Topic 27 
DEVIL FISHING

GOOD sport, but not exactly the thing to recommend to a weakling, or one at all nervous of a little danger," was Colonel Roosevelt's opinion of devil fishing.  He had one try at this, in the spring of 1917, when the declaration of war against Germany made it seem advisable to call off a visit to the West Indies for which he had made all of his plans.

He thought so well of the sport that just before he died he wrote his friend, Russell J.  Coles, of Danville, Virginia, accepting an invitation to join him in an expedition on March I, and thanking him for having included Captain Archie, then practically recovered from his wounds, in the invitation.

"The devil fish," said the Colonel describing the sport in his library at Oyster Bay, "is the big game of the sea.  There is nothing else quite like it that I know of, though I doubt if it will ever become a very popular sport.  It is good sport, but not exactly the kind to recommend to a weakling, or one at all nervous of a little danger.  I do not know that careful physicians will agree in recommending it to gentlemen of advanced years, for, as you may imagine, it is hard work.

"I  became interested in devil fishing  through Russell Coles, of Danville, Virginia.  Coles is rather an extraordinary sort of person, the unusual combination of good business man and high class scientist.  Most of his year he devotes to his tobacco business in Virginia.  The rest of it he puts in hunting devil fish and sharks, and by way of diversion at odd moments writes scientific articles, or prepares papers to be read before scientific societies.  He takes a very practical interest in public affairs, and is in every sense of the word a mighty fine citizen.

"I became interested in him through something he did for the American Museum of Natural History.  That was some years ago.  Since then I have had much correspondence with him, and when I found that I could not go South as I had arranged, I decided to accept one of his many invitations to go fishing.  His proposal was that I should spend a month.  We compromised on about a week.

"In devil fishing you camp in a house built on a scow that is anchored off a Florida key.  Your fishing you do from a launch.  Coles, who is a whale of a man himself, has a crew that is as good as he is.  His captain, Charley Willis, is a powerful, two handed sort of a man who has been with him many years.  Another of his outfit is Captain Jack McCann.  He's unusual, too, a good seaman and a naturalist, who habitually describes plants by their scientific names.

The others of his crew — he usually has four men — are of the same high type of intelligence.

"It is some considerable journey to the 'camp.' There you get up at sunrise, get into rough clothes, and after you 've made sure that the gear is all right, make off in a launch for the fishing grounds.  The weapons used are harpoons, which the real fishermen call 'irons,' just as I have heard some whalers call their weapons, and a lance.  Sometimes the old fashioned whaling lance is used.  Coles has had some made on designs of his own.  New Bedford, by the way, is the best place to get these things if you ever wish them.

"The iron is a business like weapon.  It has a head of the finest tempered steel, on a shaft of soft iron.  There is one there, minus the wooden handle.  When you see the way that is bent, you will see why it is necessary to make the shaft of comparatively soft metal."

The instrument, somewhat rusted, was bent to an angle of almost fortyfive degrees and occupied a place of honor on the mantel on which rested the bronze presented to him by the famous "tennis cabinet."

"That's one I used on the big fish I got with Coles's assistance.  You see it is so built that once in, the struggles of the beast release the barb and usually, though not always, prevents your prey escaping.  The iron is attached to a rope which is either run out of the boat or made fast to what they call a drogue — a sort of sea anchor, or drag.  This is a powerful brake, but one of these creatures will pull a heavy launch almost unbelievable distances with one of these drogues fastened to it with another harpoon.

"I missed my first fish through inexperience in gauging the speed at which it was moving.  The second one, I got square in the middle of the body.  When we came to take my iron out we found I had driven it through bone, muscle, and hide more than two feet — two feet four inches to be exact — and the thing had gone through the beast's heart.  After I got my iron into it, Coles also put one in.  With these two in its body, the thing dragged the boat a full half mile before it became exhausted enough for us to get it alongside.  Then it was necessary to use the lance on it twice.

" I should say that before I went to Florida, Coles had coached me a great deal — so that I knew how I was expected to handle myself, where to aim for with the harpoon, and how to use the lance.  He drilled and drilled me so that while it was my first 'appearance on any stage' as a devil fisher, I was by no means ignorant of the art.

"On the second fish we struck, Coles's iron pulled out.  He got it a second time.  This one towed us two miles.

"One of our specimens when we came to measure it proved to be the second largest of which there is any record of being killed.  Coles has the record fish.

"We did not have such good luck on the second day, the one fish we struck being lost.  In this respect it is like every other kind of sport; you must figure on having good luck and bad, and on days when you will get nothing as well as the rare days when you will get a big bag."

"You call this fish the 'big game of the sea.' How does killing it compare with 'big game' killing ashore," I asked.

"It is difficult of comparison because all of the circumstances are so different.  Both are good, but I think I prefer the land game.  I am too much of a landlubber not to have a preference for solid earth under my feet.  But it is great sport, and I am going back when I have more time to spare, just as I hope to get another chance at lions in Africa.  I have no desire for the bigger game, elephants and that sort of thing, but I would like a few more lions.

"Like all big game hunting, in devil fishing you have to depend very much on your guides and you must expect some considerable danger of being hurt.

The fish will not attack any one, but when attacked they will fight back.  At the risk of being called a nature fakir I'll add that the male of the species has been known to attack a boat which had made fast to a female.  At least, that is what veterans at the sport tell.  Like everything else of this sort, this is something one would like to verify.  However, Coles, who like most scientists is sceptical of many things, is inclined to credit these stories.

"Coles, by the way, got into this thing in a rather unusual way.  He had the groundwork of a good education when he went into devil fishing and shark hunting because he had become wearied of other fishing.  The scientific side of the thing appealed to him, and when he began to look things up, he found that very little work had been done.  Now he is probably the world's best authority in this line.  He has also gone to the point where he has made shark fishing attractive from a commercial standpoint.  He has no interest in the commercial side of the thing — he has passed that up to others after spending quite a lot of money in pioneer work.  That, of course, is the scientist of it."

Colonel Roosevelt's last college degree — that of Doctor of Science — was awarded him by Trinity College, at the same time Coles received a similar honor.  To be invested in the degree they journeyed together to Hartford.  On their return, the Colonel said he had had a "bully" time.

"Jack Morgan was there to get a degree, too," he said, "and he was very much interested in Coles.  Coles invited him to go fishing.  It would not surprise me if he went, for Morgan, you know, is a husky chap who knows a thing or two on handling a boat himself — much more than I do."