Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1876-06-30
The Sea Serpent.
From the New York World

jist goin' along on the starboard tack. see
great splashin' broad off on the lee-bow, and
bought itwere a school ofp)rpusses; ;; but look
in agln it didn' t jst look right for pOrpusses,
beia' list a single long line of broken water
| thinks may be it might be whale what had
got CALLED and were a runnin'. Whatever
il were it were a comm towards us at a
great rate, and in a couple of minits il were
close under our lee-bOw, tremendous long
streak Of liyin light purceeded by broken
crest Of water, like the curl of breaker.
In an instant as the fish. whatever ii were,
come athWart our iOreio0t, heard our chain
cable surge over the windlass, and as the
tremendous long thing stretched out onto
our weather bow for fully couple miles,
all of a sudden it fetched up, and our chain
draw'd tight from the ring Of the anchor,
and only but that We had good purventer
| ring-stOpper it would have took our anchor
of the bow. For a mint or so | thought
the strain would carry away our cat-head
but it held, and the ships head come rapidly
up to the wind, and We began to 90 through
the water at devil OF a rate, with every
thing hard aback. The mate come a-runnin'
Tor ard, not KNOWN what to make of it,
and he were soon followed 10y the old man,
and more astonlshed people you never see
than We all was but We soon seen what
had happened You see the way Of it were
we had bent our chains the day before so as
TO have the anchors ready goin' through the
passages, and somehow the stop onto this
port chain had got adrift, and the slack
chain had ruined out to the waters edge
and hadn't been noticed.
Now, this here thing that had seen
were tremendous biz sea-sarpent, and
! commin across our fOrefoot. what does he
do but run his head through this blight of
slack chain, and when he come nigh onto
his end, whether the rubin of the chain
along his belly made him frisky or not
don't know, but in his wigglins he slinged
his tail clean over the chain, maxim a round
turn and the standin' part Of him coRin'
down onto this round turn, il formed Glove
hitch and jammed, and away he went,
hayin' the old Trident in tow.
"'lf / should say that there snake were
two miles long, you wouldn't believe me.
and yet | tell YOU true, | think he were il
were a inch. The part Of him which were
round our chain cable were thick as a water
cask, and the eeni spread out forked like,
Jlst like the tail Of shark, and that were
what peryented the hitch round the chain
from slippn' il acted like toggle.
"'Wall, f1st off the idee were to git clear
of him, but that were easier said than done
| We could slip the chain from the inside. but
with the tremendous strain at the anchor
ring. the idee Of unshacklein' were out Of
the question, and We hadn't cold chlsel Of
any account whatever for sich lob as that
of cuttln' the cable The only way, then.
were 10 cut of the sarpent's tail. but the
| blight Of the chain, where he were fast to,
were at least fifteen feet ahead of the ship,
and Of course as soon as the tail was cut,
this blight would drop in the water. How
| ever. when the mate saws, Who'll II 20 out
on the chain and cut that snake adritt?"
said d try 1t. and | got bowline round
me and took the carpenters saw and pre-
pared to 20 out.'l didn't halflike the iob, and
| 80 as the idea struck me, | saws to the mate
What do you want to cut loose for? Amt
he town Us Jlst the way we want to go?'
by George ~ SAYS the mate, al never
thought OF that, and him and the old man
holds 4 c0ntab and decides to hold on and
let him 90. Turn TO and clear up every
thin says the old man, "'1ain't no use
giyin' the poor creetur any extra trouble.
malclful man l. marcltul to his beast
Furl everythin snug and pint the wards
close 70 the wind, - and We done it.
4 couldn't tell You how fast we went
We didn't have no patent log, and our reel
had thirteen knots onto it. She run that
out, and the sand in the glass were Mt more
than one quarter through, 50 at that rate
she were goiE' fifty miles an hour. Her
bow stuck up high out Of water, jst like a
small boat town arter a steamer, and the
strain on our cat-head were tremendous
but It were a good solid piece of white oak,
and it hung on well. AWAY we went. the
creetur keepin' right in the middle of the
channel, and never trim nor slackin' up a
morsel. Long afore daylight We was clean
through the passages and away past the island
of Tim0r and out INTO the Injun ocean. We
was bound to Bombay, ana We let him 20
a long as he went to the ives ard, but at
about seven bells, what does he DO but turn
of to the suth ard, and then the old man
gives the order TO ''Cut loose" Well. out
goes ONO the chain, which were as taunt
and rigid Is a bar. and | takes the saw and
saws away at him. As soon as he felt the
saw, It acted like a spur onto him and he
cut up the greatest capers You ever seen.
Away ahead of Us a couple Of miles OF so
we'd see him rare his head out of water fifty
or hundred feet, and then kinder make a
breach underlatin along his whole length
| tlu Il come 20 where | were sawin', and
hingin me and the saw some twenty feet in
the air, and only for the bowlin round me
I'd been drowned. A. it was, though,
weren't in the water a mint. | were
nearly goner when they got me up,
We were goin' through it so fast. l were
near y strangled. and somebody else had to
take my place at the saw. lie in his turn
was hook off by the fearful contortion Of
the snake, and II were not until fifteen of us
had had a whack at him that we at last
sawed through his bone. The blood from
him, meanwhile. was a ilyin' up as high as
our loreyard, and faliin in showers onto our
| forecaStle, while our fore-topmast stay-sail
looked as if it had been dipped in a solution
OF log-wOod. As soon as ever we got the
bone sawed through, the flesh tore out from
the great strain, and kerfl1nk, down went
the blight of the chain, and the Capillary
kemble his name were-as had been sttin'
onto it. However it happened don know,
| but the suddenness of it were too much for
HAIRY, and slipped the bowline. We didn't
| lose him however, cause she soon lost her
way, and We lowered boat and picked him
! up Well, aiore we made sail, we hove in
the slack chain till we got the bend of the
sn5.ke in the hawse, and then we got a watch
FdCh4t buAD lut llAudSt SNfsN anu HUM
; ed onto it and took tine fall to the capstan
and hove il up and got it on deck. We
didn't have more than eight foot of him,
but this little piece weighed nigh hand onto
a ton.
Well, we made sail and went on. We
turned to and cut all the flesh of the bone,
and it kSI, alive all the while we was cuttin'
it, cause snakes, Won knows. like eels, live
4 "a lone, bila fha.- AanN irt
cleaned the bone right clear, and when we got
to Bombay the old man he presents it to the
| Royal Geographical Society of that place,
and goes up aud spins 'era yarn as to how
| he come to have it, and they made him a
feller-whateFer that may be. Then the
grind secretary he draw'd up paper, set
tia forth the yarn jist as I've spun it to you:
| but whether or no they made all fellers,
/ don't know, but they got all of US to make
! our mark to it. Well, arter that it were
shipped to England, with all the docker-
ments attached, and Civ to the Royal 70
| illogical Society Of London, and they made
| contract with a chap by the name of Porter
! house Hopkins for TO take this piece Of bone
and from 1t construct artiicially the whole an
! imal. He allowed. arter II examination,
that the animal, when alive, had been fifty
miles long. He hadn't looked so long to US.
I'm tellin' you the truth, and We hadn't
seen no more of him than couple OF miles
OF so. but l wont say but what there might
have been more of him under water.
FoRGor SOMETHING There was law suit
at Justice Potter's the other day (says the
Detroit Free Press)w which called in score
of people from the country. IL originated
| from the sale of horse, and the defendants