Francis Rogers somewhat indelicately commented that after Sharks were often mentioned in these accounts because they would devour men's corpses which had been thrown overboard during burials at sea. Similar to Labat, Barlow reported that when sharks were caught, they found many of the things they had tossed overboard in their stomachs including sheep feet, a dead rat and 'a whole ox-hide, being newly flayed from the ox.' 6 3Upon opening the creature up, 'we found everything which had been thrown overboard since it had accompanied us in its belly, even the carpenterвЂ™s hammer.' 4 Merchant sailor Edward Barlow explained in his diary entry for a 1663/4 Portugal that 'many time sharks, which are thereabout in abundance, which will keep company with a ship and take anything that is heaved overboard, they are so hungry and ravenous' 5. Jovial French priest Jean-Baptiste Labat mentioned that during his journey from France to Martinique a shark followed their ship for two or three days before the crew decided to catch it. Merchant/slaver captain Thomas Phillips similarly explained in his 1694 journal, 'we have like wise seen divers of them eaten by the sharks, of which a prodigious number kept about the ships in this place, and I have been told will follow her hence to Barbadoes, for the dead negroes that are thrown over-board in the passage.' 2 The sharks probably followed the ships because they were a ready and regular source of food thrown overboard. William Bosman, explaining what happened on the slave ships off the coast of Africa said that 'when our ships depart from those Places, they sometimes follow them for three Weeks or a month' 1. Sharks were known to follow ships, sometimes for long periods.

From Nouveau Voyage aux Isles de l'Amerique, Several 'attacks' by fish have already been discussed, but sharks seem to have held a special place in the list of animals considered dangerous by sailors based on the number of sea-authors from this time who mention them.

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