The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1879-03-06

0oiiS 'h"i &C boii gout W. wv hhiAiNh
and Roanoke, but ! never saw any
thing like that fellow. 1t warn't like
pOrpoise; I've seen porpolses, or a
grampus; il was about the. color OF a
shark, but it warn't Il shark; you can
always tell shark by his fin, which
makes ripple on the water after he
has gone under. read about a sea SER
pent being in the Sound; most Of them
seen it of Greenwich or somewhere
near there; but | meyer put much stock
In it; you know most everybody thinks
they were drunk or just getting over a
drunk; that's what thought was most
likely; when they talked about seeing
snakes; but tell you We warn't drunk
and don't use it on board"
"What did it look like?"
swell, Pll tell you. We were going
past Greenwich. 1t was about two
O'Clock, Jimmy-that's my boy--he's
about twenty-One-was steering. All
of a sudden he sung out, 'Oh father, just
look at that thing over there Then it
came to him all in minute and he says,
that is the sea serpent looked the
way he pointed, and all I'VE got to say is
| never saw any critter like it before.
1t was headed towards Captains Island.
1t went across our bow, about sixty
feet ahead on us. We could see the
head. That looked as il it was about
two thirds out of water. How big was
II? Oh! l couldn't say about that.
You know 1t came all Of a sudden and
we didn't have time to stop and think.
We called up Bill; that's my other son
and Jimmy yelled for Joe the cook.
But when he'd got on deck the serpent
had gone down; he saw the ripple he
made though"
"How big was heP"
81 put him down for about twenty
five or thirty feet, but then we couldn't
tell, because most of it was under wa
ter, but we could see the head-that
looked as if it was eighteen inches
across-and the neck which grew small
about five feet and then swelled out
big again until it was as big around
as barrel. Most of it seemed to be
under water. A snake always goes
with his tail under water"
"Did it move with an undulating
motion?"
"We couldn't say about that because
the water was too rough. We were
sailing close-reefed with mainsail and
jib. If it had been smooth we could
have told better about him. But you
know how rough it was Tuesday. His
head looked more like frogs head
than anything can think of. 1t was
good deal like a shOvel-nose sharks
head, only more oval. His eyes were
like toads-I couldn't tell how big
they were, perhaps about as big as
saucers-and they stuck out just like
Ben Buffers eyes. If | had gun ]
would have put ball in one of them
just as well as not"
"What color was he? Did you get
a good chance to see him ?"
son, yes, when he went across our
bows, on an angle, we saw him broad
side. He turned his head towards us
and looked at us, independent like.
We could see his great eyes AS plain.
couldn't tell what color the pupils
of his eyes were. His skin was black
and green. Right after he looked al
us that way he dived down in the wa
ter. Perhaps the water gives him that
green color. Down in South America
some of those snakes are red just like
the water, juniper water you know" !"
"How fast was the old fellow mov-
ing"
Gle wasn't going very fast. He
didn't seem to be frightened at all at
us. should like to have got har-
poon into him; | tell you | would
have followed him as long AS he would
have kept it up. A tug boat woul J
catch him, but then you know the
thing is he would dive. never was
surer of anything in my life than /
was that | saw the sea.serpent. |
couldn't be sdrer of anything in my
life. You can ask the Trowbridges
who am; worked under them a
good many years.