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SMAD. An Organ of Student Opinion. 1933. Volume 4. Number 1.

A Shark Is Sighted

A Shark Is Sighted.

"The weather was favourable, following wind and Sea moderate, which continued till the fifth day out, when we ran into a dead calm. That day we spent in reading, playing chess and draughts, till sundown, when the monotony was relieved by the appearance of a ten-foot shark.

"We always have a way of dealing with these 'blighters.' but we like to get a little fun out of them first, if possible. This fellow, in the way apparently quite common to all of his class, swam around the ship, rubbing his sides and back against the bottom of the ship right up on the waterline. We, like a pack of school kids, ran around the deck following his progress, shouting and yelling the while, and nearly pushing one another over in the excitement. You get that way when cruising as we do; you see nothing now day after day, just the monotony of yourselves, the ship, the sea, and a few birds; so naturally a shark is worth watching.

"Trev. long since had gone below to get his .303. and was also running around; so we tossed the 'brute' a few odds and ends, which for the most part he ignored, and then the death sentence was passed.

"He was nearly more out of the water than in it; you could have leant over the side and stroked his back had you cared, so he presented no difficult target. One shot just above the breathers did the trick, his every movement stopped, just became paralysed, sank like a stone going down, down, down the clear blue water, till he looked like a small white star finally fading out of sight altogether. We had a tune on the old guitar and a song or two, then a darkness went to bed, but not for long. At 9 p.m. a breeze sprang up, so we clapped the canvas on her, and started on our way again. The wind freshened and kept on doing so, till by morning it was blowing a gale and the sea was running mast-head high—some forty feet or so. Fortunately the weather was still following, and so drove us on at increased speed rather than delayed us. This continued fill we finally ran into sheltered water after rounding Cape Morton, when we took on a pilot, and went on to page 5 the mouth of the Brisbane River.

"That gale gave us a bad time; there was water everywhere. Our bunks were wet and our clothes were wet. We couldn't cook food, and we couldn't have anything hot to drink, and it you wanted to lie down you had to hold on with both hands or he thrown all over the cabin. On Wednesday the first we had to put another tuck in the mainsail, and that's no joke. To go up on deck stripped to the waist, with water flying in all directions till you gasp for breath, to slacken away peak' and 'throat.' and then to haul on the reefing points and canvas, it's all really hard. The sail tosses you around as if you were a straw, not to mention the inconvenience of the ship's motion, and the canvas tears the skin off your knuckles. Try it; it's good exercise.

"We had that gale for company two days and nights, a period of discomfort for all. No decent food; only salmon eaten out of the tin with a spoon, and water; no sleep, and plenty of hard work to keep things going, even if it was only holding the tiller during your watch, for that took a bit of holding, too."

These few extracts show the magnitude of the adventure these six New Zealanders took, and make one realise that the Seafaring, adventurer still lives to-day.