The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-02
QUEER FISH.
Monsters That Do Not Hesitate to
Attack a ship.
From the Philadelphia Times.

From the Philadelphia Times.
In the year 1888, the mouth Of one of the
! hords on the coast of Norway. near the
Loffoden Islands, was blocked up for
month by the body of some huge marine
animal that had drifted In from the sea.
The stencil was tremendous, and the SUI
| perstltious fishermen Of the neighborhood
were afraid to make an examination until
a great storm had cleared the channel,
and then all vestige of the marine mon
ster had disappeared, not Il bone, nor scrap
of flesh or hide was left.
Bishop Pontoppidan, a learned Swede,
came to the place month after and made
a careful examination. Questioning all
the fishermen who had witnessed this sin
gular occurrence, all agreed that at long
intervals there appeared in the northern
seas a huge marine animal or fish that
most of them had seen, but none could
| tell anything of it's habits Its presence
| was always known by the sudden coming
| of great shoals of fish,, especially cod,
| that could be seen a quarter of mile
away. 1t was white in color but showed
| very little above the surface Of the water.
| 1t seemed to be from a quarter to half
! a mile in circumference, and propelled It.
| self by thrusting out innumerable arms
| that caught the water like a man swim
| ming. When IL sank there was plainly
| heard a sucking sound and the water was
much agitated' proof that the BODY must
| be very large. So Pontoppidan called this
| the 'kraken," and concluded that II was
! one of the creatures that had been strand
| ed in the ford. He also wrote a long
! Latin treatise on the new monster-and
no doubt wished he hadn't for a furious
| controversy started up-the bishop was
| called a liar in a half dozen languages
and for century Pontoppidans kraken
| was made much fun Of The Linnaeus
| took it up and made it clear that the az
| legged monster was huge "cuttehsh, as
| there was abundant evidence that these
/ had formerly visited the north coast and,
/ while many were small, some were or
| great size and capable Of doing much mis-
| chief. The smaller ones confined their
| malignant strength to uprooung the an
chors of the fishing boats-and this they
| do to-day along the west coast of Florida
In the light of modern knowledge the
| old bishop is indicated, but for obvious
| reasons cuttlehsh as big as the kraken
| have not come to market lately in fact,
the capture of a very small one is seri-
Gus matter, not likely to be undertaken
even by the enterprisng menagerie peo-
| pie.
In 1853 Mr. John Bowman, now in the
| trea sury department, was one Of the crew
of the sperm whaler Islander Capt. Fol-
| ger commanding. In May they We're or
| Point de Gale Island Of Ceylon. There
were a number of the natives on catama-
rams fishing. Suddenly the sailors heard
| a loud cry, and saw to the leeward, not
| over 200 yards away, catamaran being
! turned end over end and great flock OF
| sea guls swooping down on something
| while in the water; then a wild CONFUSION
of what looked like strands Of MANILA
| hawsers the sea was breaking Whlte
water over the mast. which looked at
| least 100 yards square. All at once the
| first mate of the Islander cried out:
| Holy Moses, Captain Folger that's the
| great white squid I've been twenty years
at sea and never saw it before They say
it's bad luck for a spouter to meet II.
1t had caught the catamaran, but the
| crew may have escaped, and now II was
| in full vigOr, nest of living serpents,
| the arms twined and wriggled one over
| the other, receded and then shot up, taut
as a SPAR and long enough to have
caught in the top of big ship.
| Capt. Folger sent the steward for rifle,
| and he fired into the mass. There was a
| hum, and the great body surged and seem
ed to drift away. The breeze was freshen-
ing, and the Islander sent up stern sails
! and was soon miles away.
1t is a current belief that bitter, bad luck
| attends a ship that meets this gray sea
| specter, and before the Islander saw the
| New England coast she had her share,
| losing both mate and captain by disease
| and being dismasted off Japan
| In 1893 her maiesty's ship-Ofwar Amar-
| ranthe was coming through the MoZam-
| bique channel when one of the crew on
| in the top hailed the deck, White water
| on starboard bow-looks like sunken
| wreck" 1t was watched from the quarter
| deck and various opinions giNen-no
! wreck, for it was almost a quarter of
mile long, and seemed in motion-they
| were now 100 yards away
| Gentlemen" said the captain, I'VE Eve
to learn-in all my forty years service, l
| never saw the great squid' before. Clear
away second battery; load with grape
| ready, fire."
| die of the mass. 1t Was-aliVe IN an instant.
| Hundreds of arms, forty feet long, were
| thrust out, and it was evident that the
mass was moving toward the frigate. She
| about and in a few minutes WAS
| out of danger. There is one authentic
| narrative of a vessel being attacked by
| this creature. In 1858 the Roi JEAN
| French brig of 800 tons. bound for Pondi-
| cherry, found her way suddenly checked
| early one morning. She was sailing free,
| and on Madagascar. sailor looked over
the side and saw a peculiar Whlte mass
| clinging to the bobstay. Long tentacles
| were waving in the air, and one was
| wrapped around the daVit. lie gave the
| alarm, and by the time all hands were on
| deck a hideous head rose above the rail.
| 1t had beak like a parrot ana two eyes,
Opaque, like jelly. They thought 1t an
| enormous crab
| to work with cutlass, boat hook and
| arms, while the cook, giant negro,
threw buckets of scalding water from
| the galley. The beak snapped, the eyes
| grew red and malignant, arms were
! thrown around the swifter and shrouds
| and II was coming aboard: Cut on, the
| tough tentacles renewed themselves.
| Quickly the cook with broad ak cut
| into the head between the eyes. The
arms relaxed and plunge told the crew
| that their enemy was vanquished, ana
| the saw II floating astern. Pieces OF
| the arms were preserved in liquor, ana
| these were three inches through.
| At Dunkrk to-day. in the church, is
| model of a ship with something white
| clinging to the side, and this the Eek
Veto offered 1S9 years ago by the crew
/ of the Roi Jean, for their deliverance
| from a sea monster.
| Perhaps some day we may know the
| secret of the lower ocean. Jntn then