The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-08-08
DEEP SEA MONSTERS.
Terrible Battle Between a
Gigantic Octopus and
a Sunfsh.

Never before has it fallen to my lot
to witness the terrible monster we en-
countered on the last passage from
San Francisco toward Nanaimo IT
the bark Willscott, of Honolulu, says
Captain Thomas Peabody of the bark
Willscott.
We knew that the octopus grew to al
immense size, as Banks and Solander,
who accompanied Captain Cook in his
first voyage around the world, found
the dead carcass Of one floating in the
water to the westward of Cape Horn.
1t was supposed to be twenty by thirty
feet, the body only; the tentacles we're
hanging under water. 1t was surround
ed by myriads Of birds, which were
feeding greedily on its remains.
Pliny also mentions a similar monster
having eight arms thirty feet long and
corresponding girth; and many other
writer's, too numerous to mention, have
certified to its actual existence.
But l did not believe that anything
similar to the terrible devil fish" de-
scribed by Victor Hugo was really in
existence until l had ocular demon
stration of the fact.
l will quote our log book in relation
to the monster we saw: Saturday, May
1S, latitude 1890 north, longitude 136:40
west. Light breeze from north by east,
dry cloudy weather; smooth sea, ex-
cept for the usual slight undulating
swell from the northwest. Ship under
all sail, braced sharp upon the star
board tack, going five knots per hour,
but scarcely making ripple on the
water.
At 2.30 p. m. my attention was called
by the quartermaster, Frank BaStast,
of San Diego Cal, to a terrible COM
motion in the water about three points
forward of the lee beam Our first
thought was that it must be breakers
in an uncharted reef but while we
were watching the breaking of the wa
ter ceased. Then we could distinctly
see the outlines of two objects on the
surface, one much larger that the 9TH
err. We at once got our telescope to bear
on them and discovered the smaller of
the two was a very large sunfish, a
| curiously shaped fish-all head and no
body-having no tail, but an upper and
lower I'm, with which it propels itself
about in lazy fashion. 1t appeared
to be fully twelve feet in diameter and
| judging from smaller ones We have
caught, must have weighed 5000 pounds.
| 1t appeared to be endeayoring to keep
face on to it's adversary, which turned
out to be a huge octopus, the length
of whose body was certainly forty feet
and the breadth about twenty-five
feet, with eight tentacles.
We at once ordered the quartermaster
to keep the ship away four points so
as to approach the objects more close
ly, and to our delight and surprise
they remained stationary, regarding
each other curiously for fully five
minutes, by which time we had ad-
vanced sufficiently close to make an ac-
curate examination.
It's eyes were large, of a greenish tint
and somewhat protruding; it's mouth
however, was not so very large, and 1t
appeared to be shaped like parrots
bill; its tentacles were tapering and,
like its body, of grayish color, COW
cred with spots. 1t appeared to pos
sess the chameleon-like power of
changing the color of these spots in a
most extraordinary manner as fast as
the eye could detect the changes, no
doubt indicating the high state of ex-
element under which the creature was
laboring at the time.
Suddenly the octopus discharged a
huge jet Of dark colored fluid full into
the eyes Of the sunfish, and then, rush
ing forward with the rapidity of an ar
row, 1t encircled it's prey with the long
tentacles, and in another moment the
victor and vanouished had disappeared
below the surface
In few moments more we had sailed
right over the scene and found the
water was colored almost black for a
space of fully two hundred feet in di-
ameter, and we noticed an odor slight
ly resembling iodine rising from the
water; cur patent log line of snow
white cotton, which was towing astern,
was colored almost black, and 1t has
not yet assumed its white freshness, al
though it has towed in the water fully
eight hundred miles since the above cpl
sode.
About 20 minutes after we had passed
over this spot we saw the huge crea-
ture enjoying its meal in very leis
rely manner, rolling the body of the
unfortunate sunfish over and over and
biting off large mouthftlls with Its
cruel looking beak
knew before that these huge octo-
| pods and their relatives, the decapods,
were not altogether mythical, as they
have at the United States national
museum in Washington a papier mache
cast of one of the latter, which was
found stranded on the north shore of
Trinity bay, Newfoundland, on Sept
%, 1877 The total length Of this speci-
men, including tentacles, was only so
| feet, so it is quite safe to infer that 1t
| 4 g a.