Nexus - 0403 - New Times Magazine-pages

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month of August 1817 in the harbour of Gloucester, towards the bottom, where, no doubt, it was gorged at the serpents Massachusetts, the Linnaean Society appointed a committee to leisure... collect evidence with regard to the existence and appearance of "Allowing for two coils round the whale, I think the serpent such an animal. Shortly after, a report appeared, and a month was about 160 feet or 170 feet long and 7 feet or 8 feet in girth. It later a young sea-serpent was actually caught. It was named was in colour much like a conger eel, and the head, from the Scolioplus Atlanticus, and was killed on the seashore near Cape mouth being always open, appeared the largest part of the body... Ann. Following the dissection, a pamphlet was published giving "At 7 a.m., July 13th, in the same latitude, and some eighty details. miles east of San Roque, I was astonished to see the same or a In its issue of 19 April 1879, the Graphic gave an illustration of similar monster. It was throwing its head and about 40 feet of its a sea serpent seen by its correspondent, Major H. W. J. Senior, of | body in a horizontal position out of the water, as it passed the Bengal Staff Corps, together with a description of the monster, onwards by the stern of our vessel... as it appeared to him from the poop deck of the Steamship City of "I was startled by a cry of 'There it is again,’ and, a short dis- Baltimore, on latitude 12°28'N, longitude 43°52'E. Major Senior tance to leeward, elevated some 60 feet in the air, was the great first saw the creature about three-quarters of a mile distant, "dart- leviathan, grimly looking towards the vessel... ing rapidly out of the water and splashing in again, with a noise "A vessel, about three years ago, was dragged over by some distinctly audible", and rapidly approaching the ship. It got within sea-monster in the Indian Ocean." 500 yards before changing course and finally disappearing. It Due to the sheer number of doubters of such an outrageous moved so quickly that it could not be viewed through the tele- story, the Captain, accompanied by a number of his officers and scope, and no one was sure if it had scales or not. Major Senior crew, appeared before Mr Raffles, stipendiary magistrate, at the also reported the following: Dale Street Police Court, Liverpool, and made a declaration. This "The head and neck, about two feet in diameter, rose out of the shorter account was then signed by George Drevar, Horatio water to a height of about twenty or thirty feet, and the monster Thompson, Henderson Landello, Owen Baker and William opened its jaws wide as it rose, and closed them again as it low- Lewan. In all, three declarations were made, one for each sight- ered its head and darted forward for a dive, reappearing almost _ing. immediately some hundred yards ahead. The body was not visi- Captain Hassel, of the barque St. Olaf, from Newport, two days ble at all, and must have been some depth under water, as the dis- before her arrival at Galveston, Texas, on 13 May 1872, saw a turbance on the surface was too slight to attract notice, although —_ large sea-serpent lying on the surface of the water. Seventy feet occasionally a splash was seen at some distance behind the head. of it were visible and it had four fins along the back. It was about The shape of the head was not unlike pictures of the dragon I have six feet in diameter, and was of a greenish-yellow colour with often seen, with a bulldog appearance of the forehead and eye- brownish spots over the upper part. brow. When the monster had drawn its head sufficiently out of the water, it let itself drop, as it were, like a huge log of wood, prior to darting forward under water." Dr Hall, the ship's surgeon, and Miss Greenfield, a passenger, also saw the creature. Much ridicule was cast upon the story of the sea ser- pent seen by Captain Drevar and the crew of the barque Pauline. The account runs as follows: "Barque Pauline—July 8th, 1875; lat. 5 degrees 13' S., long. 35 degrees W.; Cape Roque, northeast corner of Brazil, distant twenty miles at 11 a.m. "The weather fine and clear, the wind and sea moder- ate, observed some black spots on the water and a whitish pillar, about 35 feet high, above them. At first I took it all to be breakers, as the sea was splashing up fountain-like about them, and the pillar, a pinnacle rock bleached with the sun; but the pillar fell with a splash and a similar one rose. They rose and fell alternately in quick succession, and good glasses showed me it was a monster sea-serpent coiled twice round a large sperm whale. The head and tail parts, each about 30 feet long, were acting as levers, twisting itself and the victim around with great velocity. They sank out of sight about every two minutes, coming to the surface still revolving, and the struggles of the whale and two other whales that were near, frantic with excitement, made the sea in this vicinity like a boiling caldron, and a loud and confused noise was distinctly heard. This strange occurrence last- ed some fifteen minutes, and finished with the tail por- tion of the whale being elevated straight in the air, then waving backwards and forwards and lashing the water furiously in the last death struggle, when the whole body Elasmosaurus disappeared from our view, going down head foremost towards the bottom, where, no doubt, it was gorged at the serpents leisure... "Allowing for two coils round the whale, I think the serpent was about 160 feet or 170 feet long and 7 feet or 8 feet in girth. It was in colour much like a conger eel, and the head, from the mouth being always open, appeared the largest part of the body... "At 7 a.m., July 13th, in the same latitude, and some eighty miles east of San Roque, I was astonished to see the same or a similar monster. It was throwing its head and about 40 feet of its body in a horizontal position out of the water, as it passed onwards by the stern of our vessel... "I was startled by a cry of 'There it is again,' and, a short dis- tance to leeward, elevated some 60 feet in the air, was the great leviathan, grimly looking towards the vessel... "A vessel, about three years ago, was dragged over by some sea-monster in the Indian Ocean." Due to the sheer number of doubters of such an outrageous story, the Captain, accompanied by a number of his officers and crew, appeared before Mr Raffles, stipendiary magistrate, at the Dale Street Police Court, Liverpool, and made a declaration. This shorter account was then signed by George Drevar, Horatio Thompson, Henderson Landello, Owen Baker and William Lewan. In all, three declarations were made, one for each sight- ing. Captain Hassel, of the barque St. Olaf, from Newport, two days before her arrival at Galveston, Texas, on 13 May 1872, saw a large sea-serpent lying on the surface of the water. Seventy feet of it were visible and it had four fins along the back. It was about six feet in diameter, and was of a greenish-yellow colour with brownish spots over the upper part. Elasmosaurus APRIL - MAY 1997 NEXUS -75