BRKKIUNO HABITS OF SWORD -FISH. 351 



from tin; Straights of Magelan in Tierra-Delfvogo, fovnd and discovered a new passage through 

 tin' jjn-.it Suvtli SIM, and that way sailed rovnd about the World," etc. 



Off the rou.-l of Sierra Leoue: 



The lift of October we were vnder foure degrees seueu and tweutie minutes, the same day 

 about-noonr, thriv was such a uoyse in the Bough of our Shippe, that the master, being behind in 

 tin- (l.illn ir. thought that one of the men had fallen out of the Fore-ship, or from the Boe-sprit 

 into tin- sea, but as hee looked out over the side of the Ship bee saw the Sea all red, as if great 

 store of bloud had beene powred into it, whereat hee woudred, knowing not what it meant, but 

 afterward hee found, that a great Fish or a Sea monster having a borne had therewith stricken 

 against the ship with most great strength. For when we were in Porto Desire where we set the 

 Ship on the Strand to make it cleane, about seven foot under water, before in the Ship, wee found 

 a Home Mil-king in the Ship, much like for thicknesse and fashion to a common Elephants tooth, 

 not hollow, but lull, very strong hard Bone, which had entered into three Plaukes of the Ship, 

 that is two thicke Plankes of greeue and one of Okeu wood, and so into a Rib, where it turned 

 upward, to our great good fortune, for if it had entered between the Kibbes, it would happily have 

 made a greater Hole and have brought both Ship and men in danger to be lost. It strucke at 

 least halfe a foote deepe into the Ship and about half a foote without, where, with great force it 

 \s as broken off, by reason whereof the great monster bled so much." 



More than a century later C. Mortimer, M. D., records this experience : 



-.Mr. Baukley showed me the Horn of a Fish that had penetrated above 8 inches into the 

 Timber of a Ship and gave me the following Relation of it: 'His MAJESTY'S Ship Leopard, having 

 been at the Went Indies and on the Coast of Guiney, was ordered by Warrant from the Honourable 

 Xncy -Board, dated Aug. 18, 1721, to be cleaned and refitted at Portsmout for Channel-Service: 

 Pursuant thereto, she was put into the great Stone-dock; and, in stripping off her Sheathing, the 

 Shipwrights found something that was uncommon in her Bottom, about 8 Feet from her Keel, just 

 before the Fore Mast ; which they searching into, found the Bone or Part of the Horn of a Fish of 

 the Figure here described; the Outside Rough not unlike Seal- Skin; and the End, where it was 

 broken off shewed itself like coarse Ivory. The Fish is supposed to have followed the Ship, when 

 under Sail, because the Sharp End of the Horn pointed toward the Bow: It penetrated with that 

 Swiftness or Strength that it went through the Sheathing 1 Inch thick, the Plank 3 Inches thick, 

 and into the Timber, 4J inches.'" 1 



Don Joseph Cornide, in his " Ensayo de una Historia de los Peces de la Costa de Galicia," 

 1787: 



"This fish is taken in the seas of Qalicia, where it is more common toward the Rio de Vigo, 

 where it is well known that the 'Balandia' (a small fishing vessel), of S. M. le Ardilla, was pierced in 

 its side and sunk by the arm of one of these fishes, which is preserved in the Royal Cabinet of 

 Natural History." 



The following statement is from the note book of Professor Baird : 



In 1871 the little yacht "Redhot," of New Bedford, was out sword-fish fishing, and a Sword-fish 

 had been hauled in to be lanced, and it attacked the vessel and pierced the side so as (o sink the 

 \ i-isel. She was repaired and used in the service of the Commission at Wood's Holl. 



Couch quotes the personal statement of a gentleman, who says: 



"We have had the pleasure of inspecting a piece of wood cut out of one of the fore plauks of 

 a vessel (the ' Priscilla,' from Pemambuco) through which was struck about eighteen inches of 



'An account of the bom of a Fish struck several luches into the aide of a Ship, by C. Mortiu er, M. D., F. R. 8. 

 Philos. Trans., xl, No. 4*51, p.<*>2, 1741. Abr. ed., ix, p. 7^. 



