Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1895-10-24
MARINE MONSTERS VIE.
Veracious Skipper Tells of an En-.
counter with Gigantic Octopus.

NOhhNNl WIN Il otlODuS,
Captain Obadiah Donaldson ha
piled the waters OF the Sound 70
years and years, and no one has eve
accused him Of telling lie. If any
one else but Captain Donaldson hat
steamed into port with the yarn tina
he brought here today he would hay,
been publicly scoffed at. But Captain
Obadiah has said It, and It goes
lie came into harbOr with his Stean
oyster dredger, which is cross be
tween a tug boat and mud scow
In search Of coal. Five of his sailor,
then landed with thin substance
looking very much like hundred fee
, Of fire hose This they laid out OF
the wharf today. Seadogs assembled
/ in convention over it, but shook their
heads nonplusscd, being unable to
make 1t ont at all. Then Captain
Donaldson spake, in these words:
'"rhat," said he. sis the arm of an
octopus, which can easily be verified.
! take it that It's a hundred feet long
now, being as It's shrunk, but it was
twice that length when we caught it,
''fhe fight in which we got it oc-
CURED shortly after 10 o'clock this
morning. We were steaming five
miles off Stanford light, were going
four knots an hour and we were in
fifteen fathomS OF water. | was
heading east by southeast two points,
and the wind was blowing north by
northwest seven points all of which
can be verified.
"Suddenly, on the starboard bow
500 feet ahead, | spied huge mass,
black and motionless, lying on the
surface Of the water which was as
rs n pond. | changed my
course one point and rang The bell for
n full head OF steam, in order to
hurry UP and see what the black |
thing was. soon made 1t out rs an !
octopus, sixty feet in diameter, with
arms and legs Il couple Of hundred
feet long
81 didn't want any Of that In mine.
brought the wheel down to clear the
III" was in deep sleep
md his snores could be heard quite
I way or, But | was too late. The
Doat struck him amidshpS. He
invoke IN Il jiIfy. At first he thought
We were Il nightmare, but he rubbed
lis eyes and identified us as enemies,
hough heaven knows | had no wish
o fight HIM.
Gle darted ut us, kicking up the
'ca. one Of his long arms came
Iboard and seized the forward steam
Nindlass. He wound his arm around
t, thinking, | suppose. that it was Il
'ailor. The mate with great presence
If mind, started the WindlaSS, and in
oss time than 1t takes to tell 1t a
'ouple Of hundred feet of the arm was
wound in and we bad the fish Il pris-
Iner.
but we'd caught II Tartar. He he
gan to pull at the boat. and | was
afraid he meant to sink 1t and eat MS
It his leisure. The vessel rocked, ana
thought she would capsize every
called to Frank Taylor,
he boatswan. to cut off the arm and
le did so WITH Il meat-chcpper.
'The octopus thoroughly aroused,
'wam half mile to leeward and
'rouchrl for spring, but suddenly a
distraction occurred. Three p,:poises
anne along, the pilot porpoisr leading
lie ran right into the arms Of the oc.
opus. who seized him and held him
nigh in the air and squeezed the life
'ut of him. We could hear his bones
Living killed the poor
porpoSc in his rage he tossed him
nigh in the air.
"fhe other porpoiScS at once turned
all and swan to Pentield Reef Light,
| favorite feeding ground of these
iSh They returned with an cnor-
NOUS swarm of porpuiscs, all greatly
excited and guashinG their teeth. The
'hums of the murdered porpoisc ryi-
IDENTIFY had made speech to them
md got them worked up. They lined
mp like football playecs and made 4
rush for the octopus. who
raZrd at them yiriouSly with his
cruel Shiny eyes Ii was an awful
battle that followed.
THE sen was dashed into Grim,
son foam. AS the porpoisrs came
within reach the octopus seized them
in his arms and tossed them high in
the air As he had seven arms ne
pitched 'cm mp seven ut Il time. ltI
we hadn't got that other tlippcr II
would have been eight ut 4 time. The
sea far moro than n mile was strrWu
with the fins and tails Of pnrpoisrS
and with bits of octopus. Any fellow !
who wants A load of good fertilizer
can set ii there
II don't know how many porpoiScS
were killed. Eventually they did up
the octopus, how ever. and. In their .
anger tore him limb from limb. Then .
they all swan to their homes and | /
put to into bridgeport"
The captain went to sea again to- /
night lie says he will fight any one
and every one who doubts his story .
bridgeport (Counl Correspondence +
New York World.