Battle with Horned Devil Fish: Four Australian Fishermen Barely Escaped with Lives from Monster, Daily Racing Form, 1919-11-08

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BATTLE WITH HORNED DEVIL -FISH Four Australian Fishermen Barely Escaped with Lives from Monster. The Australian papers ring with the story of a sea encounter between four Coogee fishermen with a horned" devil fish or Manta Alfreda. The men were I". Wiiu-k, S. Holloway. A. Briggs and T. McLennan. They were fishing in the Northwestern Sea as usual one morning when the battle occurred. The monster had a huge diamond-shaped body and two flappers extending from the shoulders and estimated at five feet each and u mouth like a sharks, with long teeth similar to the whaler sharks. From the forehead rose two long horn?:. Its tail was ten feet long and was like a heavy whiplash. The fish rushed the motor boat, and though an attempt to keep it off was made by AVinek, who used a gaff, it damaged the petrol tank, rendering the boat useless except as far as the oars were concerned. The fishermen then made for Ctrtgee, ahd were chased for two mil.es by the fish. D. G. Stead subsequently stated that the horns were used as feelers, Which caught ami conveyed fish lo the mouth. The flitting power of the flappers was terrific, and the "fishermen had a marvelous escape, for had the monster struck any one of them it might have meant death. There are records of these, fish lKing caught at Manly in 1S0S, at Durban and North Queensland: The largest was taken in American waters and measured eigliteep feet across. The view of all Sydney authorities ia that they are -exceedingly ferocious. Mr. McCulloch, curator of the fish section of the Australian Museum, says the native fishermen up north will tackle any fish, but are deadly afraid of the horned devil fish. List winter at Pilbarra. New South Wales, a professional fisherman told a thrilling story of the ca it ure of a devil fish or manta. A number were seen in creeks and were mistaken by some for sharks. Their great bodies would sometimes lie 011 the surface and appear to Hk naked eye like an overturned boat. With his son he had an exciting experience when capturing the fish. It made great attempts to get away, but was not aggressive and did not tackle the boat. In this it differed from the "Coogee one. When caught it tqok ,i dozen pair of hands to drag the fish on the lKjach. A good num.-. ber watched the fight ami about forty assembled to see the manta landed. It measured eleven feet six inches across and nine feet three inches from head to tail. The mouth was twenty-two inches wiife. It weighed 172 pounds. He added: "It is a harmless creature and a post mortem revealed the fact that it lives on twigs, leaves, seaweed and any other idd thing of the kind which floats along the ocean. On cither side of the mouth was an arm-like protuberance sixteen feet long by nine feel wide, .slightly inverted, and. is-used, no doubt, to scoop in various kinds of food. From all accounts it is the first one captured in these parts." The descriptions of the fishes- agree, but the Westralian one was evidently not aggressive, but fish around the northwest of Australia appear to differ in many respects froi thus- on other parts of the coast.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1910s/drf1919110801/drf1919110801_5_1
Local Identifier: drf1919110801_5_1
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800