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.”