A SEA MONSTER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 9483, 4 August 1891, Page 6

A SEA MONSTER.

[Per Association.] WELLINGTON, August 3. _ When the Ko'tcmahana was off Portland light, between Gisborne and Napier, on Saturday morning, what is supposed to be an immense sea monster wan sighted. The chief officer was on the bridge at the time, and his attention was called to the animal by the quartermaster, who was looking out of a door leading to the wheel room. A heavy sea was running at the time, and the quartermaster states th°the first noticed a long,, dark-looking object rise slowly from the water, about half-a-milo from the vessel, until it reached a height of thirty or forty feet. It then slowly disappeared ; and when it next made its appearance, it was much closer to the ship. The quartermaster saw the serpent rise four or five times before he drew the chief officer’s attention to it, and they both saw it rise perpendicularly _ out of the water to a great height within a hundred yards of the vessel. After withdrawing into the water that time it was not seen again. Both men who saw it state that it could not have been less than a hundred feet long. On arriving here the chief officer heard that an earthquake was felt at Napier on Saturday morning at 6.30, which was about the time they saw the serpent, and ho now thinks it was some disturbance at the bottom of the sea which caused the animal to come to the surface.

The quartermaster of the tieaner Eotomahana states that the sea i ercont had a good-sized head, and showed two fins something like wings, and each about ten feet long. It back was black, the colour of the belly being pure white, and each time it disappeared a distinct splash was noticeable.