782 
June 22, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
OUR LARGEST TARPON, 185 POUNDS, 7 FEET 8 INCHES. 
tion consisted of roomy general cabin, with large 
transom and three staterooms, one double with 
bed and berth, occupied by the gunman and the 
photographer and one single for the scribe, the 
captain sleeping in the third. Forward were 
galley, ice boxes, lockers and forecastle, where 
three men could stow themselves away. Our 
crew embraced the skipper, one deck hand, one 
oarsman for small boat, and a cook and steward 
combined in the person of Harry Oakley, who 
proved an admirable chef, not to say a veritable 
cordon bleu. How he managed to produce such 
satisfactory results in a mite of a galley with 
two gasolene burners was always a mystery 
to us. 
At Angel Fish Creek we immediately wet 
our lines on small game. The gunman got his 
first and the only bone fish that day, and the 
bag by dark included one Spanish mackerel, one 
moray, three groupers, twelve grunts and four 
snappers. These small fish afford good sport on 
a light trout rod, are toothsome as pan fish for 
breakfast, and prove acceptable to their larger 
brethren as bait. We also annexed that delect¬ 
able salad piece de resistance, the stone crab, a 
special favorite of the scribe. 
Next day, March 8, dawned warm and clear, 
with light southeasterly breeze; thermometer, 84 
degrees. Under power at 9 a. m., seven miles 
through Turtle Harbor to the edge of the reef 
and anchored within a stone’s throw of Caris- 
ford Light. All three out trolling in the launch, 
practically all day, it being an exceptional day 
on the reef, with sea smooth as glass, taking 
into camp nineteen barracuda, several kinds of 
grouper, Spanish mackerel, red snapper and beau¬ 
tiful blue parrot-fish. This was our first day 
with big fish, and we missed a good many, owing 
to flabby city muscles and lack of practice. 
Late in the afternoon we visited Carisford 
Lighthouse, built in 1852. The present light, the 
scribe has been informed since, is to be 
improved this summer, and a new one 
installed, having increased power and 
wider range of the ’‘Red Sector.” 
There ■ is a chain of five lighthouses 
along the reef from Miami to Key 
West, covering a distance of about 160 
miles, being in sequence from north to 
south; Fowey Rocks, Carisford, Alli¬ 
gator, Sombrero and American Shoals, 
and they serve a double purpose of 
lighting the straits of Florida to the 
south and the Hawk Channel to the 
north of the reef. The crew of each 
consists of a keeper and two assist¬ 
ants ; salary of the former ranging 
from $720 to $840 per annum, of first 
assistants from $510 to $600, and of 
second assistants from $456 to $480. In 
addition to salary each keeper is al¬ 
lowed thirty cents per diem for rations 
or commutation thereof. The light¬ 
houses are supplied every six months 
with a regular allowance of staple arti¬ 
cles and provisions, such as pickled 
meats, sugar, etc., these being paid for 
by the Government and deducted from 
the allowance of thirty cents per man 
per day, the balance being commuted to 
the keepers in cash. 
Before turning in that night, Harry, 
the deckhand, rigged the shark gear and 
left it trailing all night, and on the 
morning of March 9 all hands were summoned 
early on deck to haul alongside a large shark which 
had taken the twenty-five pounds of barracuda 
bait. At this point the gunman scored with his 
reliable .44 caliber revolver, shooting a soft- 
nosed jacketed bullet, and three shots reduced 
our captive to subjection. We hoisted her up 
in the starboard rigging, with the throat hal¬ 
liards, and on being opened, she con¬ 
tained twentj'-four pups or young ones, 
fully one and one-half feet long, which 
wriggled about in most lively fashion 
on the deck. 
The day was delightful, absolutely 
cloudless, smooth sea, thermometer 82 
degrees, and we took advantage of it 
by making a long run in the launch to 
the wreck of the steamship Hannah M. 
Bell, of Stockton, England, which lay 
stranded on the edge of the reef and 
presented a sad, but interesting spec¬ 
tacle. The port side of her upper deck 
was flush with the water, and we 
boarded her, getting a snapshot of an 
immense solitary pelican, perched on 
the forward bulwarks, the only sign 
of life about the vessel, except her hold 
full of tiny fish. She seemed better 
fitted than the ordinary tramp. Her 
masts and stack were standing; her 
bitts, binnacles, winches and other mov¬ 
able fittings remained, so we wondered 
she had not been stripped by native 
wreckers. On our return to New York 
the scribe was obligingly informed by 
IMr. Herbert B. Saunders, marine sur¬ 
veyor and salvage expert, of 15 White¬ 
hall street, that the Hannah M. Bell, 
Captain Thompson, bound from Boston 
to Vera Cruz, was stranded at night, 
about April 4, 1911, as it was claimed. 
through the inefficiency of the Carisford Light. 
She was a very fine steamer, built in 1893, regis¬ 
tered tonnage 2,998, length 319 feet, beam 40 
feet 6 inches and valued at $120,000. An effort 
was made to raise her by the late John R. 
Arbuckle’s condensed air process, with Peary’s 
famous steamer Roosevelt, but it failed, and she 
is now doomed to leave her bones upon the 
treacherous Elbow Reef. 
The morning’s bag was a very fine and rare 
South African pompano, cleverly landed by the 
gunman, a dozen grouper, including Nassau, 
tiger and strawberry, sixteen barracuda, a shark 
four and one-half feet long which put up a hard 
fight, and two large succulent Spanish mackerel. 
In the afternoon we ran back to Angel Fish 
Creek, eight miles, and anchored for the night 
well off shore to dodge mosquitoes. The gun¬ 
man went stone crabbing and got fifteen, also 
conch, which the natives eat raw with avidity 
and ascribe to it marvelous recuperative powers. 
It blew up very fresh in the northwest in the 
night, and Sunday, the loth, was a cool, windy 
day; thermometer, 77 degrees. We tried bone 
fishing, but they acted very shy, and the scribe 
was the only one to score. After lunch we 
opened a large female shark caught last night. 
She weighed 400 pounds and had nine well-grown 
"kittens” or young ones in her. Sailed a 3 p. m. 
and anchored in Card Sound, about seven miles, 
one mile south-southeast off Card Point. The 
wind blew hard at night, and it felt quite chilly 
on deck. 
Monday, the nth, was a bone fishing morn¬ 
ing, with light northeast breeze, clear, sunny; 
thermometer, 78 degrees. The gunman and the 
photographer had all the luck, getting seven be¬ 
tween them without shifting the boat, one nine 
pounds and two of seven each. In the after¬ 
noon we steamed through Angel Fish and Steam¬ 
boat creeks from Card Sound to Jewfish Draw- 
BONE FISH, EIGHT POUNDS EACH. 
