Are There Sea Serpents?

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 10712, 9 October 1928, Page 3

Are There Sea Serpents?

SOME BIG FISH 'STORIES. HUGE EEL-LIKE CREATURE SEEN NEAR, GISBORNE IN 1891. Although the mention of tile sea serpent provokes a sttiile, and claimants to have seen the legendary monster .have 'always been' the buttof ■humorists. “Natural’st,” writing in the “English Review” for August adduces evidence that the sea may hold some tremendous surprises. There are lilaiiy marine objects which inaccurate or imaginative observers may have mistaken for tho eea serpent. These include a score or more of things animate and ittartimfate from . Which honest terror may arise,Hundreds of sea serpent reports are false alarms. There fire, however, claims founded on evidence which.Vcannot be lightly dismissed, and which justify .the conclusion that an immense marine animal, similar to tile plesioSuUrtts, does exist.

Officers of the Royal yacht Osborne. when off the coast of S’c-ily in 1877, Saw a ridge of fins about 30 feet in length, varying from oft to 6ft. in height. They distinctly saw two flippers arid about 30ft. of the animal’s shoulders. The head was about 6ft. thick, and the shoulders were about 15ft. across. The length of the head codld not Re seen because it wiis submerged, but from crown to shoulder the distance was estimated at 50ft. Then there was the report of the captain of the British frigate Daedalus, to the Admiralty in 1848. His serpent was sighted in lat. 24, long. 9, at 5 o’clock in the evening, and was seen by two officers and other members of the ship’s company. Its head and shoulders were kept constantly about 4ft. above the surface, and 60ft. of the length of the creature were exposed .above water, no portion of which was used in propulsion. It passed close under the frigate at a speed of about 12 miles an hour. Its diameter was 15in. or lOin. Rehnd the head, which was undoubtedly that of a serpent. Its colour was dark brown, tending to white under the throat, it had no fins, but something like a bunch of seaweed washed about its back. It continued in sight' for 20 minutes. On August 1, 1891, Mr. Alexander Kerr, chief officer of the Union Steamship Company’s Rotoinahana, reported that at half-past 6 o’clock in the morning, between Nap er and Gisborne (N.Z-) he saw, only 100 yards! from the ship, a huge eellike creature lift its head 30ft out of the water. It differed from an eel, however, in having two great fins or flippers. Mr. Kerr estimated its girth at 10ft or 12ft. He coukl not see its ba,ck, as it was coming straight at the steamer. The quartermaster, Nelson, confirmed Mr. Kerr’s statement in detail. Unknown to them, tliCir story was supported by credible witnesses on the same company's steamer Manapouri. A week previously, on July 24, on the voyage from Auckland to Gisborne, between S and 9 o’clock in the morning, the same creature was! sighted: Several reputable citizens of New Zealand saw it, and they described it in almost the same terms as did Mr. Kerr. They did not report it officially for fear or ridicule. In 1875 Captain Drever, of the Pauline, saw off the coast of Brazil a large sperm whale in the grip of an enormous serpent, which had taken two turns about its body. Us girth was Sft. to 9ft. It rocked its victim violently for about 15 minutes, and then” sank with it. Five days later this, or a similar creature, .was seen only 200 yards astern of the vessel. Its body had-Jo feet of it length above the surface, ever which it &>wam rapidly, it disappeared, Rut was seen again later, when it reared itself fully butt, above the water. On the 'arrival ot the Pauline at Liverpool Captain Drever, h.s officers and men, went before Mr. Raffles, a police magistrate. and swore an affidavit to the truth' of their story. The creature was estimated to be idOit to Lu-V----long. In 1879 a number of passengers on the City of Baltimore were started by a strange monster "m ±lie Gult of Aden. It was first seen nearly •i mile away, hut it rapidly approached the ship until it was within SUU yards of her. , its head and neck were 2ft. in diameter, and they rose 25ft. to 30ft. out of the water. It. opened its jaws wide and dived, and icappeared about 100 yards ahead. Its body was not visible, and was apparently some depth under water, [t made very little disturbance on the surface. In the same year British officers of the Kiushiu Alaru, on the coast of J apan, had an experience (similar to that of the Paufine off Brazil. They saw a whale attacked by a g.gantic creature of the snake species, which reared ‘itself 30ft above the water. “Naturalist’’ gives three more instances, vouched for by reputable witnesses, of tno appearance of gigantic marine monsters which could not he explained away reasonably jas (mistakes, as the accounts are too circumstantial. He remarks that at the present time sailors, who may have had s.nnlar experiences would hesitate to report them for fear of making themselves the butt of humorists, and that until an authentic specimen oi the sea serpent is photographed doulit will always exist.