Tough Fight with Whale-Shark, Daily Racing Form, 1919-11-05

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TOUGH FIGHT WITH WHALE-SHARK MIAMI, Fla., November 4. Some time ago a whale-shark was captured in Florida waters by Capt. Charles II. Thompson of this place. It Avas a monster, which -had a lengtli ot forty-rive feet, weight 30,000 pounds, circumference twenty-three feet nine inches, diameter eight feet three inches, widtli of mouth thirty-eight inches, depth of .mouth forty-three inches, tongue forty incites, tail ten feet from tip to tip, pectoral fin five feet in length three feet in width, dorsal fin three feet in length two feet nine inches in widtli, gills four feet long. Its hide was three inches, thick, its liver weighed 1,700 pounds and in its mouth were several thousand teeth. It had no scales. Its last meal was a fish weighing 1,500 pounds. Thompson hariooned this fish rrom a boat only twenty feet in length off Knights Key, Fla., on June 1, 1912. Tlie fish, witli five harpoon in him. fought for thirty-nine hours before it gave up the fight. At that time It had 151 bullets in its carcass. It lived for five days. During every Ik ur of the day and night of those thirty-nine hours it was necessary to bale out the boat so that it should not be swamped. There wasno food in the boat, only a bottle of water. The men never gave up the fight until they won.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1910s/drf1919110501/drf1919110501_2_7
Local Identifier: drf1919110501_2_7
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800