Swimming With Sharks Incident

Billy had helped me make a Hawaii sling spear gun out of old surgical tubing, a door hinge, cord and a block of wood. This type of spear gun was used all through the Hawaiian Islands to hunt for fish on the reefs. Making one is very simple, you take a block of wood, usually two by two inches about as long as the palm of your hand, and drill a hole down the middle the size of the spear you are using. You take two pieces of surgical tubing and a length of cord, tie a knot in one end of the cord draw it through the tubing, allowing about an inch below the knot to remain in one end. Now draw the cord through the other piece of tubing, tie a knot in it and draw it back until about an inch is in the other part of the tubing. Attach one tube to each side of the handle, with the cord away from the block of wood. Wrap it tightly with more cord and glue the entire handle allowing it to dry a day or two. You now have a Hawaiian sling.

After making the sling we enjoyed numerous trips to the ocean coming home with many fish for the dinner table.

Early one morning the two of us headed for the Pan Am ramp to do some spear fishing around an old Japanese barge that had been beached near the ramp during the Second World War. The barge was really in bad shape. The only thing holding it together was the rust. It did, however, make a great habitat for the fish. That day we were after small Veckie, Squirrelfish and papio.

We were disappointed when we arrived at the ramp, because the navy Seabees had put the area off limits so they could do some demolition work. Some brass hat at Pearl Harbor had decided that all the old bombs, bullets and dangerous weapons of war needed to be destroyed. Since the barge was blocking some of the swimming area the Seabee commander figured he needed to remove it as well.

We were all moved a safe distance from the barge and the Seabees went to work placing small charges on the grounded vessel. We watched as they prepared to pop the explosives from our safe vantage point. The first shot filled the air with black smoke and blue water, but when the smoke cleared the barge was still there, but with more holes than before. Three move charges were detonated, but each of these explosions only ripped more small holes in the rusted barge.

The Seabee commanders walked down to the beach and examined the rusting hulk, then told his men and forget about it. They would move on to some of the bombs that had been found near the reef and were now out in the deepest part of the lagoon waiting to be destroyed.

We asked if we could return to the water now they weren’t going to be blowing up the barge. He said okay and off we went. As we got into the water we noticed fish floating on the surface, some were dead, others knocked out from the concussion. Both Billy and I saw a banquet floating before us. I swam out over the old ramp area while Billy headed for the barge. I was out about thirty yards, spear gun in one hand and a net bag in the other gathering up the fish floating in the water. As I would come up on a fish I would open the bag and pop the meal in.

Billy was yelling to me each kind of fish he was putting in his bag while I was responding in kind. We had been out maybe ten minutes when things suddenly changed. I had reached for a large Squirrelfish when it disappeared before my eyes and my hand touched sandpaper-like body swimming by me. My stomach jumped to my mouth and I begin to look around. Over to my left, where Billy was, I could see fins breaking the water, to my right more fins slicing through murky lagoon water and a quick glance straight ahead was a fin coming right at me.

I shoved my spear gun out at the fin and felt it hit something hard and the fin turned away. I was yelling at the top of my voice “Sharks.” I rolled over on my back and begin to swim toward the beach. I could hear Billy yelling sharks too, yet somehow I knew he was already out of water on the beach. Again I watched as another fin appeared to my right and made its approach. I was maybe twenty yards from the beach and again I held the spear out and shoved it at the shark, again it hit flesh and the shark turned away. It was at this point I heard the crack of a rifle and a bullet whiz over my head and rip the water just a foot or so from me. If I could have walked on water it would have been done right then. I was thinking to myself as bullets whizzed by my head and sharks were trying to eat me, just whose side the Seabees were on in this whole mess.

I felt a strong yank on my right flipper and was pulled out a yard or so before I kicked it loose and continued to swim to the beach under shark and Seabees attack. I was just a few feet from the shore when several men rushed in and pulled me from the water.

I lay on the beach breathing hard with one flipper, a spear gun and a bag of fish. The Seabee commander leaned down and looked into my face. “You all right boy? Why didn’t you drop the fish and swim like hell?”

I looked at him in disbelief and responded. “Those are for dinner and why the hell were you shooting at me anyway?”

Everyone laughed as Billy helped me to my feet. We looked out to the lagoon and watched shark fins gliding through the murky water. We stopped counting at twenty. We never did find the flipper the shark tore off my foot and for that matter we didn’t care. I can only hope the poor shark ended up with a nasty bellyache, besides that was my favorite pair of flippers.

Not all beach experiences were with ocean going sharks. Many times after school we would head for the beach. Since school was out by three and the sun didn’t set until after six or later we could get in several hours of swimming, diving and spear fishing at the bridge. On one such occasion an old bathing suit came into play or should I say OUT of play.

--

Purchase from Amazon.Com
Purchase from Barnes and Noble