Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1893-12-10
A BIG SEA SERPENT.
OFFICER PETERS, OF THE AMERICAN.
SAW ONE 100 FEET LONG.
Taste to Disappear when the Captain
Was Called to See IL.
New York Herald.)

Discreet and circumspect II First-Om-
Ger Peters, of the American. The steamer
is tank" Mr.. Peters is strictly tenn
perate. He keeps HIS tongue from deceit
and his lips from grog. SO. when he
said that he had seen a chocolate sea
serpent moving over citron-colored sea,
everybody believed him.
The American left Rotterdam on No
vember 22d, bound for New York. with
her compartments full OF water ballast.
Mr.. Peters told me yesterday The morn
ing OF December "a dawned with lower
ing clouds and frost-laden air. II is a
cold day when anything happens which
surprises Mr.. Peters. December "a was
bitter cold. A heavy sea was running.
and yeasty waves hustled over the scene
like the white-capped cooks in a hotel
kitchen at dinner
VERY MUCH AsTONISHED.
According TO the patent log. the tank
was in latitude 43 degrees IS minutes.
and longitude Sc degrees. which is south
west OF the banks OF Newfoundland. At
one minute past o'clock, Mr.. Peters
grasped the bridge railing convulsively,
and craned his neck three points to the
port bow.
"vas list los NIT Petersg muttered the
helmsman.
shut upr' roared the first officer.
Look behind you, man, and see that
drunken zigZag wake you're making.
Lose anything when you came over here
the last timer
And the helmsman looked astern, and
the first officer bent his gaze forward.
There. sir" said Mr.. Peters, about
half a mile away, three points off the
port bow, l saw a great snake more than
100 feet long, and as big around as
sugar hogshead. 1 could just see his back
rising and falling in the sea. His head
was under water. and so was his tall"
SURE IT WAS A SNAKE.
IT could see little OF this big fish, but l
am sure that IL was not a wreck, n
whale, a school of porpoises, or a lot of
seaweed. / have been at sea, man and
boy, these twenty-one years, and l know
that what l saw was n big fish or snake.
He moved with n wavy motion. He bent
his back into arches until he looked like
a lot of crank-shafts You could see the
humps plainly. They rose and fell with
a steady beat.
THE steamer was steering west by
south. and tho sea serpent was headed
for the southeast. He was of dark
brown color. For five minutes | stood on
the bridge watching that great chocolate
colored snake wringling and squirming.
When we sighted him he was on the port
bow, as 1 was telling you. When / start
ed down to tell the captain about 1t
the sea serpent was just abeam.
THE CAPTAIN TOO LATE.
"The captain and l came on deck
minute later, and the sea serpent was
gone. He had Owed and disappeared.
We looked for him a long time. All We
could make out was the long tail OF
foam which he had left behind. He
seemed to have moved through the water
as though he was urged on by a propel-
Ter. lie left wake like naphtha
launch.
What makes me certain that 1t was
n sea serpent? Well. he was not a whale.
or he would have come 10 the surface TO
blow. He was not a porpose. for he
was not the right color IT could not
have been derelct, for II would not
have sunk or left a wake"
The American anchored of Stapleton
yesterday, awaiting orders to 90 TO
Bayonne to take on her cargo OF crude
oil. Mr.. Peters says that one OF these
days he will capture the sea serpent,
and dlscomnt the doubling Mr. Thomases
by towing II into port.