THE year 1866 was signalised by a remarkable incident, a
mysterious and inexplicable phenomenon, which doubtless
no one has yet forgotten. Not to mention rumours which
agitated the maritime population, and excited the public
mind, even in the interior of continents, seafaring men were
particularly excited. Merchants, common sailors, captains
of vessels, skippers, both of Europe and America, naval of-
ficers of all countries, and the Governments of several states
on the two continents, were deeply interested in the matter.
For some time past, vessels had been met by "an enor-
mous thing," a long object, spindle-shaped, occasionally
phosphorescent, and infinitely larger and more rapid in its
movements than a whale.
The facts relating to this apparition (entered in various
logbooks) agreed in most respects as to the shape of the ob-
ject or creature in question, the untiring rapidity of its
movements, its surprising power of locomotion, and the
peculiar life with which it seemed endowed. If it was a ce-
tacean, it surpassed in size all those hitherto classified in
science. Taking into consideration the mean of observa-
tions made at divers times,-rejecting the timid estimate of
those who assigned to this object a length of two hundred
feet, equally with the exaggerated opinions which set it
down as a mile in width and three in length,-we might
fairly conclude that this mysterious being surpassed greatly
all dimensions admitted by the ichthyologists of the day,
if it existed at all. And that it did exist was an undeniable
fact; and, with that tendency which disposes the human
mind in favour of the marvellous, we can understand the
excitement produced in the entire world by this supernat-
ural apparition. As to classing it in the list of fables, the idea
was out of the question.
On the 20th of July, 1866, the steamer Governor Higgin-
son, of the Calcutta and Burnach Steam Navigation Com-
pany, had met this moving mass five miles off the east coast
of Australia. Captain Baker thought at first that he was in
the presence of an unknown sandbank; he even prepared to
determine its exact position, when two columns of water,projected by the inexplicable object, shot with a hissing noise a hundred and fifty feet up into the air. Now, unless
the sandbank had been submitted to the intermittent erup-
tion of a geyser, the Governor Higginson had to do neither
more nor less than with an aquatic mammal, unknown till
then, which drew up from its blow-holes columns of water
mixed with air and vapour.
Similar facts were observed on the 23d of July in the
same year, in the Pacific Ocean, by the Columbus, of the
West India and Pacific Steam Navigation Company. But
this extraordinary cetaceous creature could transport itself
from one place to another with surprising velocity; as, in
an interval of three days, the Governor Higginson and the
Columbus had observed it at two different points of the
chart, separated by a distance of more than seven hundred
nautical leagues.
Fifteen days later, two thousand miles farther off, the
Helvetia, of the Compagnie-Nationale, and the Shannon,
of the Royal Mail Steamship Company, sailing to wind-
ward in that portion of the Atlantic lying betw~n the
United States and Europe, respectively signalled the mon-
ster to each other in 42° 15' N. lat. and 60° 35' W. long. In
these simultaneous observations, they thought themselves
justified in estimating the minimum length of the mam-
mal at more than three hundred and fifty feet, as the Shan-
non and Helvetia were of smaller dimensions than it, though
they measured three hundred feet over all.
Now the largest whales, those which frequent those
parts of the sea round the Aleutian, Kulammak, and
Umgullich islands, have never exceeded the length of sixty
yards, if they attain that.
These reports arriving one after the other, with fresh ob-
servations made on board the transatlantic ship Pereire, a
collision which occurred between the Etna of the Inman
line and the monster, a proces verbal directed by the offi-
cers of the French frigate N ormandie, a very accurate sur-
vey made by the staff of Commodore Fitz-James on board
the Lord Clyde, greatly influenced public opnion. Light-
thinking people jested upon the phenomenon, but grave
practical countries, such as England, America, and Ger-
many, treated the matter more seriously.
In every place of great resort the monster was the fash-ion. They sang of it in the cafes, ridiculed it in the papers, and represented it on the stage. All kinds of stories were
circulated regarding it. There appeared in the papers cari-
catures of every gigantic and imaginary creature, from the
white whale, the terrible "Moby Dick" of hyperborean re-
gions, to the immense kraken whose tentacles could entangle
a ship of five hundred tons, and hurry it into the abyss of
the ocean. The legends of ancient times were even resusci-
tated, and the opinions of Aristotle and Pliny revived, who
admitted the existence of these monsters, as well as the Nor-
wegian tales of Bishop Pontoppidan, the accounts of Paul
Heggede, and, last of all, the reports of Mr. Harrington
(whose good faith no one could suspect), who affirmed that,
being on board the Castillan, in 1857, he had seen this
enormous serpent, which had never until that time fre-
quented any other seas but those of the ancient "Constitu-
tionnel."
Then burst forth the interminable controversy between
the credulous and the incredulous in the societies of savants
and scientific journals. "The question of the monster" in-
flamed all minds. Editors of scientific journals, quarrelling
with believers in the supernatural, spilled seas of ink dur-
ing this memorable campaign, some even drawing blood;
for, from the sea-serpent, they came to direct personalities.
For six months war was waged with various fortune in the
leading articles of the Geographical Institution of Brazil,
the Royal Academy of Science of Berlin, the British As-
sociation, the Smithsonian Institution of Washington, in
the discussions of the "Indian Archipelago," of the Cosmos
of the Abbe Moigno, in the Mittheilungen of Petermann,
in the scientific chronicles of the great journals of France
and other countries. The cheaper journals replied keenly
and with inexhaustible zest. These satirical writers parodied
a remark of Linnreus, quoted by the adversaries of the
monster, maintaining "that nature did not make fools," and
adjured their contemporaries not to give the lie to nature,
by admitting the existence of krakens, sea-serpents, "Moby
Dicks,'~ and other lucubrations of delirious sailors. At
length an article in a well-known satirical journal by a fa-
vourite contributor, the chief of the staff, settled the mon-
ster, like Hippolytus, giving it the death-blow amidst an uni-
versal burst of laughter. Wit had conquered science.
During the first months of the year 1867, the question
seemed buried never to revive, when new facts were brought
before the public. It was then no longer a scientific problem
to be solved, but a real danger seriously to be avoided. The
question took quite another shape. The monster became a
small island, a rock, a reef, but a reef of indefinite and shift-
ing proportions.
On the 5th of March, 1867, the Moravian, of the Mon-
treal Ocean Company, finding herself during the night in
27° 30' 1at. and 72° 15' long., struck on her starboard quar-
ter a rock, marked in no chart for that part of the sea. Un-
der the combined efforts of the wind and its four hundred
horse-power, it was going at the rate of thirteen knots. Had
it not been for the superior strength of the hull of the Mo-
ravian, she would have been broken by the shock and gone
down with the 237 passengers she was bringing home from
Canada.
The accident happened about five o'clock in the morning,
as the day was breaking. The officers of the quarter-deck
hurried to the after-part of the vessel. They examined the
sea with the most scrupulous attention. They saw nothing
but a strong eddy about three cables' length distant, as if
the surface had been violently agitated. The bearings of the
place were taken exactly, and the Moravian continued its
route without apparent damage. Had it struck on a sub-
merged rock, or on an enormous wreck? they could not tell:
but on examination of the ship's bottom when undergoing
repairs, it was found that part of her keel was broken.
This fact, so grave in itself, might perhaps have been for-
gotten like many others, if, three weeks after, it had not
been re-enacted under similar circumstances. But, thanks
to the nationality of the victim of the shock, thanks to the
reputation of the company to which the vessel belonged,
the circumstance became extensively cirulated.
The 13th of April, 1867, the sea being beautiful, the
breeze favourable, the Scotia, of the Cunard Company's
line, found herself in 15 ° 12' long. and 45 ° 3 7' lat. She
was going at the speed of thirteen knots and a half.
At seventeen minutes past four in the afternoon, whilst
the passengers were assembled at lunch in the great saloon,
a slight shock was felt on the hull of the Scotia, on her quar-
ter, a little aft of the port-paddle.
The Scotia had not struck, but she had been struck, and
seemingly by something rather sharp and penetrating than
blunt. The shock had been so slight that no one had been
alarmed, had it not been for the shouts of the carpenter's
watch, who rushed on to the bridge, exclaiming, "We are
sinking! we are sinking!" At first the passengers were much
frightened, but Captain Anderson hastened to reassure
them. The danger could not be imminent. The Scotia,
divided into seven compartments by strong partitions, could
brave with impunity any leak. Captain Anderson went down
immediately into the hold. He found that the sea was pour-
ing into the fifth compartment; and the rapidity of the in-
flux proved that the force of the water was considerable.
Fortunately this compartment did not hold the boilers, or
the fires would have been immediately extinguished. Captain
Anderson ordered the engines to be stopped at once, and
one of the men went down to ascertain the extent of the
injury. Some minutes afterwards they discovered the exist-
ence of a large hole, of two yards in diameterr in the ship's
bottom. Such a leak could not be stopped; and the Scotia,
her paddles half submerged, was obliged to continue her
course. She was then three hundred miles from Cape Clear,
and after three days' delay, which caused great uneasiness
in Liverpool, she entered the basin of the company.
The engineers visited the Scotia, which was put in dry
dock. They could scarcely believe it possible; at two yards
and a half below water-mark was a regular rent, in the form
of an isosceles triangle. The broken place in the iron plates
was so perfectly defined, that it could not have been more
neatly done by a punch. It was clear, then, that the instru-
ment producing the perforation was not of a common stamp;
and after having been driven with prodigious strength, and
piercing an iron plate 1~ inches thick, had withdrawn it-
self by a retrograde motion truly inexplicable.
Such was the last fact, which resulted in exciting once
more the torrent of public opinion. From this moment all
unlucky casualties which could not be otherwise accounted
for were put down to the monster. Upon this imaginary
creature rested the responsibility of all these shipwrecks,
which unfortunately were considerable; for of three thou-
sand ships whose loss was annually recorded at Lloyds', the
number of sailing and steam ships supposed to be totally lost, from the absence of all news, amounted to not less than two hundred!
Now, it was the "monster" who, justly or unjustly, was
accused of their disappearance, and, thanks to it, communi-
cation between the different continents became more and
more dangerous. The public demanded peremptorily that
the seas should at any price be relieved from this formidable cetacean.