Chapter IX: The Sea-Serpent (2)

About three P.M. on Sunday, September 3, 1882, a party of gentlemen
and ladies were standing at the northern extremity of Llandudno pier,
looking towards the open sea, when an unusual object was observed in
the water near to the Little Orme's Head, travelling rapidly westwards
towards the Great Orme. It appeared to be just outside the mouth of
the bay, and would therefore be about a mile distant from the
observers. It was watched for about two minutes, and in that interval
it traversed about half the width of the bay, and then suddenly
disappeared. The bay is two miles wide, and therefore the object,
whatever it was, must have travelled at the rate of thirty miles an
hour. It is estimated to have been fully as long as a large steamer,
say two hundred feet; the rapidity of its motion was particularly
remarked as being greater than that of any ordinary vessel. The colour
appeared to be black, and the motion either corkscrew-like or
snake-like, with vertical undulations. Three of the observers have
since made sketches from memory, quite independently, of the
impression left on their minds, and on comparing these sketches, which
slightly varied, they have agreed to sanction the accompanying outline
as representing as nearly as possible the object which they saw. The
party consisted of W. Barfoot, J.P., of Leicester, F. J. Marlow,
solicitor, of Manchester, Mrs. Marlow, and several others. They
discard the theories of birds or porpoises as not accounting for this
particular phenomenon.

F. T. MOTT.

Birstall Hill, Leicester,
January 16th, 1883.

It must also be mentioned that Dr. Hibbert[261] states that the sea-serpent has been seen in the Shetland seas, and instances one seen off the Isle Stonness, Valley Island, and Dunvossness.

The first that we hear of the appearance of the sea-serpent in American waters is of one which appeared on the coast of Maine, in Penobscot Bay, at intervals, during the thirty years preceding 1809. The Rev. Abraham Cummings, who reports this, saw it himself at a distance of about eighty yards, and considered it to be seventy feet long; it was seen by the British in their expedition to Bagaduse, during the first American war, and supposed to be three hundred feet long. The next record relates to one appearing in August 1817, which was frequently seen in the harbour of Gloucester, Cape Aure, about thirty miles from Boston. It is the subject of a report, published by a committee appointed by the Linnæan Society of New England. Dr. Hamilton summarises the results as follows:--

"The affidavits of a great many individuals of unblemished character are collected, which leaves no room to apprehend anything like deceit. They do not agree in every minute particular, but in regard to its great length and snake-like form, they are harmonious."

Eleven depositions were taken, in which the length was variously estimated at from fifty to one hundred feet. It was either seen lying perfectly still, extended upon the surface of the water, or progressing rapidly at the rate of a mile in two, or at the most three, minutes; the mode of progression is generally spoken of as vertical undulation. The tenth deposition states: "On the 20th of June 1815, my boy informed me of an unusual appearance on the surface of the sea in the Cove. When I viewed it through the glass, I was in a moment satisfied that it was some aquatic animal, with the form, motions, and appearance of which I was not previously acquainted. It was about a quarter of a mile from the shore, and was moving with great rapidity to the southward; it appeared about thirty feet in length. Presently it turned about, and then displayed a greater length, I suppose at least one hundred feet. It then came towards me very rapidly, and lay entirely still on the surface of the water. His appearance then was like a string of buoys. I saw thirty or forty of these protuberances, or bunches, which were about the size of a barrel. The head appeared six or eight feet long, and tapered off to the size of a horse's head. He then appeared about one hundred and twenty feet long; the body appeared of a uniform size; the colour deep brown. I could not discover any eye, mane, gills, or breathing holes. I did not see any fins or lips."

One of the Committee of the Linnæan Society was himself an eye-witness, and Colonel Perkins, of Boston, published in 1848 a communication which was a copy of a letter he had written in 1820, detailing his personal experience in confirmation of the Society's Report, as follows:--"In a few moments after my exclamation, I saw, on the opposite side of the harbour, at about two miles from where I had first seen, or thought I saw, the snake, the same object, moving with a rapid motion up the harbour, on the western shore. As he approached us, it was easy to see that his motion was not that of the common snake, either on the land or in the water, but evidently the vertical movement of the caterpillar. As nearly as I could judge, there was visible at a time about forty feet of his body. It was not, to be sure, a continuity of body, as the form from head to tail (except as the apparent bunches appeared as he moved through the water) was seen only at three or four feet asunder. It was very evident, however, that his length must be much greater than what appeared, as in his movement he left a considerable wake in his rear. I had a fine glass, and was within from one-third to half a mile of him. The head was flat in the water, and the animal was, as far as I could distinguish, of a chocolate colour. I was struck with an appearance in front of the head like a single horn, about nine inches to a foot in length, and of the form of a marline-spike. There were a great many people collected by this time, many of whom had before seen the same object, and the same appearance. From the time I first saw him until he passed by the place where I stood, and soon after disappeared, was not more than fifteen or twenty minutes.

"Subsequent to the period of which I have been speaking, the snake was seen by several of the crews of our coasting vessels, and in some instances within a few yards. Captain Tappan, a person well known to me, saw him with his head above the water two or three feet, at times moving with great rapidity, and at others slowly. He also saw what explained the appearance, which I have described, of a horn on the front of the head. This was doubtless what was observed by Captain Tappan to be the tongue, thrown in an upright position from the mouth, and having the appearance which I have given to it.

"One of the revenue cutters, whilst in the neighbourhood of Cape Ann, had an excellent view of him at a few yards' distance. He moved slowly; and upon the approach of the vessel, sank and was seen no more."

Dr. Hamilton[262] states that an animal of similar appearance was again seen, in August 1819, off Nahant, Boston, and remained in the neighbourhood for some weeks. Two hundred persons witnessed it, thirteen folds were counted, and the head, which was serpent-shaped, was elevated two feet above the surface. Its eye was remarkably brilliant and glistening. The water was smooth, and the weather calm and serene. When it disappeared, its motion was undulatory, making curves perpendicular to the surface of the water, and giving the appearance of a long moving string of corks. It appeared again off Nahant in July 1833. "It was first seen on Saturday afternoon, passing between Egg Rock and the Promontory, winding his way into Lynn Harbour; and again on Sunday morning, heading for South Shores. It was seen by forty or fifty ladies and gentlemen, who insist that they could not have been deceived."

The _Zoologist_ for May 1847 contains an account of a sea-serpent seen in Mahone Bay, about forty miles east of Halifax, by five officers of the garrison, when on a fishing excursion:--"We were surprised by the sight of an immense shoal of grampuses, which appeared in an unusual state of excitement, and which in their gambols approached so close to our little craft that some of the party amused themselves by firing at them with rifles. At this time we were jogging at about five miles an hour, and must have been crossing Margaret's Bay, 'when suddenly,' at a distance of from a hundred and fifty to two hundred yards on our starboard bow, we saw the head and neck of some denizen of the deep, precisely like those of a common snake, in the act of swimming, the head so far elevated and thrown forward by the curve of the neck, as to enable us to see the water under and beyond it. The creature rapidly passed, leaving a regular wake, from the commencement of which to the fore part, which was out of water, we judged in length to be about eighty feet, and this within rather than beyond the mark. It is most difficult to give correctly the dimensions of any object in the water. The head of the creature we set down at about six feet in length, and that portion of the neck which we saw the same; the extreme length, as before stated, at between eighty and one hundred feet. The neck in thickness equalled the bole of a moderate-sized tree. The head and neck of a dark brown or nearly black colour, streaked with white in irregular streaks. I do not recollect seeing any part of the body."

Considerable interest was excited in 1848 by the account of a sea-serpent seen by the captain and officers of Her Majesty's ship _Dædalus_ while on her passage from the Cape of Good Hope to St. Helena, in lat. 24° 44' S. and long. 9° 22' E. In this case the usual concomitants of calm weather and absence of swell are wanting. The official report to the Admiralty is as follows:--

H.M.S. _Dædalus_,
Hamoaze, Oct. 11.

SIR,--In reply to your letter of this day's date, requiring
information as to the truth of a statement published in the _Times_
newspaper, of a sea-serpent of extraordinary dimensions having been
seen from Her Majesty's ship _Dædalus_, under my command, on her
passage from the East Indies, I have the honour to acquaint you, for
the information of my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, that at 5
o'clock P.M. on the 6th of August last, in latitude 24° 44' S. and
longitude 9° 22' E., the weather dark and cloudy, wind fresh from the
N.W., with a long ocean swell from the S.W., the ship on the port
tack, heading N.E. by N., something very unusual was seen by Mr.
Sartoris, midshipman, rapidly approaching the ship from before the
beam. The circumstance was immediately reported by him to the officer
of the watch, Lieutenant Edgar Drummond, with whom and Mr. William
Barrett, the master, I was at the time walking the quarter-deck. The
ship's company were at supper.

On our attention being called to the object, it was discovered to be
an enormous serpent, with head and shoulders kept about four feet
constantly above the surface of the sea; and as nearly as we could
approximate by comparing it with the length of what our main
topsail-yard would show in the water, there was at the very least
sixty feet of the animal _à fleur d'eau_, no portion of which was, in
our perception, used in propelling it through the water, either by
vertical or horizontal undulation. It passed rapidly, but so close
under our lee quarter that had it been a man of my acquaintance I
should have easily recognized his features with the naked eye; and it
did not, either in approaching the ship or after it had passed our
wake, deviate in the slightest degree from its course to the S.W.,
which it held on at the pace of from twelve to fifteen miles per hour,
apparently on some determined purpose. The diameter of the serpent was
about fifteen or sixteen inches behind the head, which was, without
any doubt, that of a snake; and it was never, during the twenty
minutes that it continued in sight of our glasses, once below the
surface of the water; its colour, a dark brown with yellowish white
about the throat. It had no fins, but something like the mane of a
horse, or rather a bunch of sea-weed, washed about its back. It was
seen by the quarter-master, the boatswain's mate, and the man at the
wheel, in addition to myself and officers above mentioned.

I am having a drawing of the serpent made from a sketch taken
immediately after it was seen, which I hope to have ready for
transmission to my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty by to-morrow's
post.

I have, &c.,
PETER M'QUHŒ, _Capt._

To Admiral Sir W. H. Gage, G.C.B.,
Devonport.

This drawing was figured in the _Illustrated London News_ in illustration of a short but very valuable memoir, and is reproduced upon a smaller scale here.

A similar, perhaps the same, monster was fallen in with at a slightly later date, 20° further south, as described in a letter addressed to the editor of the _Globe_.

_Mary Ann of Glasgow._
Glasgow, Oct. 19, 1848.

SIR,--I have just reached this port, on a voyage from Malta to Lisbon,
and my attention having been called to a report relative to an animal
seen by the master and crew of Her Majesty's ship _Dædalus_, I take
the liberty of communicating the following circumstance:--

"When clearing out of the port of Lisbon, upon the 30th of September
last, we spoke the American brig _Daphne_, of Boston, Mark Trelawny
master; she signalled for us to heave to, which we did, and standing
close round her counter lay to while the mate boarded us with the
jolly boat, and handed a packet of letters, to be despatched per first
steamer for Boston on our arrival in England. The mate told me that
when in lat. 4° 11' S., long. 10° 15' E., wind dead north, upon the
20th of September, a most extraordinary animal had been seen. From his
description, it had the appearance of a huge serpent or snake, with a
dragon's head.

"Immediately upon its being seen, one of the deck guns was brought to
bear upon it, which, having been charged with spike-nails and whatever
other pieces of iron could be got at the moment, was discharged at the
animal, then only distant about forty yards from the ship. It
immediately reared its head in the air, and plunged violently with its
body, showing evidently that the charge had taken effect. The _Daphne_
was to leeward at the time, but was put about on the starboard tack,
and stood towards the brute, which was seen foaming and lashing the
water at a fearful rate. Upon the brig nearing, however, it
disappeared, and, though evidently wounded, made rapidly off at the
rate of fifteen or sixteen knots an hour, as was judged from its
appearing several times upon the surface. The _Daphne_ pursued for
some time; but the night coming on, the master was obliged to put
about and continue his voyage.

From the description given by the mate, the brute must have been
nearly a hundred feet long, and his account of it agrees in every
respect with that lately forwarded to the Admiralty by the master of
the _Dædalus_.

JAMES HENDERSON, _Master_.

The account of the creature seen by the officers and crew of the _Dædalus_ excited more than the usual attention given to these stories; for the professional status of the observers guaranteed at once the veracity of their statement, and the probability of their judgment being accurate. Considerable correspondence ensued, including a very masterly attack upon the identification of the creature by Professor Owen, which will be again referred to further on. It also elicited another sea-serpent story which appeared in the _Bombay Bi-monthly Times_ for January 1849.

I see, in your paper of the 30th of December, a paragraph in which a
doubt is expressed of the authenticity of the account given by
Captain M'Quhœ of the great "sea-serpent." When returning to India,
in the year 1829, I was standing on the poop of the _Royal Saxon_, in
conversation with Captain Petrie, the commander of that ship. We were
at a considerable distance south-west of the Cape of Good Hope, in the
usual track of vessels to this country, going rapidly along (seven or
eight knots) in fine smooth water. It was in the middle of the day,
and the other passengers were at luncheon, the man at the wheel, a
steerage passenger, and ourselves being the only persons on the poop.
Captain Petrie and myself, at the same instant, were literally fixed
in astonishment by the appearance, a short distance ahead, of an
animal of which no more generally correct description could be given
than that by Captain M'Quhœ. It passed within thirty-five yards of the
ship without altering its course in the least; but as it came right
abreast of us, it slowly turned its head towards us. Apparently about
one-third of the upper part of its body was above water, in nearly its
whole length; and we could see the water curling up on its breast as
it moved along, but by what means it moved we could not perceive....
We saw this apparently similar creature in its whole length, with the
exception of a small portion of the tail, which was under water; and
by comparing its length with that of the _Royal Saxon_ (about six
hundred feet) when exactly alongside in passing, we calculated it to
be in that, as well as its other dimensions, greater than the animal
described by Captain M'Quhœ. I am not quite sure of our latitude and
longitude at the time, nor do I exactly remember the date, but it was
about the end of July.

R. DAVIDSON,
_Superintending Surgeon,
Nagpore Subsidiary Force_.

Kamptu,
3rd January 1849.

Again, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Steele, of the Coldstream Guards, wrote to the _Zoologist_: "I have lately received the following account from my brother, Captain Steele, 9th Lancers, who, on his way out to India in the _Barham_, saw the sea-serpent. Thinking it might be interesting to you, as corroborating the account of the _Dædalus_, I have taken the liberty of sending you the extract from my brother's letter:--'On the 28th of August, in long. 40° E., lat. 37° 16' S., about half-past two, we had all gone down below to get ready for dinner, when the first mate called us on deck to see a most extraordinary sight. About five hundred yards from the ship there was the head and neck of an enormous snake; we saw about sixteen or twenty feet out of the water, and he _spouted_ a long way from his head; down his back he had a crest like a cock's comb,[263] and was going very slowly through the water, but left a wake of about fifty or sixty feet, as if dragging a long body after him. The captain put the ship off her course to run down to him, but as we approached him he went down. His colour was green, with light spots. _He was seen by everyone on board._' My brother is no naturalist; and I think this is the first time the monster has ever been seen to spout."

One of the officers of the ship wrote: "On looking over the side of the vessel I saw a most wonderful sight, which I shall recollect as long as I live. His head appeared to be about sixteen feet above the water, and he kept moving it up and down, sometimes showing his enormous neck, which was surmounted with a huge crest in the shape of a saw. It was surrounded by hundreds of birds, and we at first thought it was a dead whale. He left a track in the water like the wake of a boat, and from what we could see of his head and part of his body, we were led to think he must be about sixty feet in length, but he might be more. The captain kept the vessel away to get nearer to him; and when we were within a hundred yards he slowly sank into the depths of the sea. While we were at dinner he was seen again."

The _Times_, of Feb. 5, 1858, contains a statement made by Captain Harrington, of the ship _Castilian_, and certified to by his chief and second officers, as follows:--

"Ship _Castilian_, Dec. 12, 1857; N.E. end of St. Helena, distant ten miles. At 6.30 P.M., strong breezes and cloudy, ship sailing about twelve miles per hour. While myself and officers were standing on the leeside of the poop, looking towards the island, we were startled by the sight of a huge marine animal, which reared its head out of the water within twenty yards of the ship, when it suddenly disappeared for about half a minute, and then made its appearance in the same manner again, showing us distinctly its neck and head about ten or twelve feet out of the water. Its head was shaped like a long nun-buoy, and I suppose the diameter to have been seven or eight feet in the largest part, with a kind of scroll, or tuft of loose skin, encircling it about two feet from the top; the water was discoloured for several hundred feet from its head, so much so that, on its first appearance, my impression was that the ship was in broken water, produced, as I supposed, by some volcanic agency since the last time I had passed the island; but the second appearance completely dispelled those fears, and assured us that it was a monster of extraordinary length, which appeared to be moving slowly towards the land. The ship was going too fast to enable us to reach the masthead in time to form a correct estimate of its extreme length; but from what we saw from the deck, we conclude that it must have been over two hundred feet long. The boatswain and several of the crew who observed it from the topgallant forecastle, state that it was more than double the length of the ship, in which case it must have been five hundred feet. Be that as it may, I am convinced that it belonged to the serpent tribe; it was of a dark colour about the head, and was covered with several white spots."

A writer in the _New York Sun_ (I have the clipping, but, unfortunately, not the date), discussing the best authenticated stories, says: "The Lynn sea-serpent appears to be the most authentic, the writer having seen several persons who saw it from the beach, and knowing others personally or by reputation. The first animal of this kind seen about Lynn was in 1638, and was seen by Dr. John Josselyn; and again another was observed, in 1819, by Mr. Cabot. Amos Lawrance, one of the pillars of old Boston, said: 'I have never had any doubt of the existence of the sea-serpent since the morning he was seen off Nahant by old Marshal Prince through his famous masthead spy-glass. For within the next two hours I conversed with Samuel Cabot and Daniel P. Parker, I think, and one or more persons besides, who had spent a part of that morning in witnessing its movements. In addition, Colonel Harris, the commander at Fort Independence, told me that the creature had been seen by a number of his soldiers while standing sentry at early dawn, some time before this show at Nahant; and Colonel Harris believed it as firmly as though the creature were drawn up before us in State Street, where we then were.' Such is the history of the Lynn sea-serpent; and the following is an extract from the report of the Linnæan Society of Boston, made by Dr. Bigelow and F. C. Gray: 'The monster was from eighty to ninety feet long; his head usually carried about two feet above the water; the body of a dark brown colour, with thirty or forty more protuberances, compared by some to four-gallon kegs, by others to a string of buoys, and called, by some, bunches on the back. Motions very rapid--faster than those of a whale; swimming a mile in three minutes, and sometimes more, leaving a wake behind him; chasing mackerel, herrings, and other fish, which were seen jumping out of the water fifty at a time as he approached. He only came to the surface of the sea in calm and bright weather. A skilful gunner fired at him from our boat, and, having taken good aim, felt sure he must have hit him on the head. The creature turned towards him, then dived under the boat, and reappeared a hundred yards on the other side.' In February of 1846 a letter was printed in the various newspapers, signed by Captain Lawson, giving a description of a monstrous snake seen by him from his vessel off Capes Charles and Henry. The length was stated at one hundred feet, and on the back were seen sharp projections. The head was small in proportion to the length."

I next append a few short statements which have appeared at various dates in the public prints.

The _News of the World_, Sept. 28, 1879, states that Captain J. F. Cox, master of the British ship _Privateer_, which arrived at Delaware breakwater on Sept. 9, from London, says: "On August 5, one hundred miles west of Brest (France), weather fine and clear, at 5 P.M., as I was walking the quarter-deck, I saw something black rise out of the water, about twenty feet, in shape like an immense snake of three feet diameter. It was about three hundred yards from the ship, coming towards us. It turned its head partly from us, and went down with a great splash, after staying up about five seconds, but rose again three times at intervals of ten seconds, until it had turned completely from us, and was going from us at a great speed, and making the water boil all round it. I could see its eyes and shape perfectly. It was like a great eel or snake, but as black as coal tar, and appeared to be making great exertions to get away from the ship. I have seen many kinds of fish, in five different oceans, but was never favoured with a sight of the great sea-snake before."

The _Singapore Daily News_, April 6, 1878, in its Australian news quotes from Wellington (New Zealand), Feb. 26 (this month corresponds with August north of the Line): "The captain of the steamship _Durham_ reports having seen a monster serpent off Nerowas Island. Thirty feet of the monster was visible out of the water. The crew and passengers corroborate the report."

The _Australian Sketcher_ for November 24, 1877, states: "Captain W. H. Nelson, of the American ship _Sacramento_, which arrived in this port from New York on October 20, reported that he saw the sea-serpent on his voyage. The _Argus_ paragraph on the subject stated: 'The date on which the creature was seen was on July 30, the ship then being in lat. 31° 59' N. and long. 37° W. The man at the wheel was the first to observe the monster, and he at once called Captain Nelson, telling him what he saw; but the latter, having the same feeling of incredulity with regard to the sea-serpent as most other people, did not hurry from below. On coming on deck, however, he was rewarded with a distant glimpse of the supposed sea-serpent, which the helmsman, for his part, declared he saw quite plainly. Some forty feet of the monster was alleged to be observable. It appeared to be about the size of a flour-barrel in girth, and its colour was yellowish; the head is described as being flat. The eyes were plainly visible. Captain Nelson is convinced that what he saw was some extraordinary marine monster.' We have obtained from John Hart, the man at the wheel, a pencil sketch of the creature, of which we give an engraving. The sketch is accompanied with a further description, in which the writer says: 'This is a correct sketch of the sea-serpent seen by me while on board the ship _Sacramento_, on her passage from New York to Melbourne, I being at the wheel at the time. It had the body of a very large snake; its length appeared to me to be about fifty feet or sixty feet. Its head was like an alligator's, with a pair of flippers about ten feet from its head. The colour was of a reddish brown. At the time seen it was lying perfectly still, with its head raised about three feet above the surface of the sea, and as it got thirty or forty feet astern, it dropped its head.'"

I confess that I do not attach much weight to this last example, from the suspicious resemblance which the illustration given in the _Sketcher_ bears to an alligator, suggesting that possibly such a creature may have been blown by winds or carried by currents to the position where it was seen. It is true that Mr. Gosse quotes the size of the largest alligator on record as only seventeen feet and a half, whereas the estimated length of the supposed sea-serpent in this instance was from forty to sixty. But against that may be argued the difficulty of estimating lengths or heights when you have but a short inspection, and no object immediately near with which to institute a comparison[264]; while I am by no means certain that Mr. Gosse's maximum is correct. Dr. Dennys, of Singapore, has assured me that some years back an alligator, approaching thirty feet in length, haunted for some days the small tidal creek which runs through, and for some miles above, that town; while I very well remember Mr. Gregory, the Surveyor-General of Queensland, informing me that in the rivers in the north of that colony there were alligators equalling in length a whale-boat, say twenty-eight feet.

The _Graphic_ of April 19th, 1879, contains a drawing of "a marine monster seen from S.S. _City of Baltimore_, in the Gulf of Aden, January 28th." The descriptive letter-press is as follows:--

"The following is an abstract of the account given by our correspondent, Major H. W. I. Senior, of the Bengal Staff Corps, to whom we are indebted for the sketch from which our engraving is taken: 'On the 28th January 1879, at about 10 A.M., I was on the poop deck of the steamship _City of Baltimore_, in latitude 12° 28' N., longitude 43° 52' E. I observed a long black object a-beam of the ship's stern on the starboard side, at a distance of about three-quarters of a mile, darting rapidly out of the water and splashing in again with a noise distinctly audible, and advancing nearer and nearer at a rapid pace. In a minute it had advanced to within half-a-mile, and was distinctly recognisable as the "veritable sea-serpent." I shouted out "Sea-serpent! sea-serpent! Call the captain!" Dr. C. Hall, the ship's surgeon, who was reading on deck, jumped up in time to see the monster, as did also Miss Greenfield, one of the passengers on board. By this time it was only about five hundred yards off, and a little in the rear, owing to the vessel then steaming at the rate of about ten knots an hour in a westerly direction. On approaching the wake of the ship, the serpent turned its course a little way, and was soon lost to view in the blaze of sunlight reflected on the waves of the sea. So rapid were its movements, that when it approached the ship's wake, I seized a telescope, but could not catch a view, as it darted rapidly out of the field of the glass before I could see it. I was thus prevented from ascertaining whether it had scales or not; but the best view of the monster obtainable, when it was about three cables' length, that is, about five hundred yards, distant, seemed to show that it was without scales. I cannot, however, speak with certainty. The head and neck, about two feet in diameter, rose out of the water to a height of about twenty or thirty feet, and the monster opened its jaws wide as it rose, and closed them again as it lowered its head and darted forward for a dive, reappearing almost immediately some hundred yards ahead. The body was not visible at all, and must have been some depth under water, as the disturbance on the surface was too slight to attract notice, although occasionally a splash was seen at some distance behind the head. The shape of the head was not unlike pictures of the dragon I have often seen, with a bull-dog appearance of the forehead and eye-brow. When the monster had drawn its head sufficiently out of the water, it let itself drop, as it were, like a huge log of wood, prior to darting forward under the water.'"

Major Senior's statement is countersigned by the two persons whom he mentions as co-witnesses.

When in Singapore, in 1880, I received the personal testimony of Captain Anderson, at that time chief officer of the _Pluto_ (property of the Straits Government) and formerly a commander in the P. and O. Company's service.

Captain Anderson assured me that he had twice seen large sea-serpents. Once off Ushant, when he was chief officer of the _Delta_ in 1861. No account was entered in the log nor any notice sent to the newspapers, for fear of ridicule. On that occasion the whole ship's company saw it; it was five (?) miles distant, and showed fifteen feet of its body out of the water. It resembled a snake with a large fringe round the neck. It appeared to be travelling, and moved its head to and fro like a snake. It never spouted, and was observed for a quarter of an hour.

The second occasion was in the Red Sea, when he was in command of the _Sumatra_, on the outward trip in October or November 1877. Off Mocha he saw an animal, five miles distant, that lifted the body high out of the water like a snake. All exclaimed, "There is the sea-serpent!" but no entry was made in the log, or report made of it. The same creature was, however, seen shortly after by a man-of-war close to Suez and reported.

In 1881 I once more had the personal testimony of an eye-witness.

Mr. J. H. Hoar, of the pilot station, Shanghai, China, informed me that he saw a sea-serpent some years previously, when he was stationed at Ningpo, on the China coast-line, a little south of the embouchure of the Yangtse-kiang. He was at the time on the look-out for a vessel, from the top of the bank of Lowchew Island, Chinsang, on the southern side of the island fronting the six-mile passage. This island lies east of Worth Point. The hill he was on was about one hundred and fifty feet high, the snake distant about two hundred and fifty yards, the depth of water seven fathoms. His attention was directed to it by a group of Chinamen calling out "Shê," which means "snake." He saw it lying on the surface of the water, resembling two masts of a junk end to end, but with a slight interval. Presently it rose slightly, and then appeared all in one, extended flat upon the surface of the water. He examined it with his glass, and noticed the eye, which appeared to be as big as a coffee saucer, and slate-coloured. The head was flat on the top. He estimated the length at from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and forty feet.

He learned that it was the third occasion of its being seen in that place within eight years. An account was published in one of the local journals, by Mr. Sloman, from the statements of the Chinese observers. Mr. Hoar was prevented from doing the same by the fear of being ridiculed. I may note that there is a bay, not far from this spot, among the Chusan islands, which has long been credited with being the abode of a great sea-dragon, and in passing over which junks take certain superstitious precautions.

I have little doubt of the identity of the sea-serpent with the sea-dragon of the Chinese. Dr. Dennys[265] says: "Of course our old friend, the sea-serpent, turns up on the coasts of China, and the description of him does not greatly differ from that recorded elsewhere. According to a popular legend, the Chien Tang river was at one time infested by a great kiau or sea-serpent, and in 1129 A.D., a district graduate is said to have heroically thrown himself into the flood to encounter and destroy the monster. It has been already noted that most of the river gods are supposed to appear in the form of water-snakes, and that the sea-serpents noticed in Chinese records have always infested the mouths of rivers."

The Rev. Mr. Butler, of the Presbyterian Mission in Ningpo, informed me that a dragon which threatened boats was supposed by the Chinese to infest a narrow passage called Quo Mung, outside of Chinaye. Formerly there were two of them in the neighbourhood, which were very furious, and frequently upset boats. They had to be appeased by a yearly offering of a girl of fair appearance and perfect body. At last, one of the _literati_ determined to stop this. He armed himself, and jumped into the water; blood rose to the surface. He had killed one of the dragons. The other retired to the narrow place. A temple was erected to the hero at Peach Blossom ferry.

It may be noted that both the Malays and the Chinese attribute the origin of ambergris to either a sea-dragon or a sea-serpent. Thus, in the description of Ambergris Island or Dragon Spittle Island, contained in the _History of the Ming Dynasty_, Book 325, from which an extract is given (in translation) by Mr. W. P. Groeneveldt, in his _Notes on the Malay Archipelago and Malacca_, compiled from Chinese sources,[266] we find it stated that "this island has the appearance of a single mountain, and is situated in the Sea of Lambri, at a distance of one day and one night from Sumatra. It rises abruptly out of the sea, which breaks on it with high waves."

"Every spring numerous dragons come together to play on this island, and they leave behind their spittle. The natives afterwards go in canoes to the spot and collect this spittle, which they take with them.

"The dragon-spittle is at first like fat, of a black and yellow colour, and with a fishy smell; by length of time it contracts into large lumps; and these are also found in the belly of a large fish, of the size of the Chinese peck, and also with a fishy smell. When burnt it has a pure and delicious fragrance.

"It is sold in the market of Sumatra, one tael, official weight, costing twelve golden coins of that country, and one cati,[267] one hundred and ninety-two of such pieces, equal to about nine thousand Chinese copper cash; and so it is not very cheap."

Dr. F. Porter Smith[268] states that there can be no doubt that the costly, odorous, light yellow, gummy substance, found floating on the sea, or procured from the belly of some large fish in the Indian Ocean, and known by the Chinese of the present day as _lung sin_, or dragon's spittle, is actually ambergris. The dragon is said to cough it up.

"A similar substance, called _kih-tiau-chi_, brought from Canton and Foochow in former days, is said to be the egg of the dragon or a kind of sea-serpent named _kih tiau_. The name _kih tiau_ is singularly like the Greek name for a sea-monster."

One of the most remarkable accounts of sea-monsters, which I believe to be thoroughly trustworthy, is of an animal seen in the Malacca Straits in 1876.

The first notice of it appeared in the _Straits Times Overland Journal_ for September 18th, 1876, in the form of a short editorial.

"Our friend Mr. Henry Lee, of _Land and Water_, who in his late work has taken so much trouble to enter into and describe the habits and peculiarities of the sea-serpent,[269] will be glad to hear that the passengers and officers of the S.S. _Nestor_, which arrived here this morning, are unanimous in the conclusion, and vouch for the fact, that an extraordinary sea-monster was seen by them between Malacca and Penang on their voyage to this port, on Monday, about noon. It was about two hundred and fifty feet long, about fifty feet broad, square-headed, with black and yellow stripes, closely resembling a salamander."

This was followed, on the succeeding day, by a letter from the captain.

SIR,--In reference to your paragraph in your yesterday's issue,
relating to our having seen a sea-monster answering to the popular
notion of a sea-serpent, I am prepared to vouch for the correctness of
the statement already made to you by the doctor and a passenger by my
ship.

Being on the bridge at the time (about 10 A.M.) with the first and
third officers, we were surprised by the appearance of an
extraordinary monster going in our course, and at an equal speed with
the vessel, at a distance from us of about six hundred feet. It had a
square head and a dragon black and white striped tail, and an immense
body, which was quite fifty feet broad when the monster raised it. The
head was about twelve feet broad, and appeared to be occasionally, at
the extreme, about six feet above the water. When the head was placed
on a level with the water, the body was extended to its utmost limit
to all appearance, and then the body rose out of the water about two
feet, and seemed quite fifty feet broad at those times. The long
dragon tail with black and white scales afterwards rose in an
undulating motion, in which at one time the head, at another the body,
and eventually the tail, formed each in its turn a prominent object
above the water.

The animal, or whatever it may be called, appeared careless of our
proximity, and went our course for about six minutes on our starboard
side, and then finally worked round to our port side, and remained in
view, to the delight of all on board, for about half an hour. His
length was reckoned to be over two hundred feet.

JOHN W. WEBSTER,
Commander, S.S. _Nestor_.

Singapore,
18th September 1876.

Mr. Cameron, proprietor of the journal, subsequently informed me that he had specially warned Captain Webster of the certain doubt that would be cast upon his statement, but he still insisted on its publication. It was confirmed by Mr. H. R. Beaver, a merchant of Singapore, and other persons who were passengers by the boat.

The same newspaper (_Straits Times Overland Journal_), on November 2, 1876, had the following extract from the _China Mail_:--

"It is more than probable that Captain Webster, of the steamer _Nestor_, will be 'interviewed' very extensively when he reaches a berth in London Docks. A genuine sea-serpent is not met with every day, and as the observations made by the officers of the ship have, we understand, been set down in some formal way before Consul Medhurst at Shanghai, to be forwarded to the _Field_, the naturalists will be in a position to pursue their researches when the captain arrives. Competent authorities are now of opinion that the part of the monster formerly supposed to have been its head, must have been a hump; and that its head's being under water would account for the supreme contempt with which it treated the passage of the steamer. The undulating motion of the huge animal would explain the statement that this knob or hump rose occasionally about six feet out of the water. The alternate yellow and black stripes which covered all that could be seen of the body, appear to have conveyed the impression that the tail was like that of a dragon covered with scales, although that conclusion need not necessarily be looked upon as certain. If the head of this unknown 'shape' was actually under water, then the length becomes proportionately greater. It was over two hundred feet long before, it must now be regarded as measuring, say, two hundred and fifty feet, which, with forty-five or fifty feet beam, gives a leviathan of something like the dimensions of an old-fashioned frigate."

A correspondent of the _Celestial Empire_, of Shanghai, wrote thus to the journal:--

SIR,--If it is true that one of those who observed the marine monster
from the _Nestor_ is still here, it is very desirable that he should
give some fuller account of what he saw. Only a sciolist will deny
the possibility of such a beast, and Professor Owen himself has
remarked that the only absolutely incredible part of the accounts of
those who have seen it, is the statement of its vertical sinuosity,
which is impossible to any of the serpent tribe.

The monster seen by the _Nestor_, however, was probably one of the
Chelonidæ, "the father of all the turtles," as he is fitly called by
the natives of Sumatra, who fully believe in his existence, and to
whom he occasionally appears. Indeed, Baumgarten, in his _Malaysien_,
published at Amsterdam in 1829, describes the monster, and estimates
its length and breadth at one hundred and twenty and thirty cubits
respectively, measurements which agree very nearly with those given by
Captain Webster. Baumgarten[270] adds that it is a general belief in
Sumatra (vol. ii. p. 321, Ed. 1820), that whosoever sees him will die
within the year. "This," he says naively enough, "I have not been able
to prove."

Mr. David Aitken, of Singapore, wrote to the _Daily Times_ as follows:--

DEAR SIR,--Like many others, I have been astonished at the dimensions
given by you of the sea-serpent. They are certainly enormous, and they
far surpass anything I have ever seen or heard of. The largest snake
ever I authentically heard about was one which passed between the
surveying brigs _Krishna_ and _Menx_ when under the command of
Lieutenant Ward, of the Indian Navy, when surveying off the coast of
Sumatra, about the years 1858 and 1859. This monster passed by the
brigs one Sunday morning when they were moored somewhere opposite
Malacca. Its length was variously estimated at from the length of the
_Krishna_ to one hundred feet. Sixty feet was the moderate length set
down for its frame.

In or near the same place, another monster had been seen by a previous
surveying party.

Mr. Stephen Cave, M.P. for Shoreham, in 1861, communicated to Mr. Gosse a short statement, which throws some light upon the food of the monster. It is in the form of an extract from his journal written during a voyage to the West Indies, in 1846, as follows:--

"Thursday, December 10, off Madeira, on board R.M.S. _Thomas_, made acquaintance with a Captain Christmas, of the Danish Navy, a proprietor in Santa Cruz, and holding some office about the Danish court. He told me he once saw a sea-serpent between Iceland and the Faroe islands. He was lying-to in a gale of wind, in a frigate of which he had the command, when an immense shoal of porpoises rushed by the ship as if pursued; and, lo and behold, a creature with a neck moving like that of a swan, about the thickness of a man's waist, with a head like a horse, raised itself slowly and gracefully from the deep, and, seeing the ship, it immediately disappeared again, head foremost, like a duck diving. He only saw it for a few seconds. The part above the water seemed about eighteen feet in length. He is a singularly intelligent man, and by no means one to allow his imagination to run away with him."

Witty journalists had a good time over the publication of the story of the serpent seen by Captain Drevar, with which I shall wind up my list of apparitions. As will be seen, however, the captain stuck manfully to his guns, and I, for one, am of the belief that he really saw the incident which he narrates. I have not met the captain himself, but I did, in Singapore, meet with many who had heard the whole story from his own lips, and whose impression was that he was a truthful man.

_The Barque "Pauline" Sea-serpent._

To the Editor of the _Calcutta Englishman_.

SIR,--As I am not sure that my statement respecting the sea-serpent
reached the _Shipping Gazette_ in London, I enclose a copy that may be
interesting to your numerous readers. I have been sent plenty of
extracts from English papers, nearly all of them ridiculing my
statement. I can laugh and joke on the subject as well as anyone, but
I can't see why, if people can't fairly refute my statement, they
should use falsehood to do so. The _Daily Telegraph_ says, "The ribs
of the ill-fated fish were distinctly heard cracking one after the
other, with a report like that of a small cannon; its bellowings
ceased, &c. To use the eloquent words of the principal spectator, it
'struck us all aghast with terror.'" If the writer knew anything of
sailors, he would not write such bosh. Fear and terror are not in
Jack's composition; and such eloquent words he leaves to such
correspondents as described the ever-doubtful "man-and-dog-fight." I
am just as certain of seeing what I described, as that I met the
advertisement that the _Telegraph_ has the largest circulation in the
world staring me at every street corner in London. It is easy for such
a paper to make any man, good, great, or interesting, look ridiculous.
Little wonder is it that my relatives write saying that they would
have seen a hundred sea-serpents and never reported it; and a lady
also wrote that she pitied anyone that was related to anyone that had
seen the sea-serpent. It is quite true that it is a sad thing for any
man to see more, to feel more, and to know more, than his fellows; but
I have some of the philosophy that made O'Connell rejoice in being the
most abused man in the United Kingdom, for he also had the power of
giving a person a lick with the rough side of his tongue. If I had any
such power I would not use it, for contempt is the sharpest reproof;
and this letter is the only notice I have taken of the many absurd
statements, &c. &c. &c.

GEORGE DREVAR,
_Master of the Pauline_.

Barque _Pauline_,
Chittagong, January 15, 1876.

Barque _Pauline_, January 8th, 1875, lat. 5° 13' S., long. 35° W.,
Cape Roque, north-east corner of Brazil distant twenty miles, at 11
A.M.