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 enormous 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 log-books)

agreed in most respects as to the shape of the object 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 whale, it surpassed in size all those hitherto classified in

science. Taking into consideration the mean of observations 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 learned ones 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

supernatural 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 Higginson, of the

Calcutta and Burnach Steam Navigation Company, 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 mysterious 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 eruption of a geyser, the Governor

Higginson had to do neither more nor less than with an aquatic mammal,

unknown till then, which threw up from its blow-holes columns of water

mixed with air and vapour.



Similar facts were observed on the 23rd 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 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 windward in that portion of the Atlantic lying

between the United States and Europe, respectively signalled the

monster to each other in 42 deg. 15' N. lat. and 60 deg. 35' W. long.

In these simultaneous observations they thought themselves justified in

estimating the minimum length of the mammal at more than three hundred

and fifty feet, as the Shannon 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.



In every place of great resort the monster was the fashion. 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 caricatures of every gigantic and imaginary

creature, from the white whale, the terrible "Moby Dick" of sub-arctic

regions, 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 revived.



Then burst forth the unending argument between the believers and the

unbelievers in the societies of the wise and the scientific journals.

"The question of the monster" inflamed all minds. Editors of

scientific journals, quarrelling with believers in the supernatural,

spilled seas of ink during this memorable campaign, some even drawing



blood; for from the sea-serpent they came to direct personalities.



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 shifting proportions.



On the 5th of March, 1867, the Moravian, of the Montreal Ocean Company,

finding herself during the night in 27 deg. 30' lat. and 72 deg. 15'

long., struck on her starboard quarter a rock, marked in no chart for

that part of the sea. Under 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 Moravian,

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 careful 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 submerged 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 forgotten 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 circulated.



The 13th of April, 1867, the sea being beautiful, the breeze

favourable, the Scotia, of the Cunard Company's line, found herself in

15 deg. 12' long. and 45 deg. 37' 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 quarter, 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 pouring into the fifth compartment; and the rapidity of the influx

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 existence

of a large hole, two yards in diameter, 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 instrument producing the perforation was not of a common stamp

and, after having been driven with prodigious strength, and piercing an

iron plate 1 3/8 inches thick, had withdrawn itself by a backward

motion.



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

thousand ships whose loss was annually recorded at Lloyd's, 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, communication between the different

continents became more and more dangerous. The public demanded sharply

that the seas should at any price be relieved from this formidable

cetacean.[1]





[1] Member of the whale family.