Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1879 — STRANGE OCEAN MONSTERS. [ARTICLE]

STRANGE OCEAN MONSTERS.

The Bark Colombia Scuttled and Swamped by a thing Much Larger Than a Whale—The Privateer's Crew Paralysed by a Serpent 160 Feet Long. New York Star. The office in Hanover Place of Christian Bora, Consul General for Sweden and Norway, was filled with an excited group of sailors prior to business hours on Wednesday. They exhibited radically different kinds of emotion, some weeping and begging to be taken to Scandinavia, and others angrily asserting in the purest vernacular their innocence of some undefined accusation. The uproar was explained upon the entrance of the Consul General. “These seamen/’ he said, “are the surviving crew of the Norwegial on Thursday last in latidude 47°, longitude 43°54\ They were picked up in open boats by the Botterdam steamer P. Caland a few hours after the wrecking. They claim that a strange marine monster stove a hole in the bark. Others suggest the idea of scuttling, and the latter charge is what they ate wrangling about.” An agent of the Columbia, volunteered the information that she was of 450 tons burden, owned by Cap. Raed, ofFunchborg. Her cost was $20,000. Nothing is known on this side of the Atlantic of the amount of her insurance. It is regarded as a singular fact, however, that a crew of twelve men should be sent out with the ship sailing in tiallast.

Mate Peterson made a detailed statement to the Consul General. After, leaving London, a straight course was steered for Quebec. At 10:30 a. m M on tbe 4th of September, a sudden shock threw the entire crew on their faces. In utter amazement Capt. Larsen looked over the vessel’s side only to see a black mass rising from the bows. In a few seconds it assumed the shape of a whale, but was nearly twice the size of an ordinary one, and unrecoguizabtejgby reason of bloody lacerations. Tne sea was dyed red for a distance of fifty feet on either side. The mate’s experience is best told in his own words. > “The big fish was over forty feet long. It thrashed about in great fory. I thought we bad struck a rock. If it was a whale, we must have killed him. During the excitement somebody discovered water rushing into the hold. Larsen put on the pumps, but couldn’t reduce the steady pour of water. I climbed over the side, lowering myself by a rope to the water edge, and then saw that six four-inch planks lifld been crushed in and afterwards ripped off. The monster that done the mischief floundered about a few minutes and sunk. We began to do the same thing. Larsen got into one of the two open boats, and I took the other. We forsook our clothes, money—everything. With six men in each boat we put off, the Columbia going down at 12:45 o’clock. We were thankful to escape. A new danger threatened us. We had neither water or provisions. We reckoned on being ninety' miles from the outlying fishing banks of the Newfoundland, where we hoped some vessel might be found. In less than three hours we sighted the steamer P. Calaud, which responded to a signal ofdistress made up of an oar and a black coat.”

Captain Deddes, of the rescuing steamer, is of the opinion that the story given by the Norwegians is true. Their stories all coincide. The only similar case coming to the knowledge of the Captain was that of a Cunard steamer, which last year had her propeller shattered by a. whale. The following official report of the rescue was sent by Capt. Deddes to the Rotterdam and Antwerp Steamship Compauy: “September 4, about 3 p. m., saw two boats with twelve men in them. Shaped our coarse for them and took the men on board. We set the boats adrift. The men proved to be the whole shipwrecked crew of the Norwegian bark Columbia, bound from London to Quebec. Cant. Larsen, of the Columbia, his mate, Mr. H. Petersen, and the crew made the following statement: On their voyage from London they met with variable winds and w’eather until September 4, when, sailing with all sails set, in a light, northeast wind, about 11 a. > m., they felt a sudden shock. On looking overboard they saw the sea discolored by blood, and either a fish or other sea monster, making away from the ship as fast as it could. At the same time Capt. Larsen heard some of the men crying that the ship was leaking badly and filling very fast. He went down into the hold, but soon found that nothing could be done to save the ship. When he came on deck again the crew had barety time to put the boats overboard and take a f ew things with them. Half an hour after they left the Columbia she went down. Shortly afterward they discovered us coming in tlieir way, and put up a pole with a signal of distress, which we perceived. After takng them on board we proceeded on our course.” The crew of the American ship Privateer, which arrived in this poit from London on Monday night, had & remarkable experience with a sea serpent off the French coast. Capt. J. F. Cox brought the vessel in charter for James E. Levett, of No. 57 South street. Mr. Cox is a stout, bronzed veteran of the seas, and the possessor of a reputation for veracity and good seamanship that it would be difficult to call into question. He related to a reporter the following tale, which was vouched for by three able seamen of the Privateer:

v “We left London on August 3 in fine sailing weather.: There was a rattling breeze on the stern quarter that drove us through the Channel in magnificent style. At about 2 o’clock on tne afternoon of the sth I stood smoking on the after-deck, with my back to the rail. We were skimming along at about seven knots, under a tack leading inshore. Brest was just 100 miles on the port. Suddenly Jack Harlow, my man at the wheel, caught sight of something in tke water that made his eyes stand out like billiard balls. He dropped the wheel with the exclamation, ‘By G—d, I-10-o-k at that!’ I turned quickly, and was confronted bv one of the most horrible, blood-curd-ling sights it has ever been my luck to run across. There was a sea-serpent, sure enough—a regular anaconda of tiie deep. I knew nothing of such monsters until that moment, although I’ve

heard many incredible stories abou them, without taking any stock on my own account. Nowfcl’m not a coward, but I shook aU over, durn it, when ] clapped my eyes on that immense mass of black coils rising out of the sea.” • “What did he resemble?,, ** A hugh snake.” The sky was clear and a pretty strong sun struck tbe object, so I will swear it was no delusion. Half of it was under water out of sight, but the head and forwardooils glided along at an elevation of thirty feet. All our hands rushed on deck, and in absolute alarm my mate ordered out the howitzer as well as the small firearms.

“It was difficult to get the men to obey. They seemed to be terrified in every facination of the sight. The fish or serpent, or whatever It was, muot have been 160 feet long. With the limited oi nonunity I had to figure on it, I should tiiiuk its thickness was five feet. 1 noticed it was black all over, as if coated with black and green scales The bead was peculiarly shaped—something like that of a blue fish—but it obeyed evety and contortion of the body. For a foil minute the course of the monster was parallel to that taken by the ship, so we had a good opportunity to take in its proportions Its neck appeared considerably smaller than the trunk. In fhet, it gracelully tapered into a heard of remarkable size, containing eyes as large as plates. They wore a dreamy expression until one of the boys foolishly fired a carbine in the direction of bis snakeship. That was enough to stir him up. His eyes snapped fire as he turned in the direction of tbe ship, and began to lash the water. Although 200 yards away the disturbed the waters under the Privateer so that it rocked violently. to my horror the serpent poised its head aloft for a moment, ana then plunged under the vessel, coming up, fortunately for us, on the opposite side. One blow from that tail woulds have swamped us.” “Hqw did you finally get rid of your visitor?”

“It was fully twenty seconds afterward that the idea occurred to me of escaping the danger of an assult by piling on all sail ana running away. The excellent wind enabled us to get under fine headway and to actually outdistance our troublesome neighbor. At 3 o’clock the last epeck of him disappeared in tbe horizon.” “That’s my adventure,” concluded the skipper, “and I know you fellows won’t believe what I tell you. I wouldn’t myself, If I hadn’t seen the beast with these ’ere eyes of mine. In all my experience of twenty years of the sea I never saw a monster bigger than a whale or a dolphin, but don’t you never tell me, after this, that there is no truth in the stories about the sea serpents.”