The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-01-03
STRANGE THINGS
SEEN IN THE SEA
Mariners Refuse to Believe
Their Eyes Deceive The m
MONSTER SEA SERPENTS
They Are often Seen According to
Honest Mariners, But Not One
Has Ever Yet Been
Captured.
MONSTER SEA SERPENTS


Captured.
From the Providence Journal.
Wouldn't it make you Woody if after
you had seen something out of the ordi-
nary, so much out Of the Urinary that
it was really startling and you took the
trouble to 50 to a newspaper Office to
give the news and unfold all the little
details and felt that very serious mat
ter had been brought properly to the
attention of the world, and you went out
ON the street and bought a copy of the
paper and you found that instead of
talking to the editor of the scientific
department you had been eloseted with
the jokesmith? Honest wouldn't it make
you mad?
If a man leaves this city to go hunting
in the Buck Hill woods and comes home
and tells about the deer he has seen
during the trip every one takes it for
granted that he has seen deer and didn't
mistake a coon dog or a female COW for
the feet-footed denizen of the woods. 1t
! he goes down to South County on a
partridge hunt and brings home a tale of
big eagle that he saw in the woods his
friends and the newspapers believe that
he saw the king of birds.
But let a hardy mariner, who has spent
mis- life upon the sea and looks upon life
altogether too seriously to fritter away
his time in levty, unfold tale that is
all out of the ordinary and the world sets
up a loud guffaw, instigated by the re-
| porterS
! When Captain Chesebro and a friend
saw a monster of the deep off Stonington
early in November, he gave detailed &C
| count of his experience, that science,
learning and art and all those kind of
| things might profit by 1t. and the climax
| of the story when it appeared in print
was Captain Chesebro is teetotaler."
Any self-respecting serpent ought to be-
come offended at such a reception and,
| moreoevr, treating serious subjects in a
frivolous manner has a tendency to shat
| ter the belief of the readers There are
| some who even now assert that there isn't
| any such thing as a sea serpent.
| And perhaps it is not to be wondered
| at The published stories have cast a
| grave doubt as to their actual existence
| which would require more than the assur-
|
| front to remove. Itemght not be unrea-
| sonable to suspect such individuals to be
| press agents of the shore resorts in dis
| guise. But there are, nevertheless, real,
| live monsters in the deep which appear
| or at least did appear once. mighty close
to this latitude and longitude.
| A. Hetzen, of % Asia street, Arlington
| formerly steward of the sloop yacht In
dia, was an eye witness of the maneuvers
of one of the monsters, and in order that
| there might be no misinterpretation of the
| evidence his story, as he tells 1t, is here
| with given:
1.-THE national government and various
| institutions of learning equip and finance
| expeditions that are sent out to discover
| and unearth fossilized remains of pre-
| historic animals The great saurians Of
| the Mesozoic age are their especial pets.
! I'VE have hear at our very doors,
| you might say, a great. living, breathing
| saurian that only needs to be captured.
| An expedition fitted out for this capture
| should meet with success If equipped
| with the proper weapons.
| THE sea serpent is n wary reptile that
| does not show himself for any length of
| time, and it is plain that explosives would
| have to be used to effect his capture All
indications point to the fact that, like his
| predecessors, he is becoming extinct.
Shipping is more numerous now, and
! makes more frequent and regular trips,
| Yet he is less often reported now than he
| was % or 30 years ago .-.
| when the hardy mariner, ashore frosl
| some long voyage, tells a wondering au-
! dience of some strange monster he has
seen on his trip, it is generally seized upon
| by some reporter, who, glad OF a chance
to exercise his humorous proclivity alter
| natngly soothing and joking, finally pro-
fa1n hat IL
curl with increduity. whatever truth
there was in the mariners tale was lost
sight of, and SO it goes.
1--WE shall be very long in acquiring
definite knowledge of a subject that is
| treated so discourteously, and it is safe
to say that there is nine cases out of ten
when the serpent is seen aboard ship it
is never mentioned ashore in conse-
| quence.
1.-THE mastodon and mammoth have left
worthy representatives behind them. The
| prehistoric horse has blossomed out into
! the perfect animal of our times, and
other animals have followed suit in a
| greater or less degree. Then. pray, why
! should not the plesiosaurus. the thermo-
! saurus and the schthyosalirus have left
| descendants of their once countless num-
| bers?
''rhe average person hearing the sea
serpent mentioned, no doubt. pictures in
his minds eye some far distant sea- some
! such spot as latitude 40 degrees south,
! longitude 100 degrees west where the
solitary alabatross soaring over the world
of waters sees beneath him the heaving
pillows of the south Pacific, with nothing
! to oppose him, roll in endless procession
around the earth. as the proper sphere
4 of action of this romantic and elusive
beast.
NO such romantic setting was chosen
! by the serpent of my acquaintance
| The sewerage polluted and discolored wa
| ter of New York bay was good enough
| for him. Whether it was the offal. the
! hotsam and jetsam that flows out to sea
, at this point from the great city that en-
| ticed him. to get a peep at Coney Is
| land and the merry throng that gathers
| there, who can tell?
an 1891 | was steward of the sloop
! yacht India. with headquarters at South
| Brooklyn. On a fine morning In the
| month of July we stood out through the
Narrows, past FIT Hamilton. for spin
outside There was a light breeze blow
proceeded until when midway between
J the Narrows and Sandy Hook it fell to a
dead calm. The sea was like a mirror
and there was no swell. Here and there
a school of menhaden, rising, churned
the water into foam.
"All at once a big school of the fish
started commotion about eighth of a
mile away on the starboard bow. 1t drew