Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1890-08-17
RIG FISH WITH HANDS.
=, ENCOUNTER OFF HATTERAS
WITH MARINE MONSTERS.

rant Gheen Teiis ihrii"s harh ABOUT
Adventure Along the Coast-Fish |
MAT Refused to BE Taken by Means Of
,..,books-One Is Finally Caught.
can't Gheen. of the schooner Abby Gheen,
strange things off Cape Hatteras on
~. voyage to this port. He does not claim
a. have seen the sea serpent, but he did see
lumber of monsters of the deep that put
al well credited sea stories in the shade.
The captain is man whose veracity is not
sorbted. The captain brought his vessel
-, Rio de Janeiro, and it was when
.,,enty miles off Cape Hatteras that he ran
,n.o a school Of sea monsters such as he
had never before seem
The monsters were sighted by one of the
..aw They were nearly hundred yards
.head of the vessel and were apparently
ansbine toward her. When first seen by
.he sailors they thought the ship was run
~ino into floating island, some of which
ars often seen at sea. They soon changed
,bair minds. however, when they got closer
snd saw a school Of big fish that no one on
hoard could recognize as having seen be-
,ore The school opened to let the ship
nass and then at once closed in and fol-
ioped her. They fioated all around her
and greatly impeded her progress.
Although the vessel was going at speed
If seven knots an hour, the monsters fol-
Lowed along in its wake, and several more
daring ones seemed to clutch hold of the
vsssel's side and let themselves be carried
along. After they had followed the boat
sor several hours the crew began to grow
uneasy as to their safety, and called upon
The captain, who heretofore had not been
aware Of the chase.
SURROUNDED BY THE MONSTERS.
He sent for his glass and going aft made
asurvey Of the school, which he describes
As resembling a low, rocky island. He
said they were larger than the average
sized sharks, being about ten feet In
length and varying from the size of a
bucket to tub in circumference. They
seemed to be running a race and were hav-
ing great battle among themselves.
They had four long arms, on the ends Of
which were claws that resembled the hands
~ an ape. Those arm like things extended
from each side of the body. Discovering
that they were new species of fish, he inn
mediateiy communicated the fact to the
first mate with orders to try and capture
some Oh lDt SlIdlA-t hiOhot'io-
The mate gave orders to the crew, who
were more or less frightened, but were
waiting the chance to "skeer" the brutes,
and when they were told Of the captain 5
orders they nearly jumped out Of their
shoes. The boat was searched for weapons,
and soon the deck was covered with har-
moons, boat hooks, fish hooks and every
other kind of implement used in catching
fish.
The boat hooks were first used in their
attempt to catch the fish, but unsuccess-
fully. The fish seemed to know what was
needed of them, and they used their
Glands" to protect themselves from being
caught. Groups of two and three Of the
monsters would grab the rod of the boat
hook and pull it away. Eight of these
hooks were taken from the sailors. The
arms of the fish were about six feet long
said Capt. Gheen.
FISH USE THEIR HANDS.
The sailors became alarmed, thinking
that some i'll omen had caused the serpent'
TO follow the ship, and they thought they
were going to be lost They told the cap
tain that they thought the ship would
never reach port. Some rushed to the fore
castle and others to the captains cabin II
their endeavors toescape from the supposed
"Jonahs.'
By this time the fish had become NOR
daring, and would swim alongside the boa
and grab the sail lemons and traces. A
last the captain became so exasperated a
the men that he ordered them to cast TIN
lines which they use in catching drum an'
sturgeon. This the crew reluctantly did
The lines were baited with huge pieces o
Goldfish and cast over the side. They wer
handled by the fish the same as they han
died the boathook. They would grab tn
line with their hands" and try o. tea
them apart, and il one was not successful
two or three would come to its aid.
"All the time we were trying to captur
one of thsm, said the captain, they woul
keep up yell that sounded like the bar
of coyote. At last the men were success
full They had. indeed, caught one of tn
fish, and they began TO haul him in. Whe
the remaining fish saw their capture
brother they made great efforts TO roscu
him. They grabbed at him while the me
were hauling him up along the side of tn
boat, and once or twice one Of them SUI
ceeded in getting his claws over the for
rail. At last we had him on deck, an
such hilarious yell as the crew gave on
at that happy moment and the scene o
the deck is indescribable.
A MONSTER CAPTURED.
"The captured monster floundered a
over the deck, but his maneuvers WEI
quickly stopped by the sse of an AK; W
soon cut his head of. In another hour "
had caught two more of the huge monster
but these must have been young ones. 4
they were great deal smaller in size tina
the rest, and probably NJ not know no
to evade the hook.
This was strange monster, said Cap
Gheen. "The body was round and abo'
the size of n small barrel, and the bac
was covered with thick scales, resemblin
the scales of drumiish, while the belly
semblcd the hide of porpoise. The hea
was about as large as an ordinary size
bucket, and was horrifying to gaze upo
The eyes were as large as dollar an
greenish in color. They made my bloc
run cold when saw them.
I'VE all held a consultation and decide
to have the fish cooked. One of them WI
carefully cleaned and cut into huge chunk