The Ocala evening star., 1905-08-14
SOMETHING OF A SERPENT
Tale Of an Ancient Mariner Who n as
Munchausen Skinned to a
Skeleton.
Savannah NeWs.)

Th- old Whaler. who has not a mar
y-lous tale Of the SEA 10 relate does
not exist. he never lived TO be old,
and has long since been forgotten.
The elder Mr.. Chipman is an old
"haler in point Of experience if not
ia years. Did l ever see u s-a ser
f'-rJ:" He r-peated the question thu
other day. and answered: Why. Yes
once: I will tell you about it.
4 WAS second mate on a brig out Of
Nantucket W. had been cruising for
thu better part Of year. and had set
our course homeWard. We ran into a
great blow that h"wled for days. We
couldn't see the sun Ia take observa-
tinus. but at the and "f about nine days
ue calculated hy dead reckoning that
Ne were in the Indian ocean.
-StiH the blow kept up ia all its
fury and W. had about given up hope
ou thu morning of the tenth day. how
eyer. with the wind still blowing great
suns and the waves running mountain
high th,- lookout suddenly called loud
~. Land. ho,"
1h.-r, loom-d up what appeared to be
"a hong. marrow island. We put the
L.lm uI ana st-ered for it. in the HOPE
81 finding "a harbor or at least a break
E.aI"r that would protect us from tho
5un-ting "f the heavy seas.
"Eut upon a near approach To- the
mass Ne found. to our horror. that il
Was alive, Ii had evidently espied us
d about The same time our lookout pick
"a it up. and il Mas coming toward
uS
Well. gentlemen. To cut a long sto-
Iy short. it proved to be monstrous
s"a serpent. The reptile began TO
swim ia a circle around the brig. Af-
ter about four times circling US. il
took its tail in its mouth. thus hem-
ming us ia a great lagoon which I
should judge L" be NOT less than half
a mile across at its narroweSt part.
Th- monsters enormous sides were SO
high that ~. w-r. almost Immediately
iu perfectly smooth water-iust aS if
Me- had been lying i'm a protected har-
bur. The waves couldn't reach over
lh.- sea a-Serpeut'S back.
For TWO whole days we remained i'm
This qurerly imIrovised harbor of ref
uge. Whil- the storm ragged. meanwhile
making needed repairs un sails and
running gear. Then the wind died
down. th,. sun came out. and Ne could
So. 10y means of our glasses that the
valves outside our harbor had spent
their fury.
Then We began 10 ask ourselves
would the Sea-s-rpent turn loose it,
tail and permit us 10 depart i'm peace
w waited two days To- see if the ques-
ti"n would answer itself But the
creature showed no disposition to as
sumo its normal attitude. Whereupor
lh, skipper ordered the longboat put
overheard and was assigned to the
: task of making an Investigation.
T" my establishment | found the
creature to be fast asleep, Nor was
There. amy means of determining with
ANY degree. of accuracy how long il
would sleep. or what it would mos
ttNf-lN 'At " llt-Al II Nsihth Gl'- ~ Vli'Bi
NOUS Mas its size that il might sleel
six months. and then il might awake
hungry enough to swallow ship au,
crew at one gulp.
'''oufroutcd by this situation. ".
knew that something must b' done
ana done, without delay. az our pro-
visions Mere running low. 1t MAS thet
that the shippers wonderful resource
tu,urSS came into play. Ne had il
'h,. fnrrhold "A barrel of chloroform
H,. ord,l,-d uS L. take four doZer
hurk,.tfuls Of il ANA apply il Wh,r- i
would 10 tn, most good.
Well Ne did. H. about six hour
N,- had Ih,. SEA SERPENT completely uu
.i,-r tn. Influence of chlorof"rm. Thei
v., took axes and picks ami shoveL
and cut channel through its bacl
uiG, ana deep enough To permit IA
q" sail away ia safety.
THAT Mas the first aui last sea
>,.rlr-ut I eyer SAN.
During th,- whole afternoon mob"3,
said "S,-a-S -S,vla-nt" again.