The Saw-Fish in the Gulf of Paria

The following interesting narrative, by Capt. Wilson, of the Halifax Packet, gives us an idea of the powers of this monster:

"Being in the Gulf of Paria, in the ship's cutter, on the 15th April 1839, I fell in with a Spanish canoe, manned by two men, then in great distress, who requested me to save their lives and the canoe, with which request I immediately complied; and going alongside for that purpose, I discovered that they had got a large Saw-fish entangled in their turtle net, which was towing them out to sea, and but for my assistance they must have lost either their canoe or their net, or perhaps both, which were their only means of subsistence.

Having only two boys with me in the boat at the time, I desired them to cut the fish away, which they refused to do; I then took the bight of the net from them, and with the joint endeavours of themselves and my boat's crew, we succeeded in hauling up the net, and to our astonishment, after great exertions, we raised the saw of the fish about eight feet above the surface of the sea. It was fortunate circumstance that the fish came up with the belly towards the boat, or it would have cut the boat in two.

"I had abandoned all idea of taking the fish, until, by great luck, it made towards the land, when I made another attempt, and having about fifty fathom of rope in the boat, we succeeded in making a running bowline-knot round the saw of the fish, and this we fortunately made fast on shore; when the fish found itself secured it plunged so violently that I could not prevail on any one to go near it; the appearance it presented was truly awful.

I immediately went alongside the Lima packet, Capt. Singleton, and got the assistance of all his ship's crew. By the time they arrived the fish was rather less violent; we hauled up the net again, in which it was still entangled, and got another fifty fathoms of line made fast to the saw, and attempted to haul it towards the shore; but although mustering thirty hands, we could not move it an inch.

By this time the negroes belonging to Mr Danglad's estate, came flocking to our assistance, making together with the Spaniards, about one hundred in number: we then hauled on both ropes for nearly the whole of the day, before the fish became exhausted. On endeavouring to raise the fish it became most desperate, sweeping with its saw from side to side, so that we were compelled to get strong guy ropes to prevent it from cutting us to pieces.

After that, one of the Spaniards got on its back, and at great risk, cut through the joint of the tail, when animation was completely suspended: it was then measured, and found to be 22 feet long, and 8 feet broad, and weighed nearly 5 tons."*

* Mag. Nat. Hist. 1839, p 519

source: The Ocean, P.H. Gosse, London (1845) p191-3