Part 28

I have no reason to doubt Mr. NEWMAN’s veracity, and so I am willing to believe that the five reports which follow this introduction “are quoted from one of” the British “daily papers, which gives them as literal translations from the Norse papers, in which they originally appeared”. I only ask why Mr. NEWMANN did not mention the daily paper? For the assertion of this daily paper that they are “literal translations from _Norse_ papers in which they originally appeared” is at all events a fabrication, as the reports which Mr. NEWMAN published here are the evidences which Mr. HEINRICH RATHKE took, when on a journey in Norway, near Christiansund, apparently in the year 1840, and which he published in the _Archiv für Naturgeschichte_ of 1841, six years later! I have inserted them above (n°. 90, 91, 92, 94, 95, 102). As to the “discrepancies in the accounts” I have already showed that there are, in fact, hardly any discrepancies, but that the accounts complete one another. I must also observe here that the accounts are not translated _literally_. Many, and among them very interesting passages, are omitted. The reader, who will convince himself of the truth of my assertion, has only to compare the accounts, as they are inserted in the _Zoologist_ with my translations of the German originals, or with the originals themselves.

Mr. GOSSE, too, in his _Romance of Natural History_, 1860, writes: “The public papers of Norway, during the summer of 1846, were occupied with statements of the following effect”, and he too publishes extracts from the evidences printed in the _Archiv für Naturgeschichte_ of 1841!

Also Mr. LEE, in his _Sea-Monsters Unmasked_, 1883, says: “In 1847 there appeared in a London daily paper a long account translated from the Norse journals of fresh appearances of the sea-serpent.”

And Mr. JOHN ASHTON in his _Curious Creatures in Zoology_, 1889, asserts: “In 1847 a sea-serpent was seen frequently in the neighbourhood of Christiansund and Molde, by many persons, and by one Lars Johnöen, fisherman at Smölen, especially.”

All these writers have copied Mr. NEWMAN, and have therefore quite overlooked the fact that the originals were in the _Archiv für Naturgeschichte_ of 1841, and that the appearances took place long before the year 1847!

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The last number of the _Zoologist_ for 1847 appeared in October of that year. The reader must know that the matter of this journal is arranged according to the class of the animals, treated of in each article. This I must mention for the better understanding of the following passage which Mr. NEWMAN wrote in his preface to the above mentioned volume of the _Zoologist_.

“In Reptiles, the communications and quotations about “the Sea-Serpent” are well worthy of attentive perusal: it is impossible to suppose all the records bearing this title to be fabricated for the purpose of deception. A natural phenomenon of some kind has been witnessed: let us seek a satisfactory solution rather than terminate enquiry by the shafts of ridicule. The grave and learned have often avowed a belief that toads can exist some thousands of years without food, light or air, and immured in solid stone: surely it is not requiring too much to solicit a suspension of judgment on the question whether a monster may exist in the sea which does not adorn our collections.”

Mr. NEWMAN, viz. believed that the sea-serpent belonged to the class of Reptiles. The “communications and quotations” spoken of here, have already been inserted above (n°. 25, 90, 91, 92, 94, 95, 97, 102, 106 A, 115, 116, 117.).

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=118=.--1848, August 6.--No report of the sea-serpent has ever more shaken the incredulity of hundreds and thousands than that generally known as the account of the _Daedalus_, after the frigate from which the sea-serpent was seen.

The _Times_ newspaper of October, 9, 1848, published the following paragraph:

“Intelligence from Plymouth, dated 7 Oct.”

“When the _Daedalus_ frigate, Captain M’Quhae, which arrived at Plymouth on the 4th. instant, was on her passage home from the East Indies, between the Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena, her captain, and most of her officers and crew, at four o’clock one afternoon, saw a sea-serpent. The creature was twenty minutes in sight of the frigate, and passed under her quarter. Its head appeared to be about four feet out of the water, and there was about sixty feet of its body in a straight line on the surface. It is calculated that there must have been under water a length of thirty-three or forty feet more, by which it propelled itself at the rate of fifteen miles an hour. The diameter of the exposed part of the body was about sixteen inches; and when it extended its jaws, which were full of large jagged teeth, they seemed sufficiently capacious to admit of a tall man standing upright between them”.

The Admiralty instantly inquired into the truth of the statement, and in the _Times_ of the 13th. the gallant captain’s official reply was published in the following terms:

“Her Majesty’s Ship Daedalus,

Hamoaze, _Oct. 11_.”

“Sir,--In reply to your letter of this date, requiring information as to the truth of a statement published in _The Times_ newspaper, of a sea-serpent of extraordinary dimensions having been seen from Her Majesty’s ship _Daedalus_, under my command, on her passage from the East Indies, I have the honour to acquaint you, for the information of my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, that at five o’clock P. M., on the 6th. of August last, in latitude 24° 44′ S., and longitude 9° 22′ E., the weather dark and cloudy, wind fresh from the N. W., with a long ocean swell from the S. W., the ship on the port tack heading N. E. by N., something very unusual was seen by Mr. Sartoris, midshipman, rapidly approaching the ship from before the beam. The circumstance was immediately reported by him to the officer of the watch, Lieutenant Edgar Drummond, with whom and Mr. William Barrett, the master, I was at the time walking the quarterdeck. The ship’s company were at supper.”

“On our attention being called to the object, it was discovered to be an enormous serpent, with head and shoulders kept about four feet constantly above the surface of the sea, and, as nearly as we could approximate, by comparing it with the length of what our main-topsail yard would show in the water, there was at the very least sixty feet of the animal _à fleur d’eau_, no portion of which was, to our perception, used in propelling it through the water, either by vertical or horizontal undulation. It passed rapidly, but so close under our lee quarter, that had it been a man of my acquaintance, I should easily have recognized his features with the naked eye; and it did not, either in approaching the ship or after it had passed our wake, deviate in the slightest degree from its course to the S. W., which it held on at the pace of from twelve to fifteen miles per hour, apparently on some determined purpose.”

“The diameter of the serpent was about fifteen or sixteen inches behind the head, which was, without any doubt, that of a snake; and it was never, during the twenty minutes that it continued in sight of our glasses, once below the surface of the water; its colour a dark brown, with yellowish white about the throat. It had no fins, but something like a mane of a horse, or rather a bunch of seaweed, washed about its back. It was seen by the quartermaster, the boatswain’s mate, and the man at the wheel, in addition to myself and officers above-mentioned.”

“I am having a drawing of the serpent made from a sketch taken immediately after it was seen, which I hope to have ready for transmission to my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty by to-morrow’s post.”

“Peter M’Quhae, Captain.”

“To Admiral Sir W. H. Gage, G. C. H., Devonport.”

In the _Literary Gazette_ of Oct. 21st., 1848, the Editor published an engraving of PONTOPPIDAN’s representation, and adds some accompanying conclusions, appended to copious extracts from the learned Bishop’s work:

“We have now only to point to the very remarkable resemblance between Captain M’Quhae and Pontoppidan’s description. One might fancy the galant Captain had read the old Dane, and was copying him, when he tells of the dark brown colour and white about the throat, and the neck clothed as if by a horse’s mane or a bunch of sea-weed--the exact words of the historian. This snake, however, did not seem to care for the fresh wind and ruffish weather, but kept, as in the calm, its head several feet above the water, and stretched out its length so as to be visible for some sixty or eighty feet. The motion was not perceptibly impelled by vermicular or lent-serpent action! Had it then large fins? There must be some power. The picture engraved in the folio represents it like a series of six barrels, or risings, with the intermediate parts under the sea.”

In the _Illustrated London News_ of Oct. 28st. was reprinted all that has been mentioned above, and there appeared three representations of the sea-serpent, as seen from the _Daedalus_, which I here show my readers in fig. 28, 29 and 30, omitting, however, the ship’s stern, because the drawings would be too large for our pages. The Editor of the _Illustrated London News_ adds:

“The drawings above-named have been received by the Lord Commissioners to the Admiralty, and by the courtesy of Capt. M’Quhae, our artist has been permitted to copy this pictorial evidence, as well as further to illustrate the appearance of the Serpent, under the supervision of Captain M’Quhae, and with his approval of the Authenticity of their details as to position and form.”

On the 28th. of October Lieutenant DRUMMOND, the officer of the watch, mentioned in the report of Captain M’QUHAE, published his own impressions of the animal, in the form of an extract from his own journal. As far as I can discover it did not appear before the 1st. of December, in the _Zoologist_ (p. 2306) and runs as follows:

“I beg to send you the following extract from my journal.”

“H. M. S. _Daedalus_, August, 6, 1848, lat. 25° S., long 9° 37′ E., St., Helena 1015 miles. In the 4 to 6 watch, at about five o’clock, we observed a most remarkable fish on our lee quarter, crossing the stern in a S. W. direction; the appearance of its head, which, with the back fin, was the only portion of the animal visible, was long, pointed, and flattened at the top, perhaps ten feet in length, the upper jaw projecting considerably; the fin was perhaps twenty feet in the rear of the head, and visible occasionally; the captain also asserted that he saw the tail, or another fin about the same distance behind it; the upper part of the head and shoulders appeared of a dark brown colour, and beneath the under jaw a brownish white. It pursued a steady undeviating course, keeping its head horizontal with the surface of the water, and in rather a raised position, disappearing occasionally beneath a wave for a very brief interval, and not apparently for purposes of respiration. It was going at the rate of perhaps from twelve to fourteen miles an hour, and when nearest, was perhaps one hundred yards distant. In fact it gave one quite the idea of a large snake or eel. No one in the ship has ever seen anything similar, so it is at least extraordinary. It was visible to the naked eye for five minutes, and with a glass for perhaps fifteen more. The weather was dark and squally at the time, with some sea running.”

The following article appeared in the _Times_ of Nov. 2d.:

“Amidst the numerous suggestions of those of your correspondents who are disposed to admit the account given by Captain M’Quhae of the marine monster seen by him and several of his brother officers, on the 6th. of August last, as not altogether imaginary, it appears surprising that it should not have occurred to any one to suggest an explanation of some apparent anomalies in the account, which have no doubt tended to stagger the belief even of some readers who are not disposed to assume (any more than myself) that a number of officers in Her Majesty’s navy would deliberately invent a falsehood, or could have been deceived in an appearance which they describe with such precise details”

“One of the greatest difficulties on the face of the narrative and which must be allowed to destroy the analogy of the motions of the so called “sea-serpent” with those of all known snakes and anguilliform fishes, is that no less than sixty feet of the animal were seen advancing _à fleur d’eau_ at the rate of from twelve to fifteen miles an hour, without it being possible to perceive, upon the closest and most attentive inspection, any undulatory motion to which its rapid advance could be ascribed. It need scarcely be observed that neither an eel nor a snake, if either of those animals could swim at all with the neck elevated, could do so without the front part of its body being thrown into undulation by the propulsive efforts of its tail.”

“But, it may be asked, if the animal seen by Captain M’Quhae was not allied to the snakes or to the eels, to what class of animals could it have belonged? To this I would reply, that it appears more likely that the enormous reptile in question was allied to the gigantic Saurians, hitherto believed only to exist in the fossil state, and, among them, to the Plesiosaurus.”

“From the known anatomical characters of the _Plesiosauri_, derived from the examination of their organic remains, geologists are agreed in the inference that those animals carried their necks (which must have resembled the bodies of serpents) above the water, while their progression was effected by large paddles working beneath--the short but stout tail acting the part of a rudder. It would be superfluous to point out how closely the surmises of philosophers resemble, in these particulars, the description of the eye-witnesses of the living animal, as given in the letter and drawings of Captain M’Quhae. In the latter we have many of the external characters of the former, as predicated from the examination of the skeleton. The short head, the serpent-like neck, carried several feet above the water, forcibly recall the idea conceived of the extinct animal; and even the bristly mane in certain parts of the back, so unlike anything found in serpents, has its analogy in the _Iguana_, to which animal the _Plesiosaurus_ has been compared by some geologists. But I would most of all insist upon the peculiarity of the animal’s progression, which could only have been effected with the evenness, and at the rate described, by an apparatus of fins or paddles, not possessed by serpents, but existing in the highest perfection in the _Plesiosaurus_.”--F. G. S.--

In the number of the _Illustrated London News_ of November 4, 1848, the letter of Captain M’QUHAE was published in which he expresses his special approbation of the figures:

“I have observed with very great satisfaction the Engravings of the “Sea-Serpent” in the Illustrated London News of the 28th. inst.; they most faithfully represent the appearance of the animal, as seen from Her Majesty’s ship _Daedalus_ on the 6th. of August last; and it is evident that much care has been bestowed upon the subject by the artist employed, to whom I beg to acknowledge myself greatly indebted for the patience and attention with which he listened to the various alterations suggested by me during the progress of the drawings.”

In the _Times_ of Nov. 4th., we find the following remark:

“As some interest has been excited by the alleged appearance of a sea-serpent, I venture to transmit a few remarks on the subject, which you may or not may think worthy of insertion in your columns. There does not appear to be a single well authenticated instance of these monsters having been seen in any southern latitudes; but in the north of Europe, notwithstanding the fabulous character so long ascribed to Pontoppidan’s description, I am convinced that they both exist and are frequently seen. During three summers spent in Norway I have repeatedly conversed with the natives on this subject.”

Here follow the descriptions of two appearances which I have inserted above, (n^o. 109, 110).

“They expressed great surprise at the general disbelief attaching to the existence of these animals amongst naturalists, and assured me that there was scarcely a sailor accustomed to those inland lakes, who had not seen them at one time or another.”--OXONIENSIS.

An unknown writer in one of the daily papers, after suggesting, whether the animals in question might not be full grown specimens of the _Saccopharynx flagellum_ of Dr. MITCHILL (described in the _Annals of the New York Lyceum of Natural History_, for March, 1824), or of the _Ophiognathus ampullaceus_ of Dr. HARWOOD (_Phil. Trans._, 1827), gives Captain M’QUHAE the benefit of a further conjecture, viz., whether some land species, as the boas, among which are individuals “forty feet” in length, may not sometimes betake themselves to the sea, or even “transport themselves from one continent to another.” (See _Zoologist_, 1848; p. 2320).

Some days after the figures of Captain M’QUHAE were published, a nobleman, whose name is not mentioned, wrote to Prof. OWEN to know his opinion about the animal seen by the Captain. The Professor, it would seem, did not answer the nobleman directly, but sent his answer to the Editor of the _Times_, evidently with a view of bringing his opinion under the eyes of thousands. This letter is too important to be abridged; I therefore give it in extenso; it appeared in the _Times_ of November 11, 1848.

_The Great Sea-Serpent._

“Sir,--Subjoined is the answer to a question relative to the animal seen from the _Daedalus_, addressed to me by a nobleman distinguished in literature, and taking much interest in science.”

“As it contains the substance of the explanation I have endeavoured to give to numerous inquirers, in the Hunterian Museum and elsewhere, and as I continue to receive many applications for my opinion of the “Great Sea Serpent,” I am desirous to give it once for all through the medium of your columns, if space of such value may be allotted to it.”

“I am, Sir, your very obedient servant

“Richard Owen.”

“Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Nov. 9.”