Saturday 9 March 2013

Shark-O!

This is a classic example of a book that I bought just for the cover - a market find of the highest quality and on flicking through its pages one to be devoured and enjoyed.

P. Fitzgerald O' Connor looks like my sort of bloke - what adventures he must have had abord his small boat the Cornaig Venture. If ever there was a chap to drink his tea from a tin mug and not give a hoot for burning his lips it's Fitz!

P. Fitzgerald O' Connor
 
I am slightly ashamed to say the book (1955) is about the hunting of the Basking Shark in Hebridean waters where it was found in the spring and summer. Amazingly this practice was still carried out in the mid 1990's and thankfully the species received full protection in UK waters in 1998.




I can't wait to get stuck into it, but for the time being it remains fourth in line in my reading pile, so for now I will just have to admire its cover and look forward to a full dose of shark fever. 

1 comment:

Dee Ayo said...

I just found on Google sizeable extracts from a 2017 book by Colin Speedie re 'Sea monsters,....searching for the basking shark' . Patrick Fitzgerald O'Connor is mentioned in some paragraphs for 1951.