Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 130, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1913 — SHIP KILLS SEA MONSTER [ARTICLE]

SHIP KILLS SEA MONSTER

Captain Reports Striking What He Thinks Was Bpecies of Whale, Which Hung on Stem of Vessel. — '—~ 1 "'‘ New York.—Recently persons on 8 liner were sure they had seen a sea serpent fifty feet long forging Its way through the ocean at Incredible speed. Capt 3. Tutt of another liner, gave this account of a collision with a monster of the deep: “At 12:33 o’clock in the morning," said the captain, “an hour known as ‘the graveyard watch’ by marines, a shock was felt at the fore part of the ship. The liner had left Santa Marta on the day before, and was steaming at sixteen knots an hour along the Colombian coast toward Port Limon.

“After the shock the ship’s speed seemed to diminish, although the enr gines were working well' and the sea was smooth. It was bright moonlight. I went to the bow to see what was the matter, and found that we ha 4 struck a sea monster, which I estimated to be some forty-two feet long and three tons in weight The collision killed the monster, and it hung on the stem so that we had to go astern to get clear of the body. This sank immediately, leaving the surface of the sea a bright crimson.” The captain said that the body had broad stripes on the back and head, with patches like textile prints the size of a hand on the sides. It was a species of whale now almost extinct, he thought The shock aroused the passengers, who came on deck to look at the dead monster. One of the officers said that many strange serpents and large fish had been seen in the waters off the Colombian coast in the last three years of a species that had not been seen there since the days of the buccaneers on the Spanish Main. They thought that the blasting in the Panama canal had disturbed them in their submarine caverns and driven them to the surface of the sea.