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•* W ashington, Sept. 2, 18*7. 1« \Iy dear •ir—The description lt;given in oar newspapers of a sea-serpent, lately seen for several days I in and about Cape Ann harbour, has brought to my recollection one of this species.“ On a passage I made from Quebec, in 1787, in a schooner of about eighty tons burthen, while standing in for the Gut of Canso, the island of Cape Breton bring about four leagues distant, one of the crew cried out ** a slrol a-head!*’—1'h* helm was in4Elgiy Pul down to tack ship, whcirVour great astonishment, this shoal, as wenought it to be, moved off, and as it passed athwart the bow of our vessel, we discovered it to be an enormous sea serpent, four limes at least as long as the schooner, its back was of a dark green colour, forming above the water a number of little hillocks, resembling a chain of hogsheads. I was then but a lad, and bring much terrified ran below uu-til the monster was at some distance from ul. I did not see his head distinctly; but those who did, after I had hid myself in the cabin, said it was as large as the small boat of the schooner. 1 recollect the tremendous ripple and noise he made in the water, as he went off from us, which I compared at the time to that occasioned by the launching of a ship.44 My venerable friend, Mr. —, of your city, was a passenger with me at the time. He will corroborate this statement, and probably furnish you with a better description of this monster; fot I well recollect his taklt;ng his stand at the bow of the vessel, with great courage, to examine it, while the other passengers were intent only on their own safety.“ At Halifax, and on my return to Boston, when fryuwntly describing this monster, laughed at.so immoderately thrnlround it accessary to remain silent on the sib ject, to escape the imputation*of Using a traveller’s privilege of dealing in the marvellous.” EIn addition to the above, tie following facts are verbally communicated by the doctor himself“ On the evening of September 9, capt. Jamis Riley wJT at my house, and said that he kjew capt. Folger, of Nantucket, #who was occupied on a whaling voyage in the southern Atlantic 0cean, about 20 years ago. On tip cruise, he saw an ‘animal of uncommon size, floating on the sea, Iff the coast of Brazil. Capt. F. t/en commanded a vtry large Frei dh bult ship, and the floating carcasjfe was four or five times as long as j(ia vessel. It attracted the spermaceti whales, who ! came to feed uojon it, and had eaten away great portions of the flesh. He visited tjife huge body of the creature, and'satisfied himself that it was an /normous craken. He hauled ali bis boats upon it, and his men ascemled it and lived upon it as if it tyad been a rock or island. They renamed on it and near it tor the pUkpose of killing the whales that /fame to devour it. In this, thcylwere so successful, fhat by continuing there they took^vfiales eqjugh to load their vessel .and complete her cargo. The back of the craken was high and dry enongfn for them to inhabit temponpriTy, and to look out for theij^game. And when from this pointidf observation they discover^* a whale coming to make a mea^hey launched their boats fron^the top of the dead craken, amb/ude an easy prey of him. 1 he, substance of the monster’s bpffy was skinny, membranous aun gelatinous, ?nd destitute of Jhe fat andblubber for wArkh the whale is so remarkable,”
Newspaper Details
Annapolis Maryland Gazette And Political Intelligencer
Annapolis, Maryland, US
Thu, Sep 18, 1817
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Rin K.
NA, 01 Dec 2024
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