The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-05-13 00:00:00

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light, of Nae* li It wiiimapossible to tell whether
these points evve_ sr were not material points of the
eye or merely caused by reflection, but they were
clearly 'defined, and seemed to remain in the sax
place. The motion, however, of the thing was,
steady that no deduction could fairly be drawn from
their not changing their position. The appearance of
this extraordinary creature was so new to me so en-
tirely outside all my previons experience, that me,
_
preconceived ideas with which to compare the thoughts
it raiseden my mind. S: the the impression it eau-ed was
vague and indefinite, and I can only say that it rai.oad
in me extremerleertee and diTik
I had been so absorbed in the pleaseng pain of loose
big at the thing, that I had quite forgotten the other
people on board, and was first roused by hearing Cap.
tam n Davidson step up on the stern by me give one
riok below at the water, and then hurriedly gols-acF
In a few minutes every passenger was- crowding on,
the stern, even the ladies appeating, though in tun
ed costume. Exclamations of the extreme
astonishment broke from all, and then silence fell, as
the crowd stared at the hideous creature. The children,
at...the first sight, ran back .below sc,reataing, and some
eetused.:to .00me again deqk, though their nurses
and ayahs—desirous of looking on themselves—used
. possible means to make them. Some, however,
:eturned, curiosity overcoming fear, but even these
looked on in a perpetual tremor of terror, and held
thereselves ready at the flea meiterhen't of the thing
to rush away. I noticed at this time that the cap-
tain was not present, and turned to an old European
.sailor by me and asked him to go and tell him. " Cap-
tain won't ceele, no fear ot that, sir," replied the man.
fasked if he was navigating the ship? "No_, he was
not navigating the ship," said the sailor "but he would
not come for all that; however, he would go and tell
him." But though he went, the captain would not
come. We all remained absorbed in the strange sight
till the first breakfast-bell rang at half-past eight, when
we had perforce to hurry away and take our chance of
bathing at that late hour. Up to this time the thing
had kept steadily in our wake, its movement continu-
ing absolutelysmooth and constant, and the two specks
of light in the glaring eyes never changing a hair's
breadth from their position. At breakfast I sat
one removed from the captain. We began, of
course talking, of the thing we had seen, but the
captain, for somereason we could not then understand,
seemed to dislike the subject, and soon we abandoned
it, falling then into absolute silence, for we could
talk of nothing else. When we went on deck again—
we were only a few minutes at breakfast—we found
the thing still following steadily in our wake. The
children had in great measure got over their fear, and
had made a long line by joining hands, and the whole
lot of them would now crouch down and then suddenly
rise up, open their mouths at the thing, and cry out at
it. No notice apparently being taken of this, they
grew bolder, and at last their cries increased till they
shrieked shrilly. Suddenly the hideous creature seemed
rouged by these cries, it raised his head in the air,
uttered a strange bellow, and came forward at a great
pace towards the ship. None of us could at first move
from fear; the thing seemed to have grown in size, its
eyeballs were more burnin,ely bright ; the children fell
on the deck crying, and some of the women fainted.
But we who remained standing, suffering though we
were under intense terror, still could not, when we at
last were able to move, retreat, or even take our eyes
off the thing. It came swiftly up to the ship, always
uttering the same peculiar cry or bellow. When but a
few feet from the stern, it suddenly turned and came
up close on the port side. Here the side awnings had
been put up to keep off the sun; but three of us rushed
up to the awning and quickly got it down, that we
might the better watch the thing. For myself I must
say that while doing this I was still suffering from
extreme fear, but my curiosity was so intense, so irre-
sistible, that I could only act as I did. No
sooner was the thing level with U 3 than it
raised 'itself with a sudden movement high out of the
water, till its head was thirty or forty feet above us. It
still uttered the same peculiar cry or bellow. Under
our intense curiosity we stood out on the bulwarks to
follow its movements. It opened a great mouth, eleed
more loudly than before and made three blows at the
main-mast. The last of these touched it, and caused
the ship to sway violently, so that we were nearly cast
off into the water. When we again looked for the thing
it had gone. There was no ripple, no disturbance of
any kind in the water to show where it had been. It
was gone absolutely. We looked constantly for it dur-
ing the rest of that day, but not the slightest trace did
we again discover.
And now let me state shortly why I, not over facile
in writing, or fitted for the subject by knowleelge,
write this. At tiffin of that same day, just as we were
rising to return on deck, the captain rose and asked us
to remain for a few minutes. Then he shortly referred
to the strange sight we had seen that day, laying stress
on the fact, however, that he himself bad not seen it,
and he went on: "Now, none of you can doubt what
you saw; but I advise you not to talk about it. Teat
was the sea-serpent you saw. But I wouldn't talk
about it if I saw it. It only leads to making pe
laugh, and the pepers take it up and cut jokes on it,
and it won't do you any good, and it would not do me
any good. Bat then remember I did not see it, so I've
nothing to do with this one. But, if you take my
advice, you won't talk about it. Punch took up one
sea serpent, and that captain never got over it—never.
Remember, though, I didn't see this one."
You will see now, Mr. Editor, that if you don't pub-
lish this, a most extraord'nery fact may be lost to the
world. This account I may state has been read over
by some of the paesengers, and their disagreement
from what I have written is only what would neces-
sarily. under the circumstances mentieneete j.)e•
ex-
pected. To show that I have no feai Aitlic-ule
give my name. MATTHEW STROZiG.
I may state that when the thing raised ititelf up and
struck the mast it was apparent that the seaweed like
mass was long coarse hair, covering a dark thick neck
But the thing could not possibly-have, been &serpent
for to raise so prodigious a length of neck above te
surface a huge-body below the, surface was of cour
required. - • ,

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