Billy Briggs – Shark Hunter

As told by John Donnelly

 I tended bar for Billy for 2 and a half years at Tir na nOg and was a patron of the location on Olden Avenue, Billy’s Irish Pub. Knowing Billy for a few years I more often times than not knew when he was telling a fish story. One day I was tending bar, and Billy just returned from a trip to California just prior to St. Patrick’s Day. For no apparent reason I asked him if he had gone fishing. Well, Billy was no fisherman, but he responded, “Well, as a matter of fact I did, but not intentionally.” Knowing he was full of shit, I decided not to ask further details and he offered no further story.

 

Old Roy later came in for and he also asked Billy if he went fishing. Roy then asked him what he caught and here is what Billy Briggs had to say, I remember like it was yesterday….

 

“Well, it was funny. You know, Los Angeles does not have many Irish Pubs, more British Pubs than Irish. I finally found one out in Santa Monica and started talking to a couple of Irish guys. They said they were going to Catalina Island and bring a boat load full of corned beef to the Irish pub there for the St. Patrick’s Day celebration, and if I would help them load and unload the boat, I could have free transport to and from the Island. So I decided to help them as I always wanted to go to Catalina Island. About half way out the boat started taking on water, and I should have known better to look at the boat being in the Navy; it was not seaworthy. So the salt water started mixing with the corned beef. They must have gotten it of the back of a truck or something because it just was not fresh and starting leaking out. Next thing you know the boat is surrounded with great white shark fins. Things were getting bad so the boys called the Coast Guard. When the Coast Guard finally got there, the boat was half under water. The guys were being transferred to the Coast Guard ship and left me a shot gun to fend off the sharks before it was my turn. They even took this picture….” At this point Billy produces a picture of Himself standing on a sinking bow with a shot gun pointed at a leaping great white shark with its “Jaws” wide open.

 

I immediately recognized it as a picture from the “Jaws” set at Universal Studios, but Roy didn’t know what to make of it and was too polite to call it into question. However, 2 Irish lads later were told the same story and actually believed it 100%.

 

A couple months later Billy O’Neal, Billy Briggs, and I went fishing and Billy caught this sand shark with a bamboo pole with a string tied to the end of it.

 

John Donnelly and Billy Briggs. Photo by Bill O’Neal