70 
THE NEW YORK AQUARIUM JOURNAL. 
Written for the Aquarium Journal. 
HOW WE CAPTURED DAGO. 
There is no person living more generally su¬ 
perstitious than an old sailor, and of all his 
quaint ideas there are three in particular in which 
his belief admits of neither denial nor argument. 
The :irst is that an egg shell must never be 
thrown overboard unbroken, because a witch 
may sail in it and raise a storm ; the second is, 
never to whistle during bad weather, because to 
do so infallibly brings on a gale; and the third 
is, that for a shark to follow a ship persistently is 
a bad omen, for sooner or later somebody on 
board will surely fall into his jaws. Hence Jack 
compels the ship’s cook lo crumble egg shells 
finely before throwing them away; never whis¬ 
tles, and sternly discountenances that amusement 
save in a dead calm; and wages relentless war¬ 
fare on sharks whenever an op¬ 
portunity is afforded him. 
It was once the writer's fortune 
to be aboard a U. S. Man-of-war, 
belonging to the Brazilian squad¬ 
ron, which had been detailed to 
crossover to the African coast and 
visit a few forts between St. Paul 
de Loando and Capetown, for the 
purpose of showing the flag in 
this out-of-the-way part of the 
world, and thus adding to the dig¬ 
nity and importance of the few 
consuls whom Uncle Sam sends 
thither. The sea on the west 
coast of Guinea literally abounds 
in sharks of the largest size and 
of appetites of proportionate ca¬ 
pacity, and consequently on near- 
angular fins slipping through die 
water astern of the ship indicated 
that the monsters had already 
scented the refuse thrown over¬ 
board, and had made up their 
minds to accompany us as long 
as the food supply lasted. An 
economical provision of the Gov¬ 
ernment forbids the men-of-wai 
steaming while at sea, and con¬ 
sequently, with no other means 
of locomotion than sails, a pro¬ 
tracted spell of exasperating calms 
found us drifting at a snail's pace 
leisurely to the southward. Our 
convoy of sharks thus had no dif¬ 
ficulty in keeping with us, while 
the crew, on the other hand, soon 
learned to know them, and sailor 
like, after a while christened four 
of the largest by the names of 
Dago, Swab, Rock Scorpion and 
Soger. The last is the nautical 
pronunciation of the word ‘ ‘ sol¬ 
dier,” otherwise a marine for 
whom Jack has a traditional de¬ 
testation; “Dago'” is the generic 
name applied to all foreigners who perversely 
fail to understand plain English; and the other 
epithets are likewise severe ones to the tarry vo¬ 
cabulary. 
Of these four Dago was the largest and like¬ 
wise the boldest. At first he, in common with 
the others, believed the ship to be some unknown 
monster lrom which it were best to keep at a 
respectful distance. But afterwards, probably 
because he discovered that the vessel always was 
running away from him, he became inspired 
with a contempt for her huge proportions, which 
he manifested by running his nose against the 
rudder and occasionally biting a mouthful from 
•any stray rope which happened to trail overboard. 
The sharks had been following the ship for 
some ten days when it became evident that some¬ 
thing was troubling the minds of the ancient 
mariners of the crew. Numerous solemn con¬ 
claves might be seen in session under the to’gal- 
lant forecastle, in which the boatswain’s mates 
and the quarter masters of the watch below did 
the talking, and the select few who were admit¬ 
ted to the privileges of their society—and no one 
who did not rate on the ship’s books as an able- 
bodied seaman could aspire to that honor—re¬ 
spectfully listened. Any one disposed to play 
eavesdropper might soon have learned the sub¬ 
ject of these solemn deliberations. “Them ere 
sharks” were clearly the trouble, and the upshot 
of one unusually protracted session was that a 
boatswain’s mate was appointed a committee of 
one to “go to the mast” and there request per¬ 
mission of the First Lieutenant to capture the 
redoubtable Dago. 
A hot, sultry afternoon, when not a breath of 
wind was stirring, while the sails were flapping 
loosely from the yards, and a general atmosphere 
of somnolence pervaded the ship, which, like|a 
0_A_aP r X TTZE = CE! OIF 1 THE gqT ^T A~R K 
huge cradle lazily rocked on the long Atlantic 
swell, was selected as a proper time tor the boat¬ 
swain’s mate to make known the general desire. 
The First Lieutenant, nothing loth to have the 
men aroused from the sleepy indolence to which 
they were becoming too well accustomed, readily 
granted permission; and presently the gathering 
of a knot of officers at the stern, and the pro¬ 
ceeding of half a dozen men to break out the 
necessary tackle from the store room, aroused 
the curiosity of the crew and set all hands scramb¬ 
ling up the mizzen rigging to witness the sport 
Dago that day had been more than usually 
impudent. He had committed the unpardona¬ 
ble crime of eating the captain’s hat—an im¬ 
mense straw affair wherewith the skipper shielded 
his complexion from the burning sun, and which 
a rope swinging from aloft had knocked from 
his head, overboard. He had also bitten off the 
lower part of the swinging Jacobs-ladder which 
somebody had carelessly left fall over the stern, 
and now he was disporting himself under the 
cabin windows, occasionally showing his white 
stomach as he rolled over to grab some stray 
floating morsel and turning his wicked blue eyes 
up toward those who were watching him, as if 
longing for some fat sailor to follow the fate of 
the hat. 
The procession returning from the store-room 
might now be seen advancing toward the lee 
side of the poop deck The boatswain’s mate 
who headed it carried a boat’s grapnel, which 
consisted of four heavy iron prongs attached to a 
single stout shan^—the latter some two feet in 
length. This w as the shark hook, and the bait 
in the shape of a tempting lump of fat pork, was 
securely lashed on the bends. To the ring at 
the extremity of the shank was fastened three or 
fourjyards of st ron g chain—for the shark would 
fquickly bite through any rope 
which impeded his movements. 
Lastly, to the end of chain a new 
rope was secured and this was 
carried by the remaining partici¬ 
pants in the procession. The 
gigantic hook was brought to the 
stern and after allowing plenty of 
slack line for it to drift, the rope 
was belayed to a strong cleat and 
a man stationed by it to see that 
it did not slip. “ All ready, sir,” 
reported the boatswain’s mate to 
the officer of the deck, touching 
his cap with one hand and pois¬ 
ing the grapnel with the other. 
“ Very good, heave away ! 
Splash! went the hook into 
the water, and as it sank it slowly 
drifted astern until brought up by 
the line. 1 - 
Whether Dago suspected somi« 
thing wrong is not known, but he 
certainly failed to grab at the ob¬ 
ject as was his wont. Perhaps 
the indigestible nature of the cap¬ 
tain’s hat deterred him from has¬ 
tily seizing another big morsel. 
Accordingly, he approached the 
hook in the most gingerly man¬ 
ner—even stopping to crowd ou t 
of the way an impulsive young 
shark who intended preceding 
him, and swimming leisurely 
round about the bait as if to cor.» 
sider the question of the advisa¬ 
bility of swallowing it, in all its 
bearings. Had it been his fre¬ 
quent meal of a deck swab drop¬ 
ped overboard by some careless 
“after-guardsman,” he probably 
would have this time forgone the 
feast. But the smell of the pork 
was too much for him—the 
greasy aroma indicated unalloyed 
bliss to the carcharian palate— 
there was no Panama straw about 
it to tickle his gullet and make him cough, and 
no wet rope yarns to clog up his teeth. He 
hesitated—the aroma grew fainter as the bait re¬ 
ceded—Soger and the Rock Scorpion were al¬ 
ready about to clutch it. With a stroke of his 
tail he shot forward like an arrow—his white 
under side glanced as the light fell upon it. 
Those watching him could see the terrible mouth 
with its row upon row of keen saw-like teeth 
close over the hook. 
“ Stand clear of the line ! ” said the officer ot 
the deck quickly, and every one moved away 
from the rope which was now flying out over the 
talfrail with lightning speed. Dago had taken 
the dose—but had not yet felt its effects and he 
was making off with his prize to avoid the so¬ 
licitous attention of Soger and company. 
Thud 1 
The end of the tether was reached, and the. 
