STRANGE STORY FROM THE SEA.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 131, 31 October 1874, Page 3

STRANGE STORY FROM THE SEA.

The subjoined very strange story is published by an Indian contemporary: —I hasten on landing to forward to you the particulars of an adventure as strange as it is unique ; and, for auld lang syne’s sake, the old Delhi shall first have the remarkable story which will soon be in all the Calcutta papers. We had left Colombo in the screw steamer Strathowen, 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 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, lying on the sea, which, from its color and shape, I took to be a bank of sea weed. As I watched, the mass, hitherto at rest on the quiet sea, was set in motion, and its course towards the schooner was marked by strong ripples. My exclamation on seeing this huge mass suddenly in motion on a tranquil sea, drew the passengers and officers of the ship who were on deck towards the side of the steamer, and we all watched the strange sight in silence, no one venturing a remark as to the nature of the phenomenon. As we gazed, the mass struck the schooner, which visibly reeled and then righted ; immediately afterwards the masts swayed sideways, and with my glass I could clearly discern the enormous mass and the hull of the schooner coalescing (I 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 towards us, lower and lower ; the vessel was on hexbeam ends ; lay there a few seconds, and disappeared ; the masts righting as she sank, and the main exhibiting a reversed ensign struggling towards its peak. A cry of horror arose from the lookers on, and, as if by instinct, our ship’s head was at once turned towards 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, I say twenty minutes, at haphazard, for the tragedy occurred so rapidly that watch consulting was out of the question. Quickly we were on the spot and ready and eager hands soon manned a a boat, and rescued the sufferers, live in number ; and when they .reached our deck we all vied with one another in expressions of heartfelt sympathy and offers of assistance. As soon as the poor fellows were able to tell their story, they astounded us with the assertion that the vessel had been submerged by a gigantic cuttle lish or calamary, the animal which, in a smaller form, attracts so much attention in the Brighton Aquarium as the Octopus. I prevailed on the skipper

to give me his written account of the disaster. He said —“ As we lay motionless, a great mass rose slowly out of the sea, about half a mile 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 less and was of a brownish color. I went into the cabin for my rifle, and as I was preparing to lire, 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 round him, and be began to move. ‘ Out with your axes and knives,’ shouted Bill, ‘ and cut at any part of him that comes aboard; look alive, and Lord help us ! ’ Three of the crew, Bill included, 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 mass moving by jerks just under the water, and an enormous train following ; the oblong body was at least half the size of our 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 yourlifes 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 mast and one of those awful arms ; for a few seconds our ship lay on her beam ends, then filled and went down; another of the crew must have been sucked down, for you only picked up five. ’—James Floyd, late master schooner Pearl.”