The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1908-04-01
THIS YEARS
SEA Serpent
CIRCUMSTANTIAL ACCOUNT OF A
MARINE MONSTER SEEN FROM
FRUIT BOAT.

fhUlI BOAl.
NEW YORK, March 22.-At 8 p.
m. Thursday March IL, latitude 22.06
north, longitude 74.21 west. One-nalf
mile off starboard bow sighted strange
marine monster. 1t approached and
followed ship all night Friday, at 8
a. M, monster crossed our bows. Re-
duced speed to five knots"
This is an official entry on the log
of the Admiral Farragut, a fruit
steamer, which arrived today from
Port Antonio with a cargo of bananas
and several passengers. 1t records the
appearance of the sea serpent of 1908.
Everybody on the ship agrees that
the strange marine monster mentioned
in the log was a real sea serpent. 1t
followed the ship at intervals up to
yesterday morning, when the Admiral
Farragut was off Hatteras. Three diff
ferent times it crossed the bow of the
steamer and speed was reduced.
The serpent is. described as $50 feet
long, 20 feet in diameter amidships,
and having a fiat, pointed head, dec
grated with two curved horns, each
five feet in length. 1t was light blue
in color and had no fins above the wa
ter line.
The monster, Captain Nader, his
passengers and crew aver, moved
through the water with incredible
swiftness when it wanted to extend
itself 1t would be almost lost to sight
astern. Suddenly 1t would overhaul
the ship as though the vessel were
standing still. Several times, they say,
the monster approached and everybody
got an excellent view of it.
There was nothing sinister or vici-
Gus about the sea serpent's appear
ance, according to the observers. 1t
had a good-natured face and continu-
ally wore a smile. When it raised it's
head high out of the water, wiggled it's
horns and grinned, seagoers had to
laugh.
"The sea monster or sea serpent, or
whatever it was" said Captain Nader,
who has seen sea serpents himself, at
tached Itself to us when we were off
Watling's Island. 1t was in the late
evening, and darkness was just set
Ting down.
"The lookout saw a phosphorescent
disturbance on the surface of the sea,
about half mile on the starboard
bow:
Some of us thought it was a sea
serpent. Others were of the opinion
that it was a new submarine, because
at times it would entirely disappear
from sight, only to bob up again along
side our vessel.
"At daylight we saw what it was
a sea monster. 1t kept right up with
us while we were moving at top speed.
Now and then it would give a flirt OF
its tail and speed on ahead. The first
time it crossed our bow had a gool
scare.
! About year ago l ran down and
killed a whale on my way from Bos-
ton to the West Indies. l didn't want
to strike this monster, so I signaled
the engineer to slow down. We had
to slow down on two other occasions.
"All Friday, Friday night, Saturday
and Saturday night the monster kept
with us 1t would disappear, some
times for hours, and then suddenly
pop to the surface and grin at us.
eve saw the last of our strange
travelling companion shortly after
noon yesterday, when it slipped out
of sight beneath the surface, off Hat
teras. I suppose the water was get
ting too cold. We kept throwing stuff
overheard to feed it and if the wealth
er had been milder we might have
been able to entice it all the way into
New York harbor.
Il am plain sea captain myself. l
don't know whether there are any sea
serpents or not. If there are not, |
can't imagine what this thing was. 1t
was the strangest resident of the deep
l have ever seen in a long career at
sea-"
Captain Nader is, of course a ITEM
perate man. The members of his crew
are all temperate men, and his passen-
gers were not drinking on the voyage.
One of the sailors spoke of having
seen a floating island covered with
monkeys and parrots, following the
sea serpent, but he was denounced by
his fellow mariners as a shorter and
uglier.
This is the most circumstantial tale
of a sea serpent that has been brought
to New York in many years. General
ly the elusive sea serpent appears at a
distance, raises his head from the wa
ter, spouts steam through his nostrils
and disappears in a whirlpool. Cap
tain Maders sea serpent, on the con-
trary, was neighborly, well behaved
and sea broken.
SLEFPLESSNHSS
You will have no dfflculty in procur