A Rare Specimen Lost.
Captain Ingalls, of the schooner Chalcedony, has let slip an opportunity to make a small fortune and at the same time settle the long vexed question as to the reality of the elusive and possibly mythical sea serpent. His story, as told in the Argus, of Portland, Maine, June 8, runs as follows:
"Last Saturday, about one o'clock in the afternoon, we were slowly sailing past Monhegan, there being very little wind, about twenty miles southwest of the island, when we caught sight of what looked like a large schooner floating bottom up. As the object lay almost dead ahead, we made directly for it, but before we got very close a Cape Ann schooner lay to and sent a boat's crew to inspect what now plainly appeared to be a monstrous carcass of some species or other. We finally hove to, about a ship's length off, and took a leisurely survey of the thing. It was dead, and floated on the water, with its belly, of a dirty brown color, up. Its head was at least twenty feet long, and about ten feet through at the thickest point. About midway of the body, which was, I should guess, about forty feet long, were two fins, of a clear white, each about twelve feet in length. The body seemed to taper from the back of the head down to the size of a small log, distinct from the whale tribe, as the end had nothing that looked like a fluke. The shape of the creature's head was more like a tierce than anything I can liken it to. I have seen almost all kinds of shapes that can be found in these waters, but never saw the like of this before.
Two years ago, off Seguin, I saw shooting through the water a thing which, I think, resembled this creature considerably, but I didn't get close enough to it to say for certain. The men from the Cape Ann schooner got on this dead creature, and one of the boys cut a double shuffle on its belly, which for all the world looked like the bottom of a schooner covered with barnacles and seaweed by the weather. We should have towed the thing to Portland had there been any wind, but as there wasn't, we steered away and left it. What sort of a sea monster this was I can't say for sure, but in my opinion it was the original 'sea serpent,' which has been seen once in a while for years past, and which, when alive, was too swift a swimmer for any sailing vessel to get alongside of."
The report of the captain of the "Cape Ann schooner" will be in order now.
