A SEA MONSTER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 9488, 10 August 1891, Page 3

A SEA MONSTER.

WELLINGTON, August 3. When the Rotcmahana was off Portland liglit, between Gisborne and Napier, on Saturday morning, what is supposed to be an immense sea monster was 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 that he 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. Tho quartermaster saw the serpent rise four or live times before he drew the chief officer’s attention to it, and they both saw it rise perpendicularly out of tho water to a great height within a hundred yards of the vessel. After withdrawing into tho 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 ou Saturday morning at 6.30, which was about the time they saw the serpent, and he now thinks it wao some disturbance at the bottom of the sea which caused tho animal to come to the surface.