Dr. Gudger is the first to study the effect on the vessel of the impact of a charging Swordfish. He classifics p of penetration by the weapon into the hulls of vessels, and the woods when possible. In one analyzd
sheathing, an inch board sheathing, a 3-inch case the sword penetrated through the hardwood plank, the solid 12-inch white oak timber of the ship, another 2%-inch oak ceiling plank, and lastly, the head of an oil cask, where it remained immovably fixed so that not a single drop of oil escaped.
Estimates of the striking power of the fish were all guesses until Dr. Gudger came along. In an effort to get at the facts, he determined the actual weights of the largest specimens ever put on the scales. From independent estimat/s of trustworthy fishermen Dr. Gudger thinks that sixty miles an hour may be reached by the swordfish, which, considering the depth to which the "sword" can pen: trate wood, seems reasonable. For a 600-pound sw and a 1,200-pound marlin moving at 30 m.p.h. (possible for short distances) the striking power at the tip of the sword would be 825 lbs and 1,650 lbs. respectively, enough to account for penetrations actually attained.
The swordfish cannot extract his "sword" from a rammed hull. He literally breaks a: and leaves the sword behind. If the bre: runs in the region of the highly vascularized ethmoid bone just in front of the eyes, he will probably bleed to death. But no swordfish has over been found with a broken neck or a dislocated spinal column.
To find the explanation, Dr. Gudger studied the bony structure of swordfish and marlin, structures hitherto overlooked. At the base of the sword, the honeycombed ethmoid bones are filled with oil (probably under pressure), so that they constitute a multiple-cell shock-absorber. The bones of the skull in each kind of fish are so dovetailed, buttressed and tied together that nothing gives way. The base of the skull. however, and the first spinal vertebra of the swordfish have each six bearing surfaces, the marlin five. All these bearing surfaces are tied together by ligaments and muscles that bind the skull and the first three vertebrae into a solid, virtually unbreakable body by which the shock is partly absorbed, partly transmitted.
And finally the processes of the other vertebrae (behind the second which backs up the first) embrace and interlock with each other above, as well as in the tail region below, so that when covered and bound together with ligaments and muscles the vertebrae are never dislocated. A neat engineering job, if you ask us. The fish may die of the shock. He cannot break up his bony framework though he mar snap off his sword.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.