Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-09-25
THE SEA SERPENT SEEN.
Lieut.. Foster Says He Saw 1t in the
North River.


From the Yeso York sun.
The sea serpent has appeared In the
North river just off Twenty seventh
street, unless Lieut.. G. A. Foster, OF the
man-ot-war Minnesota and number OF
other persons have been deceived by some
designing log or depraved hawser floating
up stream. IL was on Friday morning,
and the Lieutenant's watch said 9 O'Clock.
The surface of the water was smooth, and
Lieut.. Foster, who stood on Che Twenty
seventh street pier, near which the Min
nesota was anchored, had fair view up
and down the river. Suddenly big OBJ
ject OF a dirty-gray color, about 100 yards
from the end OF the pier, attracted his at
tentIon.
Lieut.. Foster vouches that his vision
was perfectly clear and accurate at the
moment. He desired it to be understood
yesterday that up 10 that hour he hadn't
had anything to drink for over a week.
Consequently when he saw the big object
suddenly twist itself laZily aud leisurelv
proceed up the river, he was convinced
that his first idea that the object was SIM
ply big log was an idea that wasn't up
to the occasion. Then he says he thought
it was water snake escaped from some
museum, until he reflected that it was
through at the Jhickest part of Its ta-
pering body. Then he knew that 1t was
the sea serpent.
He shouted to some 'longshoremen to
look at it, and yelledup 10 Quartermaster
John Hahn on the deck of the man-of-war
to get the binocular and see what he could
! make of it. Meanwhile, with snake-like
motions, the streak of gray went its way
up stream at the rate of two miles an hour
( q hnnf tide Snnn6\ tlnnpShnrp-
men gazed upon it with admiration. Quar-
termaster Hahn brought his big marine
| glass to bear on the object and followed 1t
along until it had navIgated as far as the
| Twenty-ninth street pier. just then
steam tug came snorting up behind 1t, and
long TOW came down upon it the other
way. The gray object, according to the
lockers on, seemed much frightened at
this, and slid down under the water out
of the way, and didn't appear again, al
though Lieut.. Foster and the Quartermas-
| ter and the 'longshoremen waited long
and anXiousiy for second free exhibit
| ton.
81 know these sea serpent stories are
hard to believe" Lieut.. Foster said to
reporter, "but believe in this sea SER
! pent because | saw him myself, and there
were plenty of trustworthy eyes to cor
rObOrate my own. ltwasn'ta pOrpOise or
a whale, because there would have been
! fins to it. Its body wasn't scaly either.
but smooth and Shiny and of a dark slate
color. From the quantity of it that l saw
l should judge that it must have been
fully so feet long. We couldn't see the
head or tail ourselves, but there was a
commotion in the water about where the
| head and tail ought to have been. The
body was round and taperng, and pro0a-
bly, Is inches In diameter in its stOutest
! part. The monster seemed to be basking
and sailing along with the tide until the
tug and tow scared it, and it didn't
move violently enough at any time to
throw any part of its body fully out of
| the water"
A 'longshoreman said he saw the head,
which was like that of a snake.