black-finned

Updated: September 14, 2025

For a moment he sickened at what might have happened; but he regained his balance and hung to the lance. His fighting blood was roused. He had risked too much already to have the swordfish torn to pieces under his very eyes. Knees braced tightly against the sides of the stern, hands locked round the stout butt of the lance, he foiled rush after rush of the black-finned, white-bellied pirates.

Albert Walter Tolman - Jim Spurling, Fisherman: or Making Good

I fancied I was ringed around with the black-finned devils, and thought I could discern the currents from their waving tails; but I kept on swimming, pushing my raft before me, until suddenly I was thrilled through by my foot striking the bottom.

Austin Bidwell - Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison: Fifteen Years in Solitude