Port Royal standard and commercial. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1876-06-22
A MONSTER OF THE DEEP.

..-. E---s a..slE,ru- a- w.
The Thing as Seen and Described by a
Missionary--A Sight that Fascinated q
PASSENGER at Sunrise on the Sea. 7
SAYS a correspondent of the Bombay
Gazette As q missionary, have
travelled over great part OF the world,
but / can safely aver that what 1 saw ON
Saturday, the eighteenth day of March,
was inoomparsbly the most marvellous
phenomenon that has ever met my eyes.
We steamed out of Bombay harbor
ON the evening of Monday, the thir-
teenth of March, in the steamship Hy-
daspes. On Tuesday at twelve We had
made 1872 miles, on Wednesday at mid
day 429, on Thursday TOT, anu on Fri
day nearly 1,O00, so that on Saturday
morning we were about 1850 miles from
Bombay. Nothing of remark had. oc-
Cured up to Saturday. The weather
was cool and nearly every one slept be-
low only one passenger, Capt. David
son. and myself remaining on deck for
the night. was reused from sleep at
81. by the men washing and scraping
the decks. took my. plate OF broken
biscuits to the stern and sat there MUNICH
ING them and looking at the sun rising.
I was quite alone, Capt. Davidson still
sleeping in peace ontha port side. There
was. thick bank of clouds on the horl-
zon. and as the sun rose mp from the
sea behind this dark bank great masses
of color. red and blue and yellow, lit up
the whole expanse of sky and sea.
was looking at strange ruddy blot OF
red on the water right astern, when l
saw apparently near the horizon, but
not in the red blot, a dark moving
shadow. 1t did not seem to move with
the other shadows on the sea, and this
fixed my attention to it. Soon / saw
that it. was steadily approaching the
vessel. I could distinguish no form,
only dark shadow, but / made out GER
tainly that it was advancing towards rs
and at great rate.
Fifteen minutes must have passed
when I o. last became able to distinguish
the form of the advancing object. p s-,-n
cannot accurately. describe my feel
ings on. beho!ding that hideous sight.
At, first. l. turned to call out to bring
others to look on with me, but, before
CRY could pass my lips, a second feeling
of selfish pleasure, that / alone saw that
fearful thing, seized me, and l turned
my eyes again to, the sea and kept them
fixed there. Within o hundred feet OF
the stern OF our vessel, not now ap-
preaching US, but simply following
steadily in our wake, was this hideous
thing. s~-.ss -
A great mass of what locked like tan
gled ceaweed, on which futile attempt
mt combing had been made, rose out of
the water. This mass must have been
twenty or thirty feet in length and ten
feet In width, and as it came on 1t
caused wide ripple In the water, that
showed there must be still greater part
below the surface. From the centel OF
this mass, raised just clear above it and
facing the vessel, was great black
head. The top was quite flat. in shape
not unlike that of q monstrous toad. A
thick fringe of coarse, reddish hair hung
over the mouth, quite concealing it.
But the eyes were the most awful part
of this fearful thing. They were placed
far apart, at either extremity OF the fiat
head, distant from each other at least
three feet. ' ...'. .....--....... ...
must here state that all the passen-
gers and all the crew, except the captain
himself, saw the thing afterward, but
that there were scarcely two who could
ag1ee as to the color and nature of these
eyes. T can only, therefore. write as
they appeared to me. The eyetalls
were enormous; they must have been
four or five inches in diameter. They
scintillated constantly. Every one
knows the extraordinary appearance of
surface covered with small alternate
squares of bright red and bright blue,
the quivering, uncertain, un6xel look
such a surface has, the difficulty,
the impossibility experienced by the
locker onto fix the color Of any particu-
lar square, The eyebsls of this thing
had such q -auiTering, uncertain look;
but they were not red, nor blue, nor
red and blue; they were of q bright,
burningly bright, copper hue; they
panied our eyes.-and in this we we're
all agreed-as We looked at them. In
the center of each eyebal. q mere
speck, but visible from it's extreme
brightness, was a point of light, OF
white light. It was impossible to tell
whether these points were, or were not
material points of the eye or merely
caused by reflection, but they were
clearly defined, and seemed to remain
in the same, place. The motion, how
ever, of the thing was 50 steady that
no deduction could fairly be drawn from
their not changing their position.
I had been so absorbed in the pleasing
pain of looking at the thing, that I had
quite forgotten the other people on
board, and was first reused by hearing
Capt. Davidson step up on the stern by
me, give one look below at the water,
and then hurriedly go back. In few
minutes every passenger was crowdlng
on to the stern, even the ladies appear
ing in unfinished costume. E1clama'
tions of the EXTREMIST astonishment
broke from all, and then silence fell, as
the crowd stared at the hideous crea.
ture. The children, at the first sight,
ran back below screaming, and some re-
fused to come again on deck, though
their nurses and ayshs-desirous Of
looking on .themseives-used all posi-
BILE means to make them. Some, how
ever, returned, curiosity overcoming
fear, but even these looked on in per
petual tremor of terror, and held them
selves ready at the first movement of the
thing to rush away. I noticed at this