The morning call., 1891-02-22


An Australian newspaper gives a brief
account of tie reported existence of sea
serpent somewhere in the South Pacific
Ocean, where il is alleged to have been seen
by the captain of ship and also by several
OF his crew. The captain was unwilling to
talk on the subject through fear of ridicule,
and the information was Cleaned from one
OF the sailors, who was, unfortunately,
somewhat incoherent at the time of the in
teTyiew. 1t Is much to be regretted that the
custom prevails everywhere of doubling and
rldiculing every man who claims to have
seen sea serpent. On several occasions
reputable ship captains have Joined with
their officers and crew aud made oath
to what they they had Witnessed and
their only reward was to be regarded as de-
Hberate liars or drunkardS, or both. The
result has been to make mariners reluctant
TO give any kind of testimony touching the
possible existence through fear of being
treated as impostors.
Here is case in point. A few years ago
while one OF the Z. and o. steamers was
going from Bombay to Alden two or three
passengers who were on deck early in the
morning saw what they believed TO be a
snake thraShiDg the water about half mile
away. They called the attention of the
captain 10 it, and also told the officer CT the
watch: the captain looked for a few Sec
oDds IN the direction indicated and then
turned away and told the officer to keep his
O1 CO utdQ lie pdSStUEeTS dlIcT-
ward drew up and signed a statement as to
what they hsd seen and asked the captain
TO verify 1t; he refused To do so, and or
dered his officers and men to make 80 men,
ton oil the occurrence 10 any one. AS a
reason for his action he said that no mat
ter bow seriously and carefully lie made his
statement he would be ridiculed for it, and
his veracty and sobriety would be Ques-
toned; he furthermore said that if a SER
petnt should come on board and eat up half
his passengers ana crew he would not say it
was serpent unless he could capture and
preserve the, creature aud even then he
would hesitate.
Do believe in the existence of sea ser
pent? Yes do. | have seen sea snakes off
the coast of India and Ceylon, where they
are numerous and are found sometimes 200
miles from lard. Their homes are in the
water and they are from one to four feet
long. Hthey grow to that length why should
there not be serpents of fifty, 100 or even
200 or more feet long? Naturalists are now
pretty well agreed that the existence of a
sea serpent is possibility. Professor Agas-
slZ says that II he were to sketch the out
line OF an icthyosauruS or p!esiosaurus from
the remains we have of them he would make
drawing very similar to the sea serpent as
II has been described. We know that those
creatures have existed, aud why should there
not be some descendants of the ancient race
dwelling Today in the depths of the ocean?
Among tue witnesses to the probable exist
ence OF this monster we have the testimony of
CAPTAIN Peter McQuhae, of Her Britannia
Ma1esty's ship DedaiuS. together with that
OF his officers and crew. They saw the ser
pent on the 9th of August, 1S49 in latitude
2i' "A south, longitude 90 30 east. He says
IL passed so close under the stern of his
ship that. had II been man of my acquaint
ance, should have easily recogniZ d his
features with the naked eye" IL was in
sight for about twenty minutes, and kept its
head and shoulders about four feet above
the surface of the water, while about sixty
feet in length of the body was in sight The
captain made drawing, which he sent with
his official report. In 1860 the dead body of
a sea-serpent exactly answering to the de-
scriptlon OF the British captains, except that
it was III uch smaller, was washed ashore on
the Island of Bermuda. 1t was 16 feet Z
inches long, and its construction showed
that its home was in the water. The stories
OF sea-serpents being seen near watering
places OIL the coast are not worthy of con-
sideration. Seine of them may possibly he
true, but the chances are very large that
they are nothing more than fictions invented
for the purpose of advertising summer
hotels,