Two days after leaving Tagus we were cruising around along the shores
of Narborough Island, trawling with the nets.
Two or three skiffs were near shore, some diving, some fishing and
others dynamiting. Mother and Doctor Cady were trolling for big fish
and suddenly Mother had a terrific hard pull, and for half an hour she
had to “play” a tuna. It was 46 inches long, and weighed 46 pounds.
Soon after they saw a great long fin moving slowly along and when they
came near found a big flat fish like a skate, slowly skimming just
below the surface so that only his two fins came above the water. They
followed him around and actually herded him over towards Bill and
Dwight in another boat.
Next morning Don and Dwight and Doc went out to find one with two
harpoons, plenty of rope and two kegs. They cruised around a little and
soon saw a big ripple on the water, a ray going along with his fins
sticking up in the air twenty inches.
They struck with their harpoons and after a great splash the big ray
just sank out of sight and pulled the rope and two kegs right down with
him. They waited a long time and watched for him to rise, but when we
came along in the launch Pawnee we said we would stay to look while
they went to the ship for another harpooning outfit. We chased another
big ray for almost half a mile before the others came back.
Dwight took first shot, but the harpoon soon pulled out, and the big
fish went sailing along the surface again. Then Don took a shot which
held and he played out the rope, holding on to the end so that the ray
had to tow the boat.
Meanwhile Bill had come along in another skiff to see the excitement.
Bill gave them a second harpoon which Dwight stuck in and then the fish
towed the two boats for a time, every once in a while flipping up its
tail and hunching its back to try to sweep off the ropes and harpoons.
Gradually it swam back towards the ship and the men started their
engine and forced it over that way. When it was quite near, we hurried
to the boat to get the movie camera for Shorty, and I brought Dwight’s
revolver to him. He shot it five times with a thirty-eight, and Bill
put in five loads of heavy buck shot. Then it seemed to make a great
effort and tried to swim down deep. Don held it with all his strength
and would not let it go straight down. It flipped its wing and hit Don
right across the shoulder and head twice but he never let go. Then it
tried to spill over the boat by getting right under it. But finally
they towed it near enough for the sailors to throw a rope down and get
a line over it.
It had been bleeding pretty heavily and there was a big trail of blood
all the way to the shore, and some sharks were following this up.
It measured eighteen feet across from wing to wing and weighed 2400
pounds. And after they started dissecting it they found an unborn ray
that weighed 28 pounds and made a perfect specimen to preserve and take
back to the New York Zoological Society.