AN EXTRAORDINARY STORY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 74, 26 September 1874, Page 11

AN EXTRAORDINARY STORY.

The following strange story is the report of Captain Boyd with regard to the loss of the schooner Pearl : —

" I wus lately the skipper of the Pearl schooner, 150 tons, as tight a little crafc as ever sailed the seas, with a crew of six men. We were bound from the Mauritius to Kan goon in ballast to return with paddy, and had put in at G-nlle for water. Three days out we fell becalmed in the bay (lat. B** 50' N., long. 84° 5' E.) ; on May 10, about 5 p.m., eight bells 1 knew ,iad gone; we sighted a two-master screw on our port quarter, abo i. live or 6ix miles off. Very soon after, as we lay motionless, a grea. mass rose slowly out of the sea, about half a mile on our tai'board side, and remainel spread out and stationary. It looked like the back of a huge whale, but; it sloped less, and was of ay brownish color. Even at that distance it seemed much longer 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 j barring its size, color and shape it might be a whale,' replied Tom Scott. * And it ain't the sea-sarpent,' said one of the crew, ' for he's too round for that ere critter.' I went into the cabiu for my rifle, and as I was preparing to fire, Bill Darling, n Newfoundlander, came on deck and looking at the monster, exclaimed, putting up his band, ' 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. 4 Out with your axes and knives,' shouted Bill, ' and cut at any part of him that comes aboard ; look alive, and Lord help us ! ' Not nware 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 crow, Bill included, had 1 found axes, and one a rusty cutlass, and all were looking over the side at the advaming monster.

" We could now - see a huge oblong mass moving by jerks jusfc under the surface of the water, and an enormous train following j 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 one hundred foot long. In the time 1 have taken to write this the brute struck us, and the ship quivered under the thud ; in another moment monstrous arras,, like trees, seized the vessel, and she heeled over ; in another second the monster was aboard, squeezed in between 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 her 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 tew 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 fivo. The rest you know. I can't tell who ran up the ensign." — ' Indian. Homeward Mail.'