It started out like a normal tarpon shark fishing expedition. Jim and Elizabeth, had come over to visit from the east coast and brought Uncle Johnny and Aunt Joan. The Hammerhead was performing well, the weather was great, and Jim and John were enthusiastic about catching sharks that they heard me talk about. I headed for the Sanibal lighthouse and made the turn towards Knapps Point, then made the right turn around the southeast corner towards our destination, the Sanibal radio tower.

When we arrived, we set the anchor, chopped up the dead catfish that I brought along for chumming, baited our shark hooks and started to fish. At one point one of us caught a medium sized catfish and I decided to use it as bait on a shark line and dropped it overboard with the catfish still alive as live bait.

The three of us spent the better part of the day discussing fish stories and not catching anything, just the sun's rays. When it was time to call it a day we hauled in our poles and disposed of the bait over the side of the boat, shrimp and all. I started the motor up and then asked Jim to haul in the anchor. It is standard operational procedure for me to place the boat in motion -- in the direction of the anchor line to ease the burden of pulling the anchor up.

As the Hammerhead moved forward towards the anchor line with Jim standing on the bow of the boat, his legs spread apart for balance, the Hammerhead came to an abrupt halt, almost causing Jim to loose his balance. I've come to abrupt halts before but that usually meant I ran aground or onto the rocks -- but not when you are a few miles out in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Sanibal!

It did not take us long to figure out what happened. Jim decided to dive over board (remember we were chumming the water for sharks just before we moved) to examine the bottom of the boat and found the shark line wrapped tightly around the drive shaft! I had forgotten to haul in the shark line with the catfish on it and it had wrapped around the drive shaft locking up the shaft solid, stopping the propeller from turning and stopping the boat.

Just review the picture, we were shark fishing in a proven shark territory, chumming the water for hours to attract the sharks to hook laden baits, including a live wounded catfish, and my young nephew-in law, Jim Johnson decides the best we could do at this time to get the boat moving again, was for him to dive under the boat, cut the clothes line thick rope from the drive shaft and free the locked propeller. I remember a quote from an old motion picture with Ronald Coleman speaking as he was about to be placed on the guillotine to have his head chopped off, substituting his body for that of another prisoner-friend of his! "It is a far, far better thing that I do today then I have ever done before."

In my opinion, Jim's volunteering to do this was taking a tremendous chance of him being attacked by a shark. The fact that we didn't get one that day did not lessen the danger of him being just another piece of live shark bait! All that said, Jim did dive over the back of the boat with a sharp knife in his mouth while uncle Johnny and I looked about for a sign of a shark fin, prepared to hoist Jim back into the boat in a moment's notice. It took Jim a while to accomplish this, as he had to come up for air, and go back under the water, four or five times, then get back in the boat for a rest to regain his strength, and then return to the water to continue cutting pieces of the entangled rope free from the drive shaft.

I don't remember how many times Jim came up for air, or how many times he got back in the boat for a breather to regain his strength. It is now safe to say that every time Jim went over the back of the boat it increased the chance of a shark being attracted to the area and to Jim as live bait. To end this story on a happy note, a quote from Cary Grant in one of his most famous pictures, "you are a far, far better man than I." Jim Johnson, I salute you!