Tony Buxton

Diving (Part 1)

by Tony Buxton

Editor's Note Tony Buxton's story is of great interest as it epitomizes, to a greater or lesser extent, the experiences and history of many of the pioneer "Reefcombers", of which Tony was one of the most illustrious.

Tony's story, as given here, contains some information which will appear in greater detail in his forthcoming book “Ecstasy of the Deep”.

Spearfishing

Shortly after returning to Ceylon in 1954. I read Hans Haas’ book “Diving to Adventure”. After finishing it, I knew for sure that diving was my calling. I had never had any other real interests in my life.

However I was in very poor health with chronic sinus problems and an asthmatic. Also underweight and a very weak swimmer. I loved the sea but never swam out of my depth. I had no idea how I was going to overcome these problems. But it did not deter me. I wondered where I could start and asked a friend of mine if there was anywhere I could take a peak underwater. I was quite surprised when he told me that there were fabulous places on our doorstep and he had done quite a bit of snorkeling and spear fishing himself.

He took me to a shop and kitted me out with a mask snorkel and flippers. Then took me to a workshop to fashion me with a long spear to which he attached a heavy rubber band. Then the next weekend we went to Hikkaduwa and when I slowly swan out to a shallow reef in crystal clear water and saw the beautiful underwater scenery there was no doubt in my mind that this was what I wanted. I tried to dive but found it very difficult to get down even 5 or 6 feet. But from then on every possible opportunity I was in the water. I managed to buy a small CO2 inflatable “life saver” that gave me great confidence. I never managed to spear any fish at all except a puffer fish. Eventually I bough a Cernia spring gun but I could only load it on land and after firing it I had to climb on a rock and reload it. I had heard about the spearfishermen at Kinross and I turned up one day and met a few of them at their club and told them that I wanted to go spearfishing. I think they regarded me with a bit of derision. Wondering who this skinny unhealthy looking foreign character was and what was he doing amongst them. But Rodney Jonklaas took pity upon me and asked me where I was from and who I was. I told him I was born around the corner in Wellawatte and maybe that did it. He invited me to join them on a trip down south. For me it was a wonderful experience listening to their tales of big fish and sharks. Besides Rodney, there was Langston Periera, Tissa Ariyaratne, Hilmie Khalid, Turab Jafferjee, Carlisle Ranasinghe and perhaps a few others. I remember these names so well even now because they were my constant companions during the following years. I would even say my closest and best friends and we constantly dived together. My first dive with them was a bit of a disaster. They swam out to a far off reef and there was no way that I dared follow so I just fooled around on some rocks in the shallows. I was thrilled at spearing my first fish a small ‘boralu’. When they all returned with huge pompano and other large fish I wanted to hide the boralu that I was so proud of. However Rodney perhaps recognized my burning obsession with spearfishing and he befriended me and helped me in every way. On spear fishing trips instead of swimming out to far off reefs with the others he swam beside me and waited for me to catch up. I was in the sea every spare moment and during the south west monsoon in 1955 I dived in the sheltered harbor with Rodney spearing Barracuda. On weekends we drove to Trincomallee. Langston Pereira accompanied us on most of our spearfishing trips. By the end of 1955 my sinus problems had disappeared and I had put on a lot of weight (muscle). I was able to get down to 30 feet and had given up using a snorkel. I managed to spear and sell enough fish to cover my share of diving trips. In early 1956 I had become a very close friend of Rodney’s and I told him that I wanted to be a full time spearfisherman. I wanted to be underwater all the time. He felt the same and we decided to give up our jobs and start a tropical fish export business and supplement our income with spear fishing and collecting lobsters for sale. (Rodney and I caught over 200 of them one night in the Harbor and sold them to the Galle Face Hotel). When my father arrived in Ceylon early in 1956 he did not recognize me. He could not understand how I had become so fit and strong. I explained that I wanted to make diving my profession and after talking to Rodney he agreed to set up a tropical fish export business in his company J.H.Vavasseur Co. Ltd., with Rodney as the manager and I as assistant. Thereafter life was a paradise, diving and catching tropical fish every day. With plenty of good equipment and a boat to take us everywhere, we were able to explore all over the country and found many virgin reefs. I also did a trip to the Maldives where nobody had ever dived before .But the closure of the Suez Canal ruined our business because the airlines had to take seamail which would have taken too long by ship around the Cape and they had insufficient space for our fish. Our topical fish business started losing money and we had to close down at the end of 1957. Rodney was devastated, having given up his job in the fisheries department. I went back to a boring job in the shipping department. But I continued spearfishing whenever I could. However it was not long before I met a colleague of Jacques Cousteau who financed a new venture with Carlisle Ranasinghe and me to again go into Live Tropical Fish business. But this time we had a contract to supply Cousteau’s aquarium in Monaco with bi-weekly shipments of fish and we did many other things to make the new venture pay for itself like opening a dive shop on Galle road and operating fishing trawlers. We sold our fish to the markets. This again gave me the opportunity to continue diving full time; spearfishing at every possible opportunity. The fishing trawlers gave Carlisle and me the opportunity to explore inaccessible reefs out to sea including the great Basses Reef where we had some incredible spear fishing. I also rented a small house in Trincomalee during the S.W.Monsoon. So I continued spearfishing as right until I left in 1962. By then it was difficult to make a living and I saw no future for me in Ceylon. There were certainly far less fish around and not many lobsters. Most places had been “hacked” to use Rodney’s favorite expression.

After leaving Ceylon I got a job in Bangkok and much to my surprise found that there had been no serious diving in Thailand and no spear fishing. I was confronted with clear water and speared huge quantities of fish. I had two Thai friends who became keen spear fishermen. One of them had a boathouse at Pattaaya, 2 hours south of Bangkok and also a restaurant. For the next two years I spent every weekend and holiday diving with my two friends exploring the abundant reefs. In exchange for all the fish I speared he gave me free meals and accommodation. Being a semi-enclosed gulf I never saw any really large fish. The biggest was a grouper of 29lbs. I speared many queen fish though, as well as barracuda and there were a lot of small spotted grouper (Thambalaya). There were many good edible fish that I never saw in Ceylon waters... I was spearing up to 200 lbs of fish each day. We set up the Thailand Sub Aqua Club and in my evenings in Bangkok I taught SCUBA at a large swimming pool. In 1965 I got an offer from Ben Cropp to star in an underwater film in the Pacific. I had met him at the World Spearfishing Championships in Malta where we had become close friends. He had won an award for the best underwater film. We started filming in New Caledonia and as usual I was spearfishing every day. I met the Tahitian spearfishing champion and went out with him several times. And also I dived with Frederic Dumas, a colleague of Jacques Cousteau who was secretary general of CMAS (the World Underwater Federation of Cousteau). The far off virgin reefs around New Caledonia. were unbelievable, visibility 300 feet and huge Tuna, Tiger Sharks and Groupers which came right up to me but were too big to spear. During the time I was in New Caledonia diving every day, I got second wind and had no difficulty free diving to 100 feet and holding my breath for 5 minutes. Besides the large fish the lobsters were huge - 10lbs on average. The spotted grouper were 100lbs (Thambalaya). It was far better than anything I had ever seen, even much better than the Great Basses. Later I got a job in Singapore and I continued my spearfishing on Malaysians East coast. There were 10 British military diving clubs in Singapore plus the Singapore Sub Aqua Club and two diving clubs in Malaysia, so there was quite a bit of spear fishing activity which had made the fish go deeper. This presented no problem to me, and once again I was spending all my spare time spearfishing on islands just two hours from Singapore. After I started my own commercial diving company in Singapore I was free to spend a lot of time spearing fish. After five years my diving staff was competent enough to run the business without me. I purchased a beautiful Grand Banks yacht complete with deep freezers and regularly took off from Singapore with some friends to go spearfishing for, sometimes, two weeks at a time, spearing fish all day every day. One of the Islands was Tioman where they made the film south Pacific and another further out had virgin reefs with 80 foot visibility. I speared a record 400 lb shark and some big groupers and many other fish, the best was the abundance of large red snapper, the best eating fish of all. I went spearfishing in Australia, Indonesia and The Philippines during the time I was living in Singapore. I continued spearfishing into the 1980’s when I started suffering from bad vertigo. I was constantly diving to between 60 to 80 feet and spearfishing at those depths. By 1985 the vertigo was so bad that it lasted several days. After seeing a number of specialists and undergoing tests, I was advised to give up diving. I was 54. I guess I would have gone on a lot longer if I had not had this problem. Later on I had to have an operation to remove water that had got behind my eardrum. I could not bear the thought of seeing the sea and not being able to dive so I moved far away to Chiangmai in Thailand 1000 kms from the sea,

Conclusion

Spear fishing is a disease; I caught it from Rodney Jonklaas and gave it to many others. It is perhaps the only sport that can be highly profitable by selling your catch. For me it was an obsession. It kept me very fit something I had never been until I started spearfishing. Now entering my 80^th year, I have no health problems. Only my hearing is bad; a small price to pay for the pleasure it gave me. The only negative effect it had on my life was my divorce from my beautiful Swedish wife. She told the Judge in the Colombo courts that she never saw me. I was always underwater. Instead of coming home after work, I went spear fishing and spent all weekend spearing fish! Significantly, when I started my commercial diving business in Singapore I found that spearfishermen made the best divers. They are used to spend all day in the water and they have the stamina need for long jobs like underwater cleaning of vessels. All my top divers were ex-spearfishermen.

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Spearfishing competitions

The Ceylon Spearfishing Championships were taken very seriously by all of us. It was always well organized. It was a gruelling affair, ten hours long. Points were scored for every pound of fish speared. One point for coarse fish and 2 points for game fish. All fish had to be edible. There were seldom more than a dozen competitors usually less. I think I might have taken part in 1954 and probably came last. I do remember taking part every year after that until 1959. Rodney always seemed to win easily, usually followed by Langston or Carlisle. I came third in 1957 beaten by Rodney and Langston. I came second in 1958 beaten by Rodney. I won in 1959. But I felt sad at having beaten him. The 1959 Championships was well publicized and a huge crowd attended including my father. The Charge de Affairs of the American Embassy presented a large trophy donated by the American Ambassador. The sports section headlines the following day in the Times of Ceylon was “Tony Buxton Dethrones Jonklaas”. This upset me because, after all, it was Rodney who made me in a spearfisherman in the first palce. On the basis of becoming the Ceylon Champion I applied to take part in the 1959 World Championships. Since Ceylon could not afford to compete I was accepted by the British Sub Aqua Club. They told me thousands wanted to represent the UK so they introduced the criterion that applicants had to be able to free dive to 100 feet. Fortunately one of their committee members had planned a trip to Ceylon and I took him to Trincomalee, where he clocked me out at 96 feet off Swami Rock. The British team included four members and the Championships were held in Malta. There were hardly any fish at less than 60 feet and the water was freezing. I had to wear a wet suit for the first time in my life and it was ill fitting and hindered my diving. The cold bought on difficulty in clearing my Eustachian tubes. However I came first on the British team and 24^th out of 75 individual scores. I was invited to Italy in 1961 by some Italians (who I had taken spear fishing in Ceylon) and they set up an informal competition on the Southeast Coast of Corsica for me against their Champion. I won. I took part in one competition in Thailand which was against the deep sea fishing club, Spearfishermen versus the anglers. We won easily. However, in spite of the abundance of fish in Thai waters there were very few spearfishing enthusiasts. Not enough for a competition. In 1965 I was diving every day in New Caledonia and I was at my peak spearing fish at great depths. Later when spearfishing with the Tahitian Champion. “Gilbert” He told me that the world spearfishing championships were being held in Tahiti later on in the year. He said that I should definitely take part and he considered that I had a good chance of winning. Well naturally I wanted that more than anything in the world. I wrote to the British Sub Aqua Club and asked them if I could be on their team and I also told them that I was in the area and gaining experience of local spear fishing conditions. Unfortunately I had no fixed address at the time and could only give a post office in Noumea. Due to logistics I never received the reply they sent me. They had asked me to Captain the British team. When I finally heard this it was too late. I was devastated! I really thought I would have made a good showing in Tahiti and that I had a chance to win. I took part in one spearfishing completion in Singapore. In 1966 the water was filthy and the fish were tiny. I won with a total catch on about 2 kilos. Although I continued spearfishing for almost another 20 years, I never took part in any competitions. An interesting point, as far as I was concerned with competitive diving, is that when I was young I suffered from very bad asthma. In those days there was no cure and no inhalers. I used to hold the bedpost straining to get air into my lungs and then pass out through exhaustion. This resulted in me having double the normal chest expansion which was a great asset later on when I started diving deep.

SCUBA Diving

When I returned to Ceylon I was unaware of anyone using SCUBA. I had seen pictures of the Siebel Gorman twin tank SCUBA and desperately wanted it. My reasons were that I could only dive to about 15 feet then and I wanted to be able to get down deeper. I wrote my father in England begging him to get me one and offering to pay him back from my salary. But it did cost a lot of money and he said I would never be able to pay him back. In late 1954 I picked up a secondhand mine safety appliance oxygen re-breather. It was manufactured in 1918 and was for use only above water. I modified it and used it underwater. My first dive was in the Colombo harbor. I got down to 40ft trying to catch lobsters. Rodney found out and was furious. He forbid me to use it and promptly wrote a letter to my father telling him what I had stupidly done. A few weeks later I got my Siebe Gorman Scuba. For me it was more valuable than my car, and Rodney and I tried it out and my friends stared at this wondrous apparatus. Later on Rodney and I imported a lot of tanks and compressors and we wrote a manual for certification and use and started training instructors. We sent this manual to the British Sub Aqua Club and I believe it was the basis for their own manuals and certification (see Part 2).

As time went by the novelty of SCUBA wore off. I could dive without it and I much preferred the freedom of free diving. I only used it for my work and diving at night to catch tropical fish.

Diving Clubs

The Reefcombers of Ceylon was a very active club with over 100 members. Rodney was Pesident and I was Honorary secretary. I wrote up the newsletter for several years. I founded the Thailand Sub Aqua Club in 1963. This club joined the South East Asia Diving Federation along with two clubs from Malaysia and 10 Clubs from Singapore. This federation became affiliated to CMAS in 1965. I was elected president of the Federation in 1965 a position I held for 5 years.

Underwater Tourism

Thanks to the writings of Rodney Jonklaas and Arthur C Clarke, and the visit of the Hans Haas expedition; Ceylon became a popular venue for divers from all over the world. We also sent our club (The Ceylon Reefcombers) newsletter to many overseas clubs. Mr R.G. Senanayake who was deputy prime minister and Minister of tourism became interested and I took him snorkeling many times. He could not swim so he held on to a rubber ring and I pulled him over many reefs on both coasts. Another enthusiast was former Prime Minister Sir John Kotelawala whom I would also take out snorkeling in Hikkaduwa. Senanayake decided to concentrate on underwater tourism and asked for my help. We improved the Hiikaduwa rest house (now Coral Gardens Hotel) and purchased skin-diving equipment to rent out. The area was also declared a sanctuary with no fishing or spearfishing permitted. We ordered a special glass bottom boat from England for viewing the coral as well as a lot of masks flippers and swim fins. The glass bottomed boat was a great success. It held 12 people and I trained the crew operating it who were from Hikkaduwa. Many VIPs - government guests came including foreign prime ministers, royalty and film stars. I had to take many out on the boat and after anchoring it I would spear a small fish and let it struggle under the boat and this would attract a few sharks which could be seen by the viewers in the boat. In 1959 I was appointed a member of the Government Tourist Board.

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The main characters

Rodney Jonklaas besides being an excellent spearfisherman was a wonderful naturalist. He taught me the names and habits of the fish in the sea. Likewise on hunting trips in the jungle he knew all about the animals. He had a wonderful sense of dry humor an infectious enthusiasm for everything we did. I count the years we spent together as the most wonderful in my life. We drifted apart when our business venture broke up and we went our separate ways. After I left Ceylon, he visited me twice in Singapore and I visited him twice in Ceylon in the late 1970’s. In 1980 I planned to return and build a hotel in Beruwela and resume spearfishing with Rodney again. But the ethnic problems put an end to that. I was terribly sad when he passed away.

Langston Periera was a quiet person, a dedicated spearfisherman who accompanied Rodney and me on many spearfishing trips. We remained close friends during the time I was in Ceylon. I spent my last three months in Ceylon working with him and handed the business over to him shortly before I left in 1962

Carlisle Ranasinghe was probably my closest friend in Ceylon and we set up a business in 1958 with a dive shop in Galle Road selling diving equipment and spear guns as well as exporting tropical fish. We later bought two fishing trawlers and organized diving and hunting trips. Everything went fairly well but since we borrowed all the money for our trawlers the interest charges and the repayment were too large to make a profit and in late 1962 there was insufficient income for both of us, so Carlisle went his own way. He visited me in Singapore and we did some spearfishing together in Malaysia.

“ATHU” Athukorale

By the time I had returned to Ceylon Athu was not diving much any more. However I saw him often and made two wonderful trips to the jungle with him where he taught me many things. I remember the snakes he kept in his house and the wonderful stories he told me.

Turab Jafferjee was always getting into trouble with his parents. He was always full of fun and great to have along on our fishing trips. After I left we met up in London. Tissa and Khalid were part of our spearfishing group. Both were dedicated spearfishermen and divers. Tissa was quiet and reserved and I did not see a lot of him. Khalid and I were close friends throughout my time in Ceylon

The above were the real keen spearfishermen and divers there were of course many others. Young Englishmen like Rupert Giles, Nick Tata, Guy Cooper and Barry Wilson. But most of them came to Ceylon for two or three years and then returned to England.

Underwater photography

In 1959 at a meeting at the Institute of Oceanography in Monaco, Jaques Cousteau gave me his first prototype underwater Calyspsophot camera. It was not nearly as sophisticated as later models and was very basic. I had to use an exposure meter housed in a water tight box and a waterproof external flash. I was thrilled of course because it was my first underwater camera without a waterproof casing. My previous efforts were with an simple camera in a plastic bag.

Cousteau told me to try it out and send him a report. I did so but the first results were not very professional and did not compare to the Hans Hass Rolliemarine. I think what a terrible shame it is that I did not keep the camera which I threw away when I got the new models. But one never thinks of these things at the time.

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DIVING (Part 2)

by Tony Buxton

SCUBA Diving

Rodney Jonklaas was very concerned about SCUBA safety when a number of people started using breathing apparatus, and especially as we were selling SCUBA units which were becoming more affordable. So he decided that some kind of proper instruction and certification was necessary. The first was a Reefcombers of Ceylon SCUBA Diving Certificate which was offered to any member who completed a free course. Rodney did a lot of research on SCUBA diving and its dangers. In those days SCUBA was certainly far more prone to malfunction than the highly improved units of today. We worked from a swimming pool on Galle road, I can't remember which [possibly the Colombo Swimming Club ed]. Rodney would give a lecture explaining SCUBA. He would then demonstrate how it was used. He would get in the deep end of the swimming pool with his pupil and swim with him until he was used to it. Then he would place all the equipment including weights at the deep end of the pool and the pupil would have to go down holding his breath and don all the equipment, clear mask and regulator without surfacing, and when the SCUBA was up and running the pupil would swim to the surface. In addition to pool training I remember giving the same certification in the sea at Hikkaduwa.

REEFCOMBERS’ SCUBA Diving Certification

It is also very interesting to realize how far ahead Sri Lanka was of so many other countries as far as diving was concerned. When Rodney and I sent our SCUBA Diving Manual to the British Sub Aqua Club [BSAC] in 1955 and suggested some sort of affiliation; the BSAC suggested that they affiliate with the Reefcombers of Ceylon, because they only had about 25 members! We had a lot more! I am certain that our manual and certification requirements were the basis for future BSAC manuals, which in turn probably inspired the PADI manuals. Rodney did most of the compilation of these manuals and deserves credit for producing, what I consider, were the forerunners of today’s PADI manuals. But I suspect the Reefcomber’s qualification for SCUBA Diving Instructors were in some ways more stringent than today’s requirements. I wish that I had kept a copy of them.

The SCUBA instructor training included, among other things, the ability to free dive to at least 60 feet, plus swim two lengths of the pool underwater holding one’s breath. A knowledge of many other quite demanding things like rescue, air embolism, the use of decompression tables and the ability to take a regulator apart and reassemble it were also considered essential along with a basic knowledge of small-boat seamanship.

The reason I can remember some of these things is because it was my job to get everything printed out on the company cyclostyling machine and I made hundreds of copies. However I don’t think we used the word SCUBA in those days, I think we used the term “Aqualung”.

I remember Rodney telling me that when he later on went to the Maldives and wanted to rent SCUBA equipment the young dive shop operator asked him if he knew how to use it. His answer was "I was using SCUBA long before you were born".

The REEFCOMBERS’ Grading and Spearfishing Rules

Another interesting thing about the Reefcombers of Ceylon was that each spearfishing member was graded by Rodney into the following. “A” grade spear-fisherman, “B” Grade and Beginners (C grade). Rodney was very environmentally conscious. “A” graders were not allowed to spear Boralu [Sweetlips] and were encouraged to spear only pelagic fish, “B” graders were limited to six boralu and beginners were allowed unlimited quantities. Spearing lobsters was not allowed [lobsters had to be caught by hand]. The use of SCUBA for spearfishing or catching lobsters was banned. Spearing of beautiful inedible fish was strictly forbidden. Rodney was very strict about these rules and on more than one occasion threatened a member with expulsion for breaking the rules. Members of the Reefcombers were entitled to a discount of 10% at the leading suppliers of SCUBA, spearguns and diving equipment. Members were expected to take part in spearfishing charity events in which the proceeds of the catch were sold and the money given to a selected charity

Spearguns

I think that something about spearguns may be of interest. The hand spear was the first instrument used to spearfish in Ceylon. I guess it differed little from ancient methods of spearfishing. About 7 feet long, half of which was a tapered steel spear with a very sharp point. This was set in a brass tube of about 3/4 inch diameter. Some added 8" lengths of rubber strips from tire tubes which formed a loop in which one hooked ones thumb and stretched the rubber to give more traction. Athukorale and von Dincklage were very adept at using these spears and Athu was reported to have speared 100 large boralu in a single session; whilst Dincklage had speared a 100 lb shark with one. Next came rubber powered spearguns which were never very popular. The heat and salt water weakened the rubbers and sharp coral cut them. They were not very accurate either. Then came the Cressi Cernia spring guns which were a huge leap forward. Very simple and the spears were easy to manufacture locally. The only drawback was that the springs soon lost tension. Also after much use our spearfishermen found them very easy to load. So Rodney wrote to Cress in Italy and politely suggested he make stronger springs. He also sent a few photos of some of the large fish we had speared with his guns. The amazing thing was that he (signor Cressi) did so, and named his new spearguns the Cernia C model which had more powerful springs; the C standing for Ceylon. I met Signor Cressi in Italy some years later and he was proud of the response of our spearfishermen to his spearguns and did indeed confirm that the C model was for Ceylon Sometime later the Nemrod Fragata (Spanish made) spearguns came to Ceylon. And they were vastly superior to the Cressi spring guns. They had a pneumatic system that allowed the user to set the power by air compression to suit his individual strength. As the user became more adept in its use, the more the user could increase the air pressure giving more power. They were incredibly accurate and eclipsed the Cernia. By 1957 most of us were using them. One of the problems with all spearguns was that the spear got bent after spearing a large fish. Rodney solved this problem by designing a detachable spearhead. He was also responsible for designing the reel set up. The spear was attached to about 10 feet of stainless steel cable depending on the length of the speargun. It was doubled back and clipped to the rear of the gun. This cable was attached to another 60 feet of cable on a reel attached to the gun and the joint held in place at the end of the speargun by a small piece of wire or nylon that would snap when spearing a very large fish allowing the wire on the reel to play out so that the diver could get to the surface. The next gun to appear was the Alcedo - a hydraulically-operated speargun. It was incredibly powerful and very expensive. Its advantage was that it did not rely on the user’s strength in loading to obtain maximum power. The spear had a piston which forced water into a back cylinder which contained a pressurized thick rubber bladder. Another pump on top forced water into the cylinder increasing the pressure. This pump required little force and the pressure built up in the cylinder was considerable. The range of this speargun was almost double that of the Nemrod, but it was very complicated. The spears had to be very straight and it had many small parts. I used it as a spare for very large fish. Many other spearguns came onto the market. I was once given a gun with a large CO2 cylinder at the back. The spears were hollow and it was very inaccurate. I remember firing at a fish: the spear missed the fish and disappeared into the distance pouring out bubbles of carbon dioxide and frightening all the other fish away. For many years to come even 30 years later, in my opinion, no one had produced a better speargun than the Nemrod Fragata. And over the years I slowly increased the air-pressure in mine as the muscles in my arm strengthened. It was a gun that adapted itself to the user. However no speargun was suitable for spearing very large fish. The addition of a powerhead was a must. With my trusty Nemrod Fragata I attached a powerhead to the spear end and in this was a 303 bullet with which I killed a 400 lb shark.

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Diving (Part 3)

By Tony Buxton

Sharks

I have had a lot of experience with sharks in many different places and have given talks mainly at Rotary clubs in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand. But these only dealt with my experience of actually meeting them underwater. However in 1964 I was contacted by a French expert on sharks, whose name I have forgotten. He was commissioned by the American Military to research the problem of shark attacks on their personnel that were forced down into the water from their airplanes or sinking ships. The American Military was considering manufacturing some kind of device that would scare sharks away, either mechanical, or anything that could deter them and save the lives of their military personnel should they be in danger of being attacked by a shark. I believe he was attached to something called The Shark Institute of Hawaii. He asked me if I could spare a couple of days to describe all my experiences with sharks and I readily agreed. I related my experiences. Nevertheless I had only three encounters which were potentially life threatening. However considering the number of sharks I had seen during my diving career in many different places, these three events were negligible, and as a matter of interest the worst one was actually in Sri Lanka.

At first I was a bit scared of sharks. I was with Rodney and had speared a number of fish which we had tied around our waists. It was somewhere down south and we were surrounded by about 10 sharks, each around 7 or 8 feet long. Rodney signaled for me to get “back-to-back” whilst we waited to see what would happen. We both had our spear guns loaded, but after circling us at about 15 feet distance the sharks took off. In 1955, somewhere around Trincomalee, Rodney and I came across a whale shark which had got caught up in a net and was stranded on the beach. We helped the fishermen untangle it and got the shark back into deep water so that it could swim away. This we did with big effort pushing and pulling and strangely the shark seemed to realize that we were trying to help it. Later when we got it into deeper water, whilst it was regaining its strength, we played with it which it did not seem to mind, and finally it swam away. We were both delighted but Rodney remarked that it was such a pity that we did not have an underwater camera to photograph it. In those days such photos were almost unknown and we did not even have an underwater camera with us.

Strangely enough while diving in Sri Lanka I never saw a shark longer than about 9 feet in length and most were usually smaller. But one exception, also down south somewhere near Matara, I was swimming in the shallows and the water was very clear well over 100 foot visibility. I saw in the distance out to sea a huge shark but it was so far away that I could only just make it out. It definitely was not a whale shark but it was well over 20 feet long and sleek, and after describing it to Rodney he considered that it might have been a "Great White". The most terrible scare I think I ever had in my life was just north of Trincomalee. I was diving near one of the estuaries near a large rock close to the shore. The water was about 30 feet deep. I had anchored my dingy and was looking around for some tropical fish. I was alone in the water but my assistant Joseph was in the boat. My spear gun was also in the boat. I spied two large lobsters about 30 feet down under the rock. I swam back to the boat, left my hand net in the vessel and then dived down and seized a lobster in each hand. As I started to come up a huge shadow appeared above me and I immediately assumed it was either a manta or eagle ray of which there were many around. As I came up I pushed myself outwards to avoid it and when I was about 10 feet under the surface the whole apparition dipped downwards and I was staring into the face of a 9 foot shark which was just about 4 feet away. The shark was swinging it's head from side-to-side and it's beady eyes made it look very aggressive. I immediately dropped the lobsters and with my hands in front I made a useless gesture to fend off the shark; I really thought this was the end of my life. The shark was a very fat one with a deep belly. I had never seen one of these sharks before but looking back it might have been a mako. I kept very still knowing only too well that this was probably the best course of action. At the same time I tried to back slowly away using my flippers and then the shark came at met but miraculously stopped dead about two and half feet away from my face and then, after a few seconds, it swam away. I swam slowly to the boat terribly shaken and speechless I did not go in the water for two weeks and I had terrible nightmares I can remember this event crystal clear nearly every second of it whilst I am writing this some 50 years later.

A strange thing happened that I did not understand. This was when I started fishing from my trawler using bottom-set nets. Carlyle and I laid out a long net just off Swami Rock in Trincomalee, in a place that many of us had dived before. We thought it might be a good place to catch a few fish. The next morning when we pulled the net up it was full of large sharks. This was strange because we had never seen any there earlier. The same thing happened again in another place where we had dived often. We came up the next morning with a 400 pound hammer-head shark in the net. It appeared to us that these large sharks only came out at night, when they cruised around. Of course it was a bit of a shock to us, realizing that the place we often spearfished in was crawling with large sharks.

I did go to the Maldive Islands where a shark grabbed the fish around my waist but it was only about six feet long and I was not particularly concerned. In the crystal clear water the whole of the bottom was crawling with sharks but they were not large being about 6 to 8 feet in length; I did not ever see any really large ones.