Friday, July 28, 1899
Passengers on Steamer New
England Sighted Great Lizard
The passengers on the ocean liner New
England , which arrived at Boston form Liverpool on Thursday, aver that they
saw the sea serpent on the voyage. Capt. McAuley nor any one on board had
never seen such a strange monster before.
The Captain said that his attentions was
called to an object off the starboard bow, which he first made out to be a ship's boat or
part of a derelict. This was at 7.45 o'clock last Tuesday, when the ship was in latitude
45.37 north, longitude 58.09 west. He bore two points out of his course to ascertain just
what the object was, believing that it might be a wreck with some poor sailors in need of
assistance. The steamer approached to within about 40 feet of the object, which still had
the appearance of a submerged wreck. Suddenly a thin stream of water was thrown in the air
and the animal - for it proved to be one - moved off at the right angles to the ship,
going through the water at an eight-knot clip.
Capt. McAuley described the animal as about 45
feet in length, with a carinated back which projected about six feet out of water. Its
head was visible for only a few seconds when it raised it from the water to gaze
unconcernedly at the big ship as she approached. The neck was elongated and the head
hooded.
The captain did not say it was a sea serpent,
but acknowledged it was the strangest animal he had ever seen in his 40 years' experience
at sea.
The color of the animal was dark drab on top
with lighter shading near the water. One of the saloon passengers said that he believed it
was a giant sea lizard. |
