TALES OF FISHES 



known as the trireme, which was rowed with three 

 banks of oars. 



The London Daily News of December 11, 1868, 

 contained the following paragraph, which emanated, 

 I suspect, from the pen of Prof. R. A. Proctor. 



Last Wednesday the court of common pleas — ^rather a strange 

 place, by the by, for inqumng into the natural history of fishes 

 — ^was engaged for several hours in trying to determine under 

 what circumstances a swordfish might be able to escape scot- 

 free after thrusting his snout into the side of a ship. The gal- 

 lant ship Dreadnought, thoroughly repaired and classed Al at 

 Lloyd's, had been insured for £3,000 against all risks of the 

 sea. She sailed on March 10, 1864, from Columbo for London. 

 Three days later the crew, while fishing, hooked a swordfish. 

 Xiphias, however, broke the line, and a few moments after 

 leaped half out of the water, with the object, it should seem, 

 of taking a look at his persecutor, the Dreadnaugkt. Prob- 

 ably he satisfied himself that the enemy was some abnormally 

 large cetacean, which it was his natural duty to attack forth- 

 with. Be this as it may, the attack was made, and the next 

 morning the captain was awakened with the unwelcome in- 

 telligence that the ship had sprung a leak. She was taken 

 back to Columbo, and thence to Cochin, where she hove down. 

 Near the keel was found a rotmd hole, an inch in diameter, 

 running completely through the copper sheathing and planking. 



As attacks by swordfish are included among sea risks, the 

 insurance company was willing to pay the damages claimed 

 by the owners of the ship, if only it could be proved that the 

 hole had been really made by a swordfish. No instances had 

 ever been recorded in which a swordfish which had passed its 

 beak through three inches of stout planking could withdraw 

 without the loss of its sword. Mr. Buckland said that fish have 

 no power of "backing," and expressed his belief that he could 

 hold a swordfish by the beak; but then he admitted that the 

 fish had considerable lateral power, and might so "wriggle 

 its sword out of the hold." And so the insurance company 

 win have to pay nearly £600 because an ill-tempered fish ob- 



160 



