself with them. 



He was utterly insensible to pain, as while en- 

 tangled in a net he was lanced several times by an 

 infuriated fisherman; but the men noticed that he did 

 not stop eating, paying no attention to the wounds; 

 and when his size was seen, the skipper ordered the 

 men aboard the schooner. On another occasion when 

 entangled in a net near Gloucester, five miles off 



86 



