Dropped into the sea

A Boy’s Miraculous Escape from a Savage Ocean Vulture. An old sea captain says in relating a recent incident in his experiences to a San Francisco Examiner reporter: “One day the mate’s son, a lad of fifteen years, fell overboard. A sailor named Banning leaped into the water after him. The sea water in this neighborhood is so cold that a man can not live longer than twenty-five or thirty minutes in it. The attention of every man on board was given to the two men in the water, but when one sailor raised his eyes and saw an enormous bird making direct for the boy he emitted a cry of terror, which was joined in by every one as soon as they saw it. It did not resemble a cloud, nor did it carry a rock in its talons, but it was an enormous creature that no two men would care to battle with under any circumstances. When Banning raised his eyes and saw the bird his first thought was to turn around and make for the ship. Fear took possession of him, and his strokes grew less powerful. Seeing Banning’s danger James Gray jumped in after him. Just as he reached the water the great creature reached the boy, who was growing faint. At first the bird seemed undetermined what to do. It pecked at the boy about the body, heeding not the shouts of the sailors who sought to frighten it away. It was some time before the boat could be lowered and by the time it was let into the water and manned the boy had gone down once. His sudden disappearance surprised the bird, which was about to turn its attention to Banning, when the boy came to the surface again. I ran to my cabin and returned with a rifle to shoot the bird should it grow ugly. When I got on deck the great thing I saw was the strange creature rising into the air with the boy, and his mate, which suddenly appeared, almost as large, was attacking Banning. He was on his back dodging the beak of his adversary and swimming toward the vessel with all his might. I was never more excited in all my life. I hardly knew what to do. The boy was being carried away and was up thirty or forty feet in the air. “Shoot the bird,” yelled the mate, running about deck like a crazy man and shouting at the top of his voice orders that were not obeyed. In shooting I, of course, ran the risk of killing the boy instead of the big bird, if, indeed he was not killed by the fall: but there was not much time to think of this; the bird was still rising, and, after a hasty aim, I fired. It was an excellent shot. A wing fell helpless, as if I had broken it, and the bird tumbled down into the water. The second bird, when it saw the boat approach left Banning and made a fierce attack on one of the boatmen, striking him with its foot a blow that felled him to the bottom of the boat. Another of the crew raised an oar and hit the bird with all his might, when it flew away. Banning, Gray and the boy were picked up. The latter was unconscious, but after a good rubbing he was brought to. Banning was bleeding about the face, and more or less injured about the body. The wounded bird fought viciously when an attempt was made to capture it. It was finally lassoed and taken on board. Three weeks afterward it died. The boy said that before he went down he felt himself losing consciousness and grabbed at teh enormous bird that was hovering over him. He caught its feet and held on with the grip of a drowning man. He partially regained his sense in teh air, but thought he was higher up than he really was and did not dare to let go.”

source: The Tyrone Daily Herald
location: Tyrone, Pennsylvania