The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-10 00:00:00

THE SUN,

Once that Castelloni had ascertained that point,
ho gave notice of it to the two prisoners
Muzi and Grimaldi, who, in their turn, informed Lulxrzi
that the hour for action was come. On the trial, after
counsel had been heard on all sides, the jury, considering
that the evidence was not sufficiently direct to implicate
Muzi, Grimaldi, and Castelloni, acquitted them all three,
but gave in a verdict of guilty against Luporsi, who was
then condemned by the court to hard labour at the hulks
for life.

CAPTURE OF THE SEA SERPENT.
(From the New York Tribune.)
Ship Monongahela, at Sea, Feb. 6.
A small vessel has just .been reported from my mast-
head, and as she is apparently bound into some of the
northern ports, I intend to speak her, purposelyi, the to
acquaint, through your widely diffused journal,
facts f
people of the United States, of thethe • o existence
and capture of the Sea Serpent—a monster deemed fa-
bulous by many—but the the truth of whose existence is
for ever settled, and I trust I shall be excused in saying
by Yankee intrepidity.
On the morning of January 13, when in latitude 3
deg. 10 min. south, and longitude 131 deg. 50 min.
west, the man on the loookout, seated on the fore-
topmast cross-trees, sang out 10White water,"
and in reply to my " Where away ?" said " Two
points on the lee bow." Supposing it to be made by sperm
whales, and being very anxious to obtain oil, I ordered
the ship to be kept eff, and immediately went aloft
with my spyglass. I will observe that for several days
we had been struggling along with very light and baffling
winds, but at daylight of the morning of the 13th the
wind had drawn to the south-south-west, become steady,
and threatened to blow a gale. I was aloft nearly half
an hour before I observed anything like " white water,"
and then I presumed it to be made by a " school," or
rather shoal of porpoises; but wishing to be certain, I
ordered the mate, as it was seven bells, to turn up all
hands, square in the yards, and send out the port stud-
ding sails. It being my breakfast hour I urged the man
to keep both eyes open, and came down; but before I
reached the deck my attention was called to the sudden
and vehement cry of Onnetu Vanjan, a Marquesan
Linder, " Oh! look! look! Me see!—too much—too
much!" All eyes were instantly directed to the
savage to ascertain where he was looking, and
then all eyes turned to the lee quarter. I had just time
to see " black skin" when it disappeared. The native
was excited, and in reply to my question acid, " No
whale—too much—too big—too long. Me no see all
same dat feller—me fraid." Not being able to tell
aback, ordering the lines into the boats and the
which way the animal or fish was bound, I luffed and
camecrews to " stand by." The horizon was scanned in
every direction for nearly an hour, when giving up
all hopes I braced forward and went below. The
native continued to look with eagerness, pushed
on by the observations of the crew, who as-
serted that he had seen nothing, but he proved
the truth of his sight in a few minutes by uttering
another cry, and with more vehemence than the
first. I rushed on deck, and the first look, not a
mile to leeward, rested on the strangest creature I had
ever seen in the ocean. It was apparently still, but
" sobbing "up and down, as we say of sperm whales.
I knew it was not a whale. The head I could not see,
but the body had a motion like the waving of a rcpe
when shaken and hold in the hand. Every eye in the
ship regarded it attentively, and not a word was spoken
or sound uttered, In a few minutes the whole length of
the body rose and lay on the water; it was of an enor-
mous length. Presently the extremity or tail moved or
vibrated, agitatin; the water, and then the head rose
entirely above th water, and moved sideways slowly,
as if the monster was in agony, or suffocating.
It is a sea-serpent!" I exclaimed; " stand
by the boats." There was a hesitancy, and the mate
seid, " Of what use is there lowering for him? We only
lose time, and gain nothing besides." I abruptly
checked him, and ordered all hands to be called aft.
When they had mustered, I told them I wished to " try"
that fellow. I urged them with all the eloquence I pee-
seseed, telling them there were but few who believed in
the existeece of the sea-serpent, and that a wish had
been expressed that a allele ship might fall in with one
of them—that if we did nut attack him, and should tell
of seeing him when we got home, we should be laughed
at and derided—and the very first question would be,
" Why dide'r you try him?" I told them our courage
was at stake—our manhood, and even the credit of the
whole American Whale Fishery, and concluded by ap-
pealing to their cupidity—holding out that we might
possibly get him into some southern port.
" I do not order one of you to go in the boats," I
said, " but who will volunteer?" Let me say to their
credit, every American in the ship stepped out at
once, followed by all but one native and two English-
men. I ordered the boat ateerers and officers to ex-
amine and see that everythingin and about the boats
was in perfect order. I had already jumped into my
boat when the serpent began to move quite rapidly,
and it was necessary to stand after him. The wind
was piping up strongly, but as we gained I continued
to carry all sail, hoping to be able to lower before the
gale rendered it impossible. The serpent worked to wind-
ward, which compelled me to haul on the wind, and so on
after I carried away my fore topgallant mast; this was
most unlucky for us, and, what was still worse, we lost
sight of the monster. We repaired damages with all
possible dispatch, and still kept on the wind, hoping to
see his snakeehip. In less than an hour we saw him
again, but some way to the windward, soon ascertaining
that he partly turned, and was headed haft our beam, I
put the'thip about on the other tack. The wind had in-
creased so much that I was obliged to put a single reef
iu the fore and wizen topsails. The serpent disappeared
for a few minutes again, but when he rose he was a mile
ahead of the ship, and going slowly to leeward, having
made a complete circuit.
I frankly admit my hopes were feeble of ever really
capturing him, and the gale made me hesitate about
lowering; but the time arrived, and the serpent was still,
and wo nearly a half mile to windward. 1 came to with
tha head yards aback to have a better control of all the
ship, and told the ship-keeper to keep close to us, and
by no means to lose sight of us for an instant. We
lowered, myself taking the lead, and in a few strokes—
the wind and sea carrying us to leeward—l told the
boat steerer, James Whittemore, of Vermont, to
" stand up." With calm and cool intrepidity he
laid hold of his iron (harpoon), and, when I
beckoned with a movement of my hand, quick as
thought both of his weapons were buried to the
socket in the repulsive body before us. I shouted
" stern," but there was no visible motion of his snake-
ship. I shifted ends with the boat steerer, and cleared
away a lance as quickly as possible, beckoning them to
pull up, that I might get a lance, when a movement of
the body was visible, and the head and tail of the monster
rushed as it were to " touch the wound." The frightful-
ness of the head, as it approached the boat, filled the
crew with terror, and three of them jumped overboard. I
instinctively held out my lance, and its sharp point
entered the eye. I was knocked over and felt a deep
churning of the water around me. I rose to the
surface and caught a glimpse of the writhing
body, and was again struck and carried down.
I partly lost my consciousness under water,
but recovered it ; when I rose again in the
bloody roam, the snake ha I disappeared, and I shouted,
" Pick up the line," The third mate, Mr. Benson, caught
u bight at my line near the end, and bent on his, which
in an instant began to be taken out rapidly. The mate
picked me up as soon as I rose to the surface, and in a
few minutes all were picked up—one was severely
bruished and another insensible, but he recovered, and
both are now wall. The snake had taken my line, the
third mate's, and was taking the second mate's, when I
ordered the mate to bend on and give his line to the
ship. The snake was sounding, and I cautioned the
officers not to hold on too hard for fear of drawing the
irons. At first the line went out rapidly, but decreased
gradually, nevertheless I was obliged to get up a spare
line out of the fore hold and bend on. For fear that the
ship would by its weight on the line draw the irons, I
put on several drags and gave the line to the mate, when
it became stationary. There were now out four boats'
lines, 225 fathoms in a boat, and two-thirds of another
line, 100 fathoms more—in all 1,000 fathoms, six feet in
a feehom-6,000 feet—better than ono mile and au
eighth, an enormous depth, and the pressure at that dis-
tance is inconceivable.
It was now blowing furiously, and I scarcely dared to
carry sail enough to keep the ship up, the boat was in
peril, and I was obliged to take the line to the ship again
and run the risk of the irons drawing. I made the end
of the line fast and took in all sail but enough to keep
her steady, and waited in alarm the snake's rising, the
parting or the line, or the irons drawing. At 4 PSI. the
IsPuli
wind began to shift, es hich favoured us a little; at 5 P.M., It toour great joy began to abate.
bers'atlt
a
the
sky clear,
e al
ru,ll l
w;
ini line
setaartltce.
ly Tah e
breath,night
and
.searapidly falling
Ace eYe
was clu=ed iu the ship—we were speculating
on our prey- It was evident he was on the bottom. He
that was tea long
time;
stayed down a,
but on reflection I considered
A.m., of the
14th, sixteen
he was at home there. At 4,
ziacki.xteen hours after he went down, the
line began to
two
ii)Liltiad it taken to the windlass,when
we got nearly
This
over hand," then there
everybodye am e a s tration
bagain. a strain continuing, I told
halal
thoeundcdook cried out, " Here he
get breakfast, and just
before we were through
and we lanced ''
wcka, and sure enough he
te," In no time all were
hs :dbunch, apparently
had risen, but all that was visibleehe
the body
fastened to.
swigonrkofhleifg,radutanlly ro rroeptehaetedly
the bight of the snake, whore
I lowered three boats,
itwinegreanayt
'in floated what
sur-
face, and around hi I took to be '
wiwthohuilteewlice
hie)) we had cut with our lane, pieces of
his lungs w
s• To make
ntinued to lane , eagerly seeking
for his life, when he drew himself
d he ten' fi:Pd and
we pulled
they,awa and then witnesse. t dying struggles of
nonete None of the crew who witnessed that
it; the evolutions
terrible scene will ever forget ,
Of the
body wore rapid as lightning, like
seeming the revolving
of a thousand enormous black wheels. The tail
and
hin the surging would occasionally appear bloody
rid
foam, and a sound was heard, as dead, uneerthle , a
expressive of acute agony, that a thrill of horror ran
through our veins. The convulsive efforts lasted 10 cr
15 minutes, when they suddenly stopped, the head was
partly raised—it fell--the body partly turned, and lay
still. I took off my het and
nine terrific cheers broke
eirrealtaneously from cur throats. Our prey was dead.
Luckily he floated buoyantly, and we took him along-
side, and while doing so he turned over, lying belly up.
Every eye beamed with joy as we looked at him over the
rail, and the crew again cheered vociferously, and I
joined thew. 1% e now held a consultation as to what
we should do, and I had requested all hands to offer their
opinions. After a short talk all of us felt convinced that
it
would be impossible to get him into port, and then we
concluded to try and save his akin, head, and bones, if
possible. In the first place I requested a Scotchman,
who could draw tolerably, to take a sketch of him as ho
lay, and the mate to measure him. It was now quite