Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-06-15

| the first sight, ran ba ok below screaming
and some refused to come again On deck,
though their nurses and: ayahs-desirous
of looking on themselyes-used all posi-
| BILE means to make them. Some, howev-
er, returned, curiosity overcoming fear,
but even these looked on in perpetual
tremor of terror, and held themselves
ready at the first movements Of the thing
to rush away. | noticed at this time that
the Captain was not present, and turned
to an old European sailor by me and asked
him to go and tell him.
| Captain won't come; no fear of that,
sir" replied the man
L asked 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 90 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 bath
ing at that late hour. Up to this time the
thing had kept steadily in our wake, its
movement continuing absolutely smooth
and constant, and the two specks of light
in the glazing eyes never changing hairs
breadth from their position
At breakfast sat one remove from the
Captain. We began, of course, talking
/ nf hp had Int I,a
for some reason we could not then under
stand, 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 following
in our wake. The children had, in a
great measure, got over their fear, and
had made 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 holder, and at
last their cries increased till they shrieked
shrilly.
Suddenly the hideous creature seemed
reused by those cries, it raised its head in
the air, uttered a strange below, and
came forward at a great pace toward the
ship. None Of us could at first move
from fear ; the thing seemed tohave grown
in size, his eyeballs were more burningly
bright; the children fell on the deck cry
ing, and some of the women tainted 1t
came swiftly up to the ship, always utter
ing the same peculiar cry or below
| 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 of the sun; but three
Of US had 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 [ was still
suffering from extreme fear, but my curl
Osity was so intense, so irresistible, that [
could only act as [ did. No sooner was
the thing level with us than it raised it.
self with sudden movement out Of the
water, till its head was thirty or forty feet
above US. 1t still uttered the same pc
culiar cry or below. We stood out on
the bulwarks to follow its movements. It
opened great mouth, cried more loudly
than before, and made three blows at the
mainmast. The last of these touched it,
and caused the ship to sway violently, so
that we were nearlycast off into the water
| When we again looked for the thing it
had gone. There was no ripple, no dis
turbance of any Kind in the water to show
where it had been. 1t was gone absolute
ly. We looked constantly for 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 knowledge, 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 min
utes. Then he shortly referred to the
strange sight we had seen that day, lay
| ing stress on the fact, however, that he
himself had not seen it, and he went on ::
Now none of you can doubt what you
saw but | advise you not to talk about it.
That was the sea serpent you saw. But l
wouldn't talk about it if saw it. 1t only
leads to making people laugh, and the pa
pers take it up and cut jokes on it, and it
won't do you any good, and it would not
do me any good. But, then, remember
did not see it, so I've nothing to do
with this one. But, if you take my ad-
vice, you won't talk aboutit. Punch took
up one sea serpent, and that Captain
never got over it-never. Remember,
though | didn't see this one.'
You will see now, MIR. Editor, that if
you don't publish this, most extraCrdi-
nary fact may be lost to the world. This
account, | may state, has been read over
by some of the passengers. and their dis
agreement from what have written is
only what would necessarily, under the
circumstances mentioned, be expected.
To show that I have no fear of ridicule,
give my name. MATTHEW STRONG.