Shark Bait

In 1945, on board my ship, battleship West Virginia, we were engaged in the bombardment of Leyte in the Phillipine islands.  Using our big 16 inch guns we were pulverizing the shoreline and inland for many miles to pave the way for Marines and soldiers to take the island.  During our maneuvering  the WeeVee ran aground and damaged a screw (propellor) to the point we had to disengage and head for a drydock in Espirito Santo, New Hebrides which was many hundreds of miles away.  The drydock was the only one large enough to hold and lift us out of the water so repairs could be made to the prop.
The drydock was located in a very pretty cove surrounded on three sides by stately coconut palm trees.  The water was deep blue and crystal clear with a shallow shoreline just right for swabbies to get out of the heat.  Only one problem.  One of the drydock crewmen had rigged up a strong line complete with a hook and a chunk of meat which he tossed over the side.  I didn't witness the action of catching but a huge shark, I suspect a Great White shark, had grabbed the bait and a winch was used to pull him up onto the dock.  We still wanted to go swimming so the skippers stationed a group of Marines, equipped with automatic weaponry, along the rail to shoot any sharks who might be inticed by the thrashing, joyfully loud sailors.
No more sharks were seen and we had a lot of fun hunting for little octupi and Cat eye shells.  Wading in knee deep water I could see the octopus, about the size of spreading across my hand.  They were dark in color and we never did get biten by any.  They tickled as they squirmed around on my hands.  We released them unharmed.
The Cat Eyes were really what I wanted.  About the size of a walnut, or slightly smaller, they were pale yellow on the underneath side blending up to dark brown along the sides.  The center did look just like a cat's eye and they were beautifully polished with black freckles around the rim of the "eye".  They were plentiful and didn't need any treatment except to dry them up if they had any little animals inside.  I gathered up a small sackful of them and was able to stuff them first in my locker and later in my seabag as I was honorably discharged in 1946.