The Latest Sea Serpent.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 147, 3 September 1872, Page 7

The Latest Sea Serpent.

The Liverpool correspondent of the Scotsman sends the following tale : - "Captain M'Taggart, of the ship Kent, at present at Liverpool, reports that he left Liverpool for Benin and the west coast of Africa in the brigantine Onward, on the 20th September last, and that when about sixtydays out, and when his vessel was midway between Cape Palmas and Grand Bassa, one night the vessel was surrounded with enormous shoals of fish of every description, including sharks, porpoises, &c, and although he had been trading on the coast for upwards of twenty years, he never saw such a sight before. Next morning, about eight o'clock, in going forward to take the sun, he observed something in the water, on the starboard bow, and he at once called the attention of the crew to it, and they and the officers of the Onward at once pronounced it to be a sea serpent. As far as Captain M'Taggart could judge, the head, which was very broad, and surmounted by something shaped like a coronet, was about eight feet out of the water, and it was going through the water at a very rapid rate, knocking spray about like a ship. The strange fish went on rapidly for about two minutes, when it stopped and remained stationary. This gave the Captain time to observe the fish more minutely. About ten feet from the head there was a large fin, about two feet out of the water. The scales were large and of a beautiful colour. From the head and shoulders, which \ were of immense width, the body of the fish | tapered gradually away to the extent of 180 'to 200 feet, ending in a tail something like J that of a mackerel —in fact, Captain M'Tag- ; gart says the colour of the fish closely resenv i bled that of a mackerel. After laying quiet for some time, the fish or serpent shot ahead J at great speed, and was soon lost to view. 1 The Captain thinks that the presence of such vast shoals of fish on the night previous, so | fa'" out at sea, must have had something to do with the presence of this monster of the ! African coast."