Year: 1876

"Captain won't come; no fear of that,
sir," replied the man.


1 asked if he was navigating the


"No, he was not navigating the ship" !"
said the sailor, "but he would not come
for all that; however, he would go and
tell him."


But though he went, the captain
would not come.


We all remained absorbed in the
strange sight till the first breakfast bell
rung, at half past eight, when we had
perforce to hurry away and take our
chance of bathing at that late hour. Up
to this time the thing had kept steadily
in our wake, its movement continuing
absolutely smooth and constant, and
the two specks of light in the glaring
eyes never changing a hairs breadth
from their position.


At breakfast I sat one remove from
the captain. We begun, of course, talk
ing of the thing We had seen, but the
captain, for some reason we could not
then understand, seemed to dislike the
subject, and soon we abandoned it, fall
ing then into absolute silence, for we
could talk of nothing else. When we
went on deck again-we were only
few minutes at breakfast-we found the
thing still following steadily in our
wake. The children had in great meas
ure got over their fear, and had made
long line by joining hands, and the
whole lot of them would now crouch
down and then suddenly rise up, open
their mouths at the thing, and cry out
at it. No notice apparently being taken
of this, they grew bolder, and at last
their cries increased till they shrieked
shrills. :.


Suddenly the hideous creature seemed
reused by these cries; it raised its head
in the air, uttered strsnge below, and
came forward at great pace toward the
ship. None of us could at first move
from fear; the thing seemed to have
grown in size, it's eyeballs were more
burningly bright; the children fell on
the deck crying, and some of the women
tainted. It came swiftly up to the ship,
always uttering the same peculiar cry or
below. When but few feet from the
stern, it suddenly turned and came up
close on the port side. Here the side
awnings had been put up to keep off the
sun; but three of us rushed up to the
awning and quickly got it down, that
we might the better watch the thing.
For myself I must say that while doing
this was still suffering from extreme
fear, but my curiosity was SO intense,
so irresistible, that could only act as l
did. ..>


. No sooner was the thing level with us
than it raised itself with a sudden move
ment out of the water, till its head was
thirty or forty feet above us. 1t still ut
tered the same peculiar cry or below.
We stood out on the bulwarks to follow
it's movements. It opened great
mouth, cried more loudly than before,
and made three blows at the mainmast.
The lsst of these touched it, and caused
the ship to sway violently, 30 that we
were nearly cast off into the water.
When we again looked for the thing it
was gone. There was no ripple, no dis
turbance of any kind to show where it
had been. 1t was gone absolutely. We
looked constantly for it during the rest
of that day, but not the slightest trace
did We again discover.


Imay state that when the thing raised
itself up and struck the mast it was ap-
parent that the seaweed-ike mass was
long coarse hair, covering dark, thick
neck. But the thing could rot possibly
have been o serpent; for to raise so pro
digious a length of neck above the sur
face huge body below the surface was
of course required.