Page 44 August 17, 2012
DAN’S PAPERS
danshamptons.com
Shark (Continued from page 41) whites I’ve been looking for, Mundus said. I’d like to hook one. I’m not equipped for giant shark, Braddick told him. I am, Mundus said. As Mundus recounted, the fishermen aboard his boat were asked if they’d like to stay and try to catch one of the man eaters. All the fishermen on Mundus’ boat said they’d like to go back to shore so Mundus flagged down a private boat to take them home. Captain Braddick asked his fishermen, but they wanted to go home too. Captain Braddick motored them back to shore. And then he and his mate came back to the dead whale—it was four hours later—and Mundus and Braddick and their two mates lashed their two boats
together to make the effort. It was two in the afternoon. Mundus told me later what happened next and that is what I put in my article in the newspaper when I met him back on shore the next morning. The article was called THE FULL STORY. I took pictures of this Great White, dead, all 17 feet of him, lying on the dock in Montauk. And I wrote, among other things, the following sentences. “The monster took the hook around 4:30 in the afternoon with Mundus in the chair. Mundus immediately got up, Braddick sat down and the fight was on.” Mundus also told me he expected the fight might last eight-plus hours and at 60 years of age, he was uncertain he could last that long taking the fish alone. He knew the IGFA needed
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to have one fish, one fisherman and a fishing line appropriate for the fight. So that’s why he turned the seat over to Braddick. Braddick fought the beast with 150 pound test line. As the fight proceeded, with Braddick using 150 pound test line, reeling the fish in and then letting him out, Mundus called on the ship to shore to Carl Darenberg, Jr. at the Montauk Marine Basin, the largest fishing station in Montauk and the only one possessing a giant crane. “We have a Great White shark that we’re estimating is over 2,000 pounds,” Mundus told him. “We are getting our gear together now and working him. How late will you stay open?” Carl said he’d wait up all night if necessary. Keep him informed. As the sun set, the Great White continued to fight. The men brought the fish alongside and tied ropes around him, as he thrashed about. After another hour, the thrashing stopped. They had done it. This was going to be very near the world record. In fact, Mundus thought, this was well over 3,000 pounds. Twenty years earlier, Mundus had gone out with harpoons and rifles and killed a Great White weighing about that. It had taken him 12 hours to tow in with the shark alongside. Was this one even larger than that one? He remembered how far that earlier fish’s tail stuck out the back of the Cricket II after he lashed it to the side. And so, now, after untying the Fish On and having the mates take her in, Mundus and Braddick began their long slow journey home. Montauk was then and is today a fishing town. Carl Darenberg, Jr. did not keep what he had heard about over the ship to shore to himself. People began to gather out at the dock where the winch was. And Darenberg would give updates. They were now 20 miles out, now 15. The Cricket II came through the jetties at about five knots at 11:30 p.m. More than a thousand people from the town were out at the dock by that time and, as searchlights played along the side of the Cricket II, they could hardly believe their eyes. The fish was creamy white. It’s mouth hung open, its tongue hanging out, its sharp jagged teeth exposed. Of course, the first order of business would be to weigh the shark. Spotlights and car headlights were beamed out to the scene. The crowd was kept back. The steel crane was extended out over the boat and steel cable wrapped around the fish. Then the crane began to lift it. The crowd began to cheer the Marine Basin. “Go, go, go,” they shouted. But the fish, lifted by its tail to as high as the boom would go, still left the head end of the fish underwater. They eventually decided to use a cargo net to lift the fish, the sort you might use to bring boxes from a dock aboard a freighter. Just after midnight, it was placed under the fish and the crane, using four heavy ropes attached to each of the corners of the net, brought it up. What an incredible sight it was. It was swung over to a scale and set down. The scale went up to its maximum of 3,500 pounds. It hovered at that. This fish, along with its 73 pound cargo net, weighed almost exactly that. So the fish weight was calculated as 3,500 pounds minus 73, or 3,427 pounds—breaking the old record by nearly half again. My interview with (Continued on page 56)