The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-09-17
KING OF THE SEA SERPENTS.
REGULAR "WHALE'' or A REPTILE
AS DESCRIBED BY CAPT.
PEABODY.

From the New York Journal.
Never has a deep sea clipper or any
other craft brought in a more stirring tale
of the ocean than the one spun yester-
day by Capt Peabody of the three-masted
American sailing ship, Tam oShanter,
sitting in the comfortable cabin Of his
vessel, as she swung at anchor off Robins
reef in the upper bay.
quartet of other ships and half
dozen banks from foreign ports brought
tales of storms and trouble at sea, but
they pale into insignificance when COM
pared with the experience OF the Tam
oShanter's skipper
Sharks of prodigious size alligators and
sea serpents figured in this story, and of
portions, led all the other snakes which
swarmed about the ship.
The snakes which "crept through this
Shiny sea-" as related by the Ancient Mar
liner would not have stood ghost Of II
chance with the vast school of serpents
seen from the Tam o'shanter's deck.
The combats fought in ocean depths by
giants of the ocean as related and sworn
to by Jack Tars the world over would de-
serve no place beside the history of this
mighty conflicts witnessed by Capt Pea,
body and his crew on the voyage from
Hong Kong.
Mrs Peabody accompanied her husband
on this trip, as did also their pretty, blue
eyed. golden haired little daughter, Claire
Lenore Francis Peabody las she told visi-
tors gravely), who has spent three of her
civ ,nI t..N flNla oh
Mother and daughter both saw the snakes
the nasty beasts" Claire called them
and they vaIched for the accuracy of the
shippers story
Capt. Peabody is a handsome man, of
possibly 40, with curling brown beard and
mustache, slightly streaked with gray. He
is well educated. 1t required some persua-
sion TO induce him to spin the yarn of the
voyage, but he finally began:
CLARK Russell" said the captain. de
claTes an old sailor once told him that If
he were to write one-quarter of all he'd
seen, heard ana gone through that the
reader would throw away the book and
call him evil names 'afore he'd read half
what was writ
Nov, at the risk of being doubted and
called evil names, l am going to try to de-
scribe little incident that happened dur
ing our late passage in this ship from
Hong Kong to New York; and. | may add
only one of many remarkable Incidents.
| hear the landsmen call them, that have
happened during my thlrty-four years OF
sea life However, without fear or favor
l shall now proceed to give the account, as
entered at the time of the occurrence in
my private log book
"On May Is, 1896, at daylight. the low
land of Borneo was In sight of the ship, eX-
actly on the Equator. l noticed the water
on the port side of the ship looked very
muddy, while that on the starboard, or
off shore side, was quite blue. On pulling
up a bucket of water from either side of
the ship we found the blue water was as
we expected, quite salt, while the muddy
water on the port side was as nearly fresh
as water could be under such conditions.
Nasty, muddy water, and you couldn't
drink 1t, interrupted Claire. but 1t didn't
have salt in it. and tasted 1t. Ughw
This fresh water" continued the skip
per, had without doubt been driven 50
far off shore by one of the many estuaries
of the Pontiniak river, the tides of which
are very strong, especially on the ebb,
when the fresh water forces its way for
fully five miles off shore and for some rea-
son unknown to me refuses to amalga-
mate with the salt water.
Large numbers of sharks, all sorts of
other fish and snakes were seen on the
blue water side. Some Of the snakes Were
Oh liilIntilHe SlEts Wllltt lut NilldltSAf
came close to the ship, were not less than
three feet long. They We're of many col
ors, some of the long ones being prettily
striped and others spotted.
con the port, or fresh water side, a num-
Der of alligators and huge catfish, such as
we catch in the southern rivers, were TO
be seen swimming close to the dividing
line of fresh and salt water. Every once
in a while one could be seen making a
dash at a dolphin or bonita.
"They bited the fish right in pieces"
was Claires comment at this point
"Bnt the alligators were not always so
fast in their excursions" pursued the cap
tain, for we saw one which had 10 pay
dearly for Its temerity in trying to seize
a beautiful dolphin that was at that mo-
ment being holly pursued by am immense
shark. Alligator and shark both seized
the dolphin at the same moment, and In
an instant we beheld a terrific conflict.
The shark managed to seize the alliga-
tors right hind leg In its mouth, and,
keeping itself well under water. to avoid
the frightful lashngs Of the gators tail,
1t steered the unfortunate saurian out In
to the blue or salt water. This appeared to
be more thap the alligator could stand,
for we saw that he rapidly grew weaker.
The shark appeared 10 realize that he had
his antagonist out OF his element, for he
suddenly let go his hold on the leg and
making a terrific dash at the gators
stomach, literally tore out its entrails.
1.-THE blood from the combatants at
tracted every one of the salt and fresh
water denizens In the vicinity to the
scene Of the combat, and the utmost con-
fusion appeared to prevail, but at the
same time we could see from our deck
that the larger and more powerful OF the
fishes had formed pools. or syndicates,
and, az a result, the small fishes on both
sides disappeared in short order We see
the same thing on the stock exchange
once in awhile.
However, much as we had been sur
prised IT was ordered that we were to be
more surprised yet; for, just as we
thought the turmoil In the water was
growing less. our attention was called to
the other side OF the ship, and we there
saw a sight such as we had never seen
before. and never believed any man had
seen
mot even Marco Palo or Baron Nun
chausen, in their widest flights OF mag
ination. ever attempted describing such
a monster as we saw. dancing with easy
fluctuations toward the bloody spot II
water.
without doubt, It was the veritable
sea serpent, and serpent among sea SER