Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-09-04
THE SAILOR CRAB.
A Little Fellow That Makes Long
Voyages at Sea on Backs of Turtles.

Among the many curious crabs there is
perhaps none more interesting than the
sailor crab. name applied to it because
| it goes to sea on long voyages, which il
makes on the backs of big green turtles
and giant loggerheads.
| The sailor crab is little fellow with d
| body three-quarters of an inch or an inch
in length. With its claws extended it
might measure an inch and half. 1t is
very pretty crab indeed, with color
markings that are various; it may be
found with a shell all yellow. or with a
shell of dark colors with lighter standings
like those of finished tortoise SHE'LL OF
it may have a notified shell, or a shell
whose colOring resembles that of veined
marble. 1t seems all the, prettier seen
amid its rough surroundings on the big
loGserheads' dingy brown shell.
The big loggerhead, with top shell
five, six or seven feet in length, may af-
fordra floating home for various other liv-
ing things. Barnacles attach to it and
there live their lives, travelling with it
wherever it goes. as do barnacles that at
that lodges on it's back may there stick
anu III i've do IL WOulu dtldCntu 10 EOCkS ,
gathering in clumps or streaming back
from it when the big turtle is in motion
just as it might from rocks washed by a
flowing tide; and in this vegetation may
be found various minute forms of animal
life. And then some day when the big
turtle. with all this life on it's back, swims
INTO shallower water to feed, or work it's
way through some floating mass of sea-
weed, one OF two sailor crabs may come
aboard, shipping thus for long voyage.
To the sailor crab thus embarked the
big turtle may not seem like a seawashed
moving continent. but it might easily
seem like a sizabe island with many
places to roam. When the turtle is
asleep, lying still upon the waters the
little sailor crab may wander out to the
enc of one of it's long extended fippers
as it might to the end of some peninsula !;
and then it may come back to find it's
way among the meadows or forests Of
vegetation on the turtles back: and if it
is hungry, why, while the barnacles in
their fixed places are reaching out with
their delicate fingers and sweeping the
adjacent waters as with d net to draw
in their sustenance the sailor crab can
move about in the vegetation and find
food for itself there.
Or the sailor crab may find food in the
scraps that come to it from the turtles
table. The loggerhead is both a vegeta-
BILE and flesh eater. 1t will eat sea
grass or whatever crustaceans it can
catch. or fish.
1t might seem that the big loggerhead
couldn't catch fish. but it is great
swimmer, and it will smash into a school
of fish and snap up what it wants. and
scraps from this float back to lodge on
the turtles back and there furnish food
for the sailor. So the sailor crab at sea
on the turtles back is likely to get
enough to eat, but it has to be always on
the lookout not to be swept off the ships
deck to he lost in the ocean or there de-
voured by some bigger creature.
When the turtle is under way or there
is heavy sea running it must hold on
tight with its sharp claws, and it may
find a refuge somewhere in the vegeta-
ticn; but it is more likely to go clean aft
and creep over the edge of the shell at
the base of the turtles back where it can
find a shelter and a lee. 1t is there the
sailor crabs have oftenest been found on
loggerheads which have come from the
tropics in summer and been taken in local
waters.