A DIVER AND A BAD SHARK.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3577, 17 July 1912, Page 7

A DIVER AND A BAD SHARK.

FEROCIOUS MONSTER DRIVEN OFF BY A STEEL TIMBER HOOK.

• ill exciting story of a diver’s fight, with a shark, thirty feet below the surface of the waves, is related in the Southern Times, of Perth, Western Australia. Diver Alf. Swanston was in the water near the Bemburv jetty catching hold of sleepers and jueces of scantling with his steel timber hook, dragging them through the two-feet deep black ooze, and carefully stacking the salvage so that the heap would not come apart, when he saw through the haze a seven-foot sleeper lying a short distance away. He moved in that direction, lifting the fortypcnnd iron-shod boots as if they were tennis-shoes- Suddenly his foot came down on something that moved. "A. shark, I suppose,” was his remark, as lie moved towards the sleeper. Suddenly .something struck hard against his chest. The diver bent slightly down, and saw a pair of angry eye.; set at the side of a shovel-shaped snout. It was a “tiger,” or “ground” shark, that he had disturbed there, thirty feet below the lapping waves. A quick thrust with the timber hook, and the shark was gone. . Swanston, unmoved by the incident, hooked tlm sleeper, and turned to drag it to the pile near by. when the shark’s snout again struck him nearly upsetting his. balance. Anothes blow from the hook sent the monster cf the deep, angry at being disturbed from his afternoon siesta, flying away from the encroaching human. “That settled the cripple,” said the man ini the helmet; and up above the attendant heard the remark, and wondered 'who the cripple was. But it hadn’t! The “tiger” shark had evi-

dently learnt, through two experiences, that lie was not pursuing the best mode of attack. A few seconds’ interval, and then the diver felt a in his leg, followed by a feeling that water was coming into the diving-suit freely.

“I’m attacked by 51 shark, and lie’s torn my suit, and let the water in,” was the shout that went flying up the thin wire to the attendant on top. Quickly the man in the launch hauled up his mate from down below, and soon the helmet emerged, and Diver Swaneton stepped from the ladder into the boat.

Upon examination it was found that the leg of the india-rubber trousers worn by the diver had been badly torn, and if he had stayed below much longer the water coming in would have suffocated him.