THRILL FOR PASSENGERS

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 18 September 1934, Page 7

THRILL FOR PASSENGERS

SHIP STRIKES SEA MONSTER , EXPERIENCE NEAR PAPEETE MR ZANE GREY’S INTEREST. It is not an uncommon occurrence for vessels to collide with whales, and even as recently as a few weeks ago it j iui s reported from Sydney that a harbour ferry steamer had struck and killed one of these mammals. Ordinarily, then, the news that the Union Company’s Royal Mail Steamer iMuunganui, which arrived at Wellington yesterday from San Francisco, had collided with a sea monster would have been of little more than passing interest but for the fact that a possible coincidence was revealed. Some months ago Air Zane Grey, the celebrated author and sportsman, was a passenger on the Maunganui from Papeete to San Francisco. One day, while lie was chatting on deck with his son and the ship’s surgeon. Dr M. J. O’Shea, an enormous * sea monster suddenly dived away from the ship. Mr Grey called out, “A Whale, a whale!” He was excited over the incilent, and a little later he told Dr O’Shea that in his opinion the mon- • ster W9s; not a. whale, but a giant sea fish which lie had often seen in and about those waters. On arrival at San Francisco Air Grey mentioned that lie had made inquiries concerning the creature, and he was convinced regarding its identity. It said it was about fifty feet long and ten feet across tlie nose, and he asked the doctor to testify to these dimensions. i Dr O’Shea said that he was unable I to recall the name Mr Grey had given | the leviathan, hut stated that he conjsidered Air Grey’s estimate of the I dimensions was accurate, “He was deeply interested in this sea monster, and before the vessel reached San Francisco he had recorded the incident in some of his writings,” Dr O’Shea remarked. “As the Maunganui ,was in the same waters when the incident on the present trip occurred it is thought that the creature was the same one .seen by Air Grey and myself, or another of the same species.” The collision occurred when the Maunganui was about a day’s steaming out of Papeete and at 1 o’clock in the afternoon. A treniour ran through the .ship as the bows cut into the great bulk, and several of the passengers were alarmed. “I thought for a moment we. had hit a rock, but realised that we were a long way from land and that such a thing was most unlikely,” one of them remarked. “It was certainly an unpleasant sensation for a time. Once,. however, we knew the real cause, the incident was more interesting than alarming. It was this", sole topic of conversation at 1 uncle One of the ji gliding at Papeete was fortunate enough to get some moving .pictures from the bow. They ought to he worth seeing.” So large was the monster and so deeply the bows embedded in the huge body that the Alaunganui had to go astern to free herself. This operation occupied a few minutes, and the great carcase slid down put of sight.