my rescue”

“Sharks came to my rescue”

Vanuatu girl

The shark is one of the most efficient killing machines in na ture; a creature of voracious appetite which has, through history, struck terror in the hearts of men because of the viciousness of its nature, and the blind frenzy with which it attacks its prey, and even its own kind.

Yet, from time to time, there occur astonishing tales of sharks appearing to help people in distress. We record one such mysterious story here, with our thanks to the Vanuatu Weekly of Port Vila, which first reported what can only go into history as a story in the true tradition of Strange and Inexplicable Tales of the Islands. Real, half-im agined, or dreamed, perhaps not even the teller truly knows; it is a story of survival in the face of what looked like certain death.

Rosline Ben, a shy 20-year old from Lamen Island, Epi, was among the 66 passengers of the motor vessel Onma II cast into the seething ocean off Malakula when the ship found ered at the height of Hurricane Eric on January 16. She spent two days in the sea with only a life-jacket, and her own spirit, to support her in the eerie, con stant, company of two sharks which not only did not attack her but, according to Rosline, even fed her. ’’They were like my friends.

They watched me intently all the time I remember their eyes, always on me - I felt they contributed to my good fortune in that I was saved from the sea,” she said.

The Onma II came to grief in the early dawn of Wednesday, January 16. Rosline was asleep in the passengers’ end of the ship when the alarm was sounded. She awoke to find all the passengers in life-jackets.

The ship’s cook helped her into

a jacket and, altogether, they jumped into the raging sea.

There was much confusion but, soon, they sighted the ship’s only boat and tried to board it, but were turned away because it was full. Eventually she saw a life-raft and, after an exhausting swim, reached it and was hauled on board by her friend, the ship’s cook. Four or five rafts were tied together, but in the furious sea they became unwieldy and so they were cut apart, each to find its own fortune.

By midday Rosline’s raft was quite alone, drifting towards the coast of Tisman island, when they saw a man swimming. It turned out to be the Onma ll’s captain, and they helped him on to their raft, said Rosline.

After a time the captain urged the cook and herself to try to

ashore, because the coast was only a short distance away.

He and the cook had tried to swim the raft to the beach, but had failed because of the cur rents. ”1 became concerned. The cook went into the water and began swimming for the island.

Then the captain dragged me with him into the water and I started to swim. I tried to reach the island, but the currents were too strong, so I gave up and let the currents take me.”

According to her watch, which she had tied on to a necklace around her neck, it was now 4 pm. ”By 8 pm I was so exhausted that when I came across a drifting log I could not have cared if it was a monster from the deep. What I needed was something to rest my body. I

grabbed it and hung on. ”1 must have gone to sleep because I remember nothing until suddenly my body was jerked. I looked up and saw this thing moving towards me through the water. ”1 was very frightened and I screamed out, praying to God that it was only a nightmare and to make it end so that I could be safe again. ’The shark came gliding in at me with its mouth open and it tore at my life-jacket. I could do nothing but wait for the end.”

Rosline thinks she first saw the sharks about midnight.

There were two of them, about two and a half metres long and the biggest she had ever seen, she said. ’’After the first time, when the shark tore my life jacket, it went away a bit and I took the jacket

Were they sharks like this one that helped Rosline Ben (inset)? Shark picture by Ron and Valerie Taylor.

off and hung it on one of the four branches of the log. ”1 was too scared to make a sound,” said Rosline. ”1 just hung there, very still. ’The sharks kept circling me, and then they stopped, one on each side of me. One of them came under me so that my legs were across his tail.

’They stayed with me until dawn, and by then I no longer feared them. They seemed to understand. I could see their eyes and they watched me all the time.” she said, ’’Sometimes on that long night I got angry as well as frightened and I would scream at them, but they always

seemed to read my mind. They just flapped their tails and I knew then to stop screaming. ”

Rosline said she was very tired and hungry. She saw a coconut floating past and tried to open it with her teeth, but could not. ’Then the strangest thing happened. Something I will re member all my life. One of the sharks disappeared and a few minutes later I saw a fish float ing up to the surface. Its tail was gone. I took it and began to eat it. ’’Then something moved against the back of my neck. I turned. It was an island cab bage top. I took it, too, and ate it, with the fish. ’The two sharks were now like my friends. I felt they were watching over me and I felt better.”

The sharks stayed with her until late in the afternoon, she said, when an aircraft flew over.

She waved madly, but thought she had not been seen by the pilot, for the plane flew on.

It was about this time that the sharks left her. She did not see them again. ”1 think I became uncon

scious,” she said. ”I,did not wake up until the Marata re scued me somewhere past Malakula. ’’But I think that even that was strange. The captain of the Marata told me two seagulls were sitting on the log when he saw me. 1 think they were my two friends in the form of birds, with me to the end of my journey. ”

Were they sharks, or were they dolphins? By general con sensus and experience dol phins are more likely to look kindly upon humans than are sharks. Stories of dolphins coming to the aid of people cast into the sea are, if not common, certainly far from unknown.

Either way, young Rosline Ben had a remarkable experience, and a fortunate survival. Sharks are common around Malakula which has in recent times been the scene of two fatal shark attacks. The first of these in volved a Swedish tourist guide who went swimming outside the reef at sunset, which local people regard as somewhat foolhardy. The other victim in the same vicinity was the child

of cruising yacht couple —

Ed.

Could it have been dolphins like the one pictured who helped Rosline? The record certainly suggests they’re more likely to help humans than sharks . . .