Bart/e with a Y) evil fish
Half-ton Monster Tows Boat to Sea, Then Tries
to Sink It After Being Shot, but Occupants
Escape Grim Death
By WILLIAM HORNE
HAL LAN EY, fisherman, is not a
famous man. True, his activities
are limited to those waters along the
Atlantic and the Gulf that touch Miami
and around the keys. But -his prowess
as an adventurous deep-sea fisherman is
known all along the coast wherever
thrilling sports are entertained.
I have known him intimately for the
last ten years of his forty years of hectic
life along Florida's coast and of many
# strange and bizarre experiences that
have been his as he played about in
- those tropic waters.
And among those experiences there
are two that stand out more vividly
than all the rest. Oddly enough, the
first happened on land, and in a boat!
During the never-forgettable Miami
boom. Hal Laney owned and operated
I a forty-foot launch, the Ethel B He
' used the splendid little craft at his busi
ness of taking fishing parties out into
the Gulf Stream on daily deep-sea fish
ing excursions
After the bottom of the boom dropped
out Hal s business began falling off, so
he decided to sell the launch, get a
• smaller craft for his own personal fish
ing and “spend the difference.”
It was while the Ethel B. was on
display, tied up at the wharf on the edge
of Biscayne Boulevard in Biscayne Bay,
that the hurricane struck Miami.
* Hal knew the storm warnings had
been issued, but he thought he'd be safe
enough, tied up as he was to starboard
and to port hard against a wharf So
i when the night before the storm came
he crawled into his cozy twelve-foot
cabin and went to sleep to the restless
tune of a rising wind and lapping water
and rustling palm fronds.
“But I didn’t sleep long." he declares,
“for it wao after 11 when I lay down and
hardly 3 the following morning when the
first of the hurricane began really bear
ing down.
“I woke up to the sudden violent
lurching of the Ethel 8., and after I'd
climbed hurriedly into my trousers and
coat I tried to open the cabin door.
But that was just about next to impos
# sible for the door hung to the outside
and a sixty-ftve-mile wind held it sealed
tight.
•So I sat on my bunk and tried to see
out a small porthole, and the launch was
pitching so wildly by this time that I
could hardly keep my seat. I could see
nothing outside but a sheet of rain,
intermittent flashes of lightning, palm
* trees that were snapped off like stems
and bent straight with the moaning wind.
Now and then one that had been torn
completely up would go bouncing along
the pavement of Biscayne Boulevard,
‘ tumbling like an empty paper bag.
“The Ethel B. was lurching and sway
ing like a drunken man and I suddenly
# realized that the bay was rising and
rising fast
Carried to Land
tiTl/AVES tumbled in and broke over
»» the wharf. As I watched in the
’ half-light of my cabin lamps that threw
an eerie beam through the tiny hatches
I saw the waters of the bay steadily
• creep and cover the wharf, and the
Ethel B went with It.
“The boat was listing badly now. and
I knew I’d have to get out of that cabin
some way, so I made my way to the door
again. But just as I got my hand on
it! in ft L Jjjr ■ —-~~~~
■ f I Mj& rit U JIV I JL
Hal Laney regained consciousness just
about, as near as he could figure after
ward, an hour later.
Battle With Devilfish
THE great manta, or devilfish, is a pow
erful and dangerous foe. and some
specimens have been harpooned in con
genial salt waters that measured twenty
two feet and weighed a ton and a half.
This monstrosity is a member of the
rays or stingarees and Is equipped with
a powerful, long tail tipped with a horn
like spike that can be driven through
the body of a man with one terrific
sweep
Swimming so near the surface in this
manner makes them very easy to locate
by fishermen who love the sl>ort of
harpooning them, and it was after sight
ing two “wing tips” that Hal Laney
suddenly decided one day to try for a
catch.
“1 was in a twelve-foot dory, and I
turned hard about when I located my
sea devil,” he relates, “in an effort to
head him off. My Negro helper, Jim,
handled the tiller and I crouched in the
bow with my harpoon.
“I had the twenty-foot line that was
attached to the gig coiled at my feet,
everything ready for the cast. And that
devilish thing came right on straight to
meet me I don’t know whether it saw
me. Anyway, it came to within ten
feet of the dory and I stood up, hurled
the harpoon and made a direct hit.
“During the first second or two noth
ing happened and the four-and-a-half
foot harpoon stuck upright from the
thing’s back But suddenly, as If it real
ized something was wrong, it flopped over
like a whale and went toward the bot
tom at terrific speed.
“I saw as he flopped over that he was
a monster, probably ten feet long, eight
feet across and three feet thick. As my
line paid off as he dived I wondered if
It would hold, and if it did hold if he'd
Just take us right down, bow first, to
the bottom of the Gulf Stream
Headed for Open Sea
urn HE line held all right, and the
manta decided he didn’t want to
take us to Davy Jones' locker just then.
So he came straight back up like a cy-
f* • N . v >'-v -a
*• ; .- *.-7’ • '•
..\ ‘ ,
He had his high-powered rifle
in his hands and decided he
teas going to end the grim
game. As he fired, the giant
monster came up out of the
water like a huge volcano
clone, broke through the water ten
feet from the dory and shot up into the
air. For one long moment I stared at
the thing, hardly believing it could pos
sibly be so big. And then it came down
nearer the dory with a splash that al
most swamped us.
"Several times we crouched there wait
ing to be smashed to pieces as it leaped
time and again cfear of the surface and
flopped grotesquely in the air.
“But finally it dived again, came up
and headed to the open sea. taking our
dory along behind as it* it had been
no more than the empty tow line that
ran through the eye of the harpoon still
quivering in its back.
“Jim sat beside the tiller, scared
goggle-eyed, and I crouched in the bow
with my knife hovering over the taut
line, none the less afraid.
“I was hesitant about cutting the line
and losing our devil, because he was the
largest I’d ever seen and I was anxious
to get him back to Miami with me. I
didn't know what to do. There we
were, heading out into the open sea at
probably twenty miles an hour, and the
evening tide coming in. Waves rolled
higher and sometimes caught our little
dory broadside as the manta suddenly
changed his course. And still we fol
lowed him, playing a game of follow
the-leader with a monster that might at
any moment suddenly turn and charge
the craft and smash it with one terrific
lunge
“1 had my high-powered rifle In my
hands now and signaled to Jim that I
was going to try to end the grim game.
So I sighted carefully just between the
wing tips and pulled the trigger.
“And then bedlam did tear loose. That
devil came up out of the water like a
volcano. He turned a complete flip In
midair, his deadly tail lashing out
within a few feet of my face. The dory
shipped water, almost going over There
was nothing to do but crouch there with
my rifle and try for another shot, and
finally, as he came up the third time
and flipped over a scarce dozen feet
from me, I let him have it again Right
through the fore part of the body The
bullet crashed into his brain, but a sea
devil dies hard, and I knew it.
Attacks the Boat
U A ND although he dived under again
Ta and, suddenly came up very slowly
within five feet. I was leery of that
slowly lashing tail. I tightened the line
to let him swing behind us as we put
about for shore. I was leaning overside
with one hand holding the line when
he suddenly came to life and made
for the dory.
“We had been drifting along serenely
enough until then. We were now a mile
offshore and I'd begun to think the
game was about all over but the shout
ing.
“But I heard Jim yell, and as he
yelled the warning I felt the wash about
us and the rise of the dory as the manta
dived against the side where I crouched
and beneath us.
“At the same moment I felt the tall
hit my left forearm and felt that sting
go in like a red-hot harpoon. That
devil was mad. He had a harpoon in his
back and two .38 rifle bullets .some
where inside. I guess he decided he’d
take a good swipe at me before he went
under for the last time. And he did "
The pain of that sting was so excru
ciating that within three minutes Hal
Laney rolled on deck in agony. The
Negro boy, Jim, tied the tiller and slit
the wound with his keen skinning knife.
He sucked the poison out, then poured
powder from a cartridge into the oi»en
wound and applied a match. Thu
method of first aid is always used In
a case of stings from a ray, and It
probably saved Laney's left arm.
Yes, he got ashore with his prize deyfl,
but it had sold itself dearly. No. my book
wouldn’t be complete without some of
the colorful pages from the life of Hal
Laney, Just plain fisherman, between It*
covers.