Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-09-22
.UNCANNY Things At SEA.
All The Sea Serpent Yarns are Not
Fakes.
Ocean CONTAINS MANY MYSTERIES.
Sailors Are Not SO Superstitious As
They Once We're, and Although They
Have Not Quit Telling Tall Stories,
They Often Run Across Discoveries
That Are Really Amazing.

They Often Run Across Diseoverie.
That Are Really Amazing.
If somebody declared. with every
evidence of truthfulness. that he saw
a sea serpent disporting himself of
Ocean City, not only would there be
a laugh, but there would be sarcastic
remarks about prohibition not pro-
hibiting. The teller Of the story would
be warned against visiting speakeasies
and blind tigers, and would be advis-
ed to take the geld cure.
The story Of a sea serpent arriving
off a seaside summer resort and max
ing faces at the bathers was good
twenty years ago. When 1t just made
it's appearance the press agents OF
all the resorts along the Atlantic
coast eagerly seized upon it, and fol
the few years following every repu-
table resort had its visiting sea SER
pent.
But like many good things, the sea
serpent yarn became worn out. No
longer did the press agents pounce
upon it with avidity and try to get II
by the editorial incredulity. A person
who seriously says he saw a strange
sea monster nowadays would be re-
garded with pity. He would be con-
sidered either a harmless idiot or a
relic of the past.
Yet there Is hardly a shipmaster
who comes to Baltimore who at some
stage Of his career has not seen what
he at first believed to be a strange
serpent of the sea. Sailors Of the old
days firmly believed that such an ami
NAL existed, and, though the modern
seafarer takes no stock in the belief,
he has nevertheless seen things which
he could not account for at once.
What usually looks like sea SER
pent is a long mass Of gulf weed
blown together and carried along on
the surface of the sea, undulating
with the waves and giving the i'm
preston of long serpent under way
Time and again these have been
seen, and there has been many a man
who caught his breath before he had
time to figure out what 1t was.
Sailormen do not usually talk about
these strange sights. If you ask them
something about the mysteries Of the
deep that they have encountered they
will be inclined to declare that there
is nothing mysterious at sea but the
amount of work they are expected to
do. Most things that would be re-
garded as mysteries by shore-going
folk receive from them an explana-
ton.
The gull weed Is blamed for the
sea serpent yarn. This weed Is long
plant with little leaves branching
from a central stalk and having the
appearance of berries. 1t is found
anywhere in the Gulf Stream, and II
is supposed to have its first growth in
the Sargasso Sea, that stretch of still
water where the currents of the At
lantic come together and into which
all the derelicts and fiotsam and jet
sam of the ocean finally drift,
1t Is popularity supposed that the
Sargasso Sea is thick with the marine
weed, which becomes detached some
times by the winds and grows as II
floats along on the currents. In the
Gulf Stream the weed is particularly
thick, and Is often found in patches
covering an area of several acres.
Occasionally, when there Is large
mass Of the weed floating along the
Gulf Stream the wind drives 1t to-
gether until it becomes long, COM
pact mass. 1t masses itself closer un-
der the influence of the wind and the
rise and fall Of the sea until 1t moves
along with all the appearance OF q
serpent.
Many masters of vessels that come
to this port have seen these forma-
tions of the weed near the American
coast, and have for a minute really
thought the neurological sea serpent
was not a myth after all. After the
object has been sen at closer range
or has been examined through the
binoculars, it is seen to lie only trail
Of weed, often 100 or more feet long
Captain A. ]. Whyte, Of the British
SledIltT "hlSi lCli INV
long ago for Colon with a lot of dyna-
mite in her hold, once saw this weed
in such a shape that he almost got
the jolt Of his life. 1t was not until
he had had a good close look that he
was convinced that ii was not a ma
rine monster.
In was In the steamer Katharine,
in which, it will be remembered, Cap
tain Whyte rescued the crew Of the
sunken schooner George A. McFad-
den in a gale off Hatteras, that the
sea serpent was sighted. The Kath-
arine was on her way to Baltimore
and was near Currituck Inlet, close to
the North Carolina coast when the
mystery appeared.
Captain Whyte was on the bridge
and saw, ahead of the steamer, what
looked like a huge snake at least 700
feet long and a dozen feet wide, NOV
ing along over the surface Of the sea.
1t was travelling at a rate of three or
four miles an hour, apparently, and
as it went it's body undulated In a
long, graceful movement. What was
more, ii seemed to be a foot or more
out of the water.
Captain Whyte has no hesitancy in
saying that the appearance Of the
pCIll-ilhC too'S -
start. To him it looked exactly like
a living creature, and everybody else
on deck who saw it shared the cap
tain's feeling of awe and mystitca-
ton. AS the Katharine neared the
serpent" all eyes were fixed upon 1t.
When the steamer was close upon
it all hands saw plainly that 1t was
only an extraordinarily long mass OF
the gulf weed blown together. 1t was
moving along with the stream and
the undulating movement was caused
by the rise and fall of the waves.
The fact that it appeared to rise out
of the water Captain Whyte ascribes
to the state of the atmosphere, which
caused a sort of mirage.
The Gulf Stream skirts the Allan
tic coast pretty closely as far north
as Sandy Hook and the weed goes
along with it. 1t is just as possible
for the wind and sea to collect the
weed into one mass and give 1t the
of a serpent a short dis
tance off the coast as it is farther out
at sea. Then, too, it is possible for the
wind to blow the mass out of the Gulf
Stream and up close to shore.
Captain Whyte, therefore, has a
sympathy for the sea-serpent tale,
and he says that there are other
mariners who agree with him that a
person on shore seeing mass of the
l.. al Il