Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1874 — A Devil Fish Destroys a Vessel. [ARTICLE]

A Devil Fish Destroys a Vessel.

The following strange story has been comnlunicaU'd to the Indian papers fn James Floyd, late master of the schooner Pearl. Me had left Colombo in the stcamef irftrathowen, had rounded Galle, and were well in the bay, with our course laid for Madras, steaming over a calm and tranquil sea. About an hour before sunset on the 10th of May we saw on our starboard beam, and about two miles off, a small schooner lying becalmed. There was nothing in her appearance or position to excite remark, but as we came up with her I lazily examined her with my binocular, and then noticed between us, but near her, a long, low, swelling object lying on the sea, which, from its color and shape, I took to be a bank of seaweed. As I watched, the mass, hitherto at rest op the quiet sea, was set in motion. It struck the schooner, which visibly reeled and then righted. Immediately afterward the mast swayed sideways, and with my glass I could clearly discern the enormous mass and the hull of the schooner coalescing—l can think of no other term. Judging from their exclamations the other gazers must have witnessed the same appearance. Almost immediately after the collision and coalescence the schooner’s masts swayed toward us, lower and lower; the vessel was on her beam-ends, lay there a few seconds, and disappeared, the masts righting as she sank, and the main exhibiting a reversed ensign struggling toward its peak. A cry of horror rose from the lookers-on, and, as if by instinct, our ship’s head was at once turned toward the scene, which was now marked by the forms of those battling for life—the sole survivors of the pretty little schooner which only twenty minutes before floated bravely on the smooth sea. As soon as the poor fellows were able k to tell their story they astounded us with the assertion that their vessel had been submerged by a gigantic cuttle-fish or calamarv, the animal which, in smaller form, attracts so much attention in the Brighton aquarium as the octopus. Each his version of the story, but in the main all the narratives tallied so remarkably as to leave no doubt of the fact. As soon as he was at leisure I prevailed on the skipper to give me his written account of the disaster, and I have now much pleasure in sending you a copy of his narrative: “ I was lately the skipper of the Pearl schooner, 150 tons, as tight a little craft as ever sailed the seas, with a crew of six men. We were bound from the Mauritius for Rangoon in ballast, to return with paddy, and had put in at Galle for water. Three days out we fell becalmed in the bay (latitude b deg. 50 min. north, longitude 84 deg, s«jfln. east). On the 10th of May, about five p. m. —eight bells I know had gone—we sighted a two-masted screw on ouriport quarter, about five or six miles off. Very soon after, as we lay motionless, a great mass rose slowly out of the sea about half a mile off on our larboard side, and remained spread out, as it Were, and stationary; it looked like the,; back of a huge whale, but it sloped le&r, and was of a brownish color; even at that distance it seemed much larger than our craft, and it seemed to be basking in the sun. “ ‘ What’s that?” I sung out to the mate. “ ‘ Blest if I knows; barring its size, color and shape, it might be a whaie,” replied Torn Scott. “ ‘lt ain’t the sea-sarpent,’ said one of the crew, ‘ for he’s too round for that ere critturJ . “ I went into the cabin for my rifle, and, as I was preparing to fire, Bill Darling, a Newfoundlander, came on deck, and, looking at the monster, exclaimed, putting up his hand: “ Have a care,master ; that ere is a squid, and will capsize us if you hurt him.’ “Smiling at the idea, I let fly and hit him, and with that he shook; there was a great ripple all around him, and he began to move. ‘“Out with all your axes and knives,’ shouted Bill, ‘ and cut at any part of him that comes aboard; look alive, and Lord help us!” “ Not aware of the danger, and never having seen or heard of such a monster, I gave no orders, and it was' no use touching the helm or ropes to get out of the way. By this time three of the crew, Bill included, had found axes, and one a rusty cutlass, and all were looking over the ship’s side at the advancing monster. We could now see a huge oblong niass moving by jerks just under the surface of the water, and an enormous train following; the oblong body was at least half the size of ouf vessel in length, and just as thick; the wake or train, might have been 100 feet long. “ In the time that I have taken to write this the brute struck us, and the ship quivered under the thud; in another moment monstrous arms, like trees, seized the vessel and she heeled over; in another second the monster was aboard, squeezed in between the two masts, Bill screaming, ‘ Slash for your lives;’ but all our slashing was of no avail, for the brute, holding on by his arms, slipped his vast body overboard, and pulled the vessel down with him on her beam-ends; we were thrown into the water at once, and just as I went over I caught sight of one of the crew, either Bill or Tom Fielding, squashed up between the masts and one of those awful arms; for a few seconds our ship te fln her beam-ends, then filled and went down; another of the crew must have been sucked down, for you only picked up five; the rest you know. I can’t tell who ran up the ensign.”