Sea Monsters Unmasked, and Sea Fables ExplainedLee, Henry
History
Sea Monsters Unmasked, and Sea Fables Explained
Lee, Henry
Cephalopoda; Marine animals
very close view of the animal, distinctly says that "the head was,
without any doubt, that of a serpent," and one of his officers
subsequently declared that the eye, the mouth, the nostril, the colour,
and the form were all most distinctly visible.
In a letter addressed to the Editor of the _Bombay Times_, and dated
"Kamptee, January 3rd, 1849," Mr. R. Davidson, Superintending Surgeon,
Nagpore Subsidiary Force, describes a great sea animal seen by him
whilst on board the ship _Royal Saxon_, on a voyage to India, in 1829.
The features of this incident are consistent with his having seen one of
the, then unknown, great calamaries.
Dr. Scott, of Exeter, sent to the Editor of the _Zoologist_ (p. 2459),
an extract from the memorandum-book of Lieutenant Sandford, R.N.,
written about the year 1820, when he was in command of the merchant ship
_Lady Combermere_. In it he mentions his having met with, in lat. 46,
long. 3 (Bay of Biscay), an animal unknown to him, an immense body on
the surface of the water, spouting, not unlike the blowing of a whale,
and the raising up of a triangular extremity, and subsequently of a head
and neck erected six feet above the surface of the water. This was
evidently a great squid seen under circumstances similar to those
described by Hans Egede (p. 67).
In the _Sun_ Newspaper of July 9th, 1849, was published the following
statement of Captain Herriman, of the ship _Brazilian_:
"On the morning of the 24th February, the ship being becalmed in
lat. 26 deg. S., long. 8 deg. E. (about forty miles from the place where
Captain M'Quhae is said to have seen the serpent), the captain
perceived something right astern, stretched along the water to a
length of twenty five or thirty feet, and perceptibly moving from
the ship, with a steady sinuous motion. The head, which seemed to
be lifted several feet above the water, had something resembling a
mane running down to the floating portion, and within about six
feet of the tail. Of course Captain Herriman, Mr. Long, his chief
officer, and the passengers who saw this came to the conclusion
that it must be the sea-serpent. As the 'Brazilian' was making no
headway, to bring all doubts to an issue, the captain had a boat
lowered, and himself standing in the bow, armed with a harpoon,
approached the monster. It was found to be an immense piece of
sea-weed, drifting with the current, which sets constantly to the
westward in this latitude, and which, with the swell left by the
subsidence of a previous gale, gave it the sinuous snake-like
motion."
Captain Harrington, of the ship _Castilian_, reported in the _Times_ of
February 5th, 1858, that:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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