Evening star., 1900-07-14
REAL SEA SERPENTS
There is Good Reason for Believing
That They Actually Exist.
A NUMBER OF AUTHENTIC CASES
Comparatively Little is Known of
the Denizens Of the Deep.
THINGS WE DO NOT KNOW


Written for The Evening Star.
From earliest times men have looked Oh
the sea with feelings akin to awe. Its vast
extent and its resistless force, before which
the works of human hands seemed so weak
and fragile. made 1t a type of the infinite
and the eternal, without beginning or end
Across its trackless wastes lay unknown
lands pecpied by strange and savage tribes.
while in its waters lived beings unlike those
Of land or river: vast misshapen monsters.
that had nothing in common with things of
earth. but seemed to belong to another
world
Long before the Christian era the Psalm
list had voiced this feeling when he suid ::
They that go down to the sea in ships.
that do business in great waters: these see
the works Of the Lord and His wonders in
the deep" and doubtless the wonders lost
nothing in their narration by those who sew
them. The seafaring folk magnifed the
terrors of their calling, possibly to deter
competitors as well as through superstition
and ignorance, and the natural features Of
the ocean became perSonified by the poets
until its gods and goddesses, mermaids and
sirens, demons and monsters were ia
milar the fab.ed deities Of the land.
doned, and nymphs and satyrs no longer
haunted forest stream. the sea remained
a home for the powers of darkness that
long influenced creduious sailors, and prob
ably delayed the discovery of America
The vessels of the middle ages made voy-
ages to Britain and the Canary Islands:
they crept along the coasts of Africa and
Asia while the Norsemen skirted the arctic
Ice sheet and reached the western CONT
nent, but in general these were the exploits
of hardy adventurers who found few fol-
lowers. Beyond the pillars of Hercules the
ocean was still an unknown region filled
with terrors a forbidding waste, accursed
of God, which it was almost impious to
trespass.
The voyages of Columbus and his sue
cessors destroyed most of these old world
notions. so that the most superstitious old
salt would laugh at them. and yet there
are some Of these sailors tales that. when
divested Of obvious absurdities. can neither
he accepted fully nor rejected totally In
the present state of knowledge. There is
sort of survival of the fittest' in these
stories. and the duty of science Is to Gull
the true from the false and to find the facts
on which ignorance or careless observation
may nave erected a marvellous structure.
A Long-Lived Belief.
Among the stories that are still current
are those relating to the sea serpents. great
monsters of snake-llke shape that are said
to have been seen in various parts of the
world. Belief in the existence Of such
beings goes back to the early Morse writer's.
and in his History of the Northern Races"
published in Rome in 1:55. the learned and
pious CLAUS Magnus, archbishop of Upsala.
devotes a chapter to them. According to
the worthy archbishop. one of these SER
pents was 5D feet long, twenty feet thick,
and appeared like pillar when it raised
its head in mid-air. This was truly 4 for
midable animal but one that modern nat
uialsts have been unable to Identify, a
difficulty that is shared by many others
that have been described since the days of
CLAUS.
have been encountered from time to time
are usually distorted and exaggerated
as to have invested the whole subject with
an atmosphere of doubt, and serious OBJ
servers are unwilling to report things that
they may see. because Of the ridicue that
is apt to follow seeing the sea serpent"
So long as the only accounts Of the WON
derful creatures came from ignorant sail
ors and credulous landsmen, there was
good reason for rejecting them. The ef-
fects of light and shade the heaving
waters give rise to optical delusions that
may deceive the most experienced, and
there are many things, animate and IMAM
innate, that may resemble vast serpen-
tine shape when viewed from a distance.
These appearances. Joined to a prejudice
In favor OF the serpent that may exist un-
consciously in the mind of the spectator,
may produce false statements, in spite of
the most honest intentions. A natural
lOEe OF puDilClIy ana nOtOTlety doubtless
underlies many of these stories and pro-
duces gross exaggerations, even where the
whole account is not fabricated. but nu-
merous reports have been made that can
not be dismissed in such light fashion.
Experienced seamen. such as captains of
ocean liners and naval officers, men of
education, familiar with all the changing
aspects Of the waters, have made detailed
would be official reports on any other
subject and it is unscientifc in the ex-
treme to refuse to believe them because
they tell of unfamiliar things.
Authentic Cases.
In the Lon Ion Times of October TO- 1913,
appears communication dated Plymouth,
October 7. stating that the Daedalus. frig-
ate. Capt Patrick McQuhan had just
reached that port from the East Indies.
The correspondent went on to say that
while the vessel was between the Cape of
Good Hope and St Helena the captain and
most of his officers saw a great sea SER
pent that passed under the quarter and
remained in sight for twenty minutes. The
animal held its head about four feet out
of the water and about sixty feet of its
length stretched in a straight line on the
surface, while a portion estimated to be
thirty or forty feet long under water.
Its jaws were full of teeth and opened
widely enough for man to stand erect
between them. At the time this was seen
the ship was sailing north at eight knots.
On the day IolloWlnS the publlcati0n or this
letter the admiralty called on Capt. Nc
Quhar for an official report. and this for
NAL statement appeared in the Times on
October IA. BY the report 1t seems that
on August 8. 1s4s, at pm. the Daedalus
was in latitude "a degrees a. minutes
south and longitude degrees % minutes
east when the serpent was seen by Mr..
Sartoris. midshipman, and by him was
reported to Lieut.. Edgar Drummond off,
Ger of the watch. who was walking on the
deck with William Barrett, master, and the
captain. The animal was seen by all Of
them and by others on board. and the de-
scription was the same as that given above.