In 1851, an American whaling ship killed a 30-meter-long serpentine behemoth in the South Pacific, and the captain cut off its head and boiled 10 barrels of oil.
On February 24, 1852, a report about the capture of a marine python set off a wave of public opinion.
The first piece of the story was the New York Tribune, a major American newspaper, and it was actually a letter from Captain Jason Seabury, who claimed to be the captain of the Monongahira.
The letter describes an appalling and unconvincing event – Captain Siberry said that their ship, the Monongahira, had encountered and killed a huge sea serpent on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean (3°10'S, 130°50'W).
In the early morning of January 13, 1852, the noisy movement of the lookout woke everyone on the "Mononga Hira".
Just before Captain Siberry knew what was happening, the sailor Shanks rushed into his room and said excitedly to him: "Captain, White Wave! White waves! It turned out that the "Monongahira" finally found its prey.
Hearing this, Captain Seabury's eyes lit up with golden light, and quickly walked out of the room to the deck, and another sailor, Bucky, handed over a telescope, and immediately began to command the operation after Captain Seabury took the telescope and observed it for a moment.
For the experienced Seabury captain, this white wave is not necessarily the target of their trip - sperm whales, but a school of dolphins.
But for him, no matter what is ready, the opportunity is fleeting.
With the "Monongahira" fully armed, the atmosphere suddenly became tense, and everyone watched this moving white wave that was getting closer and closer.
Captain Sibery held the front of the deck and opened his eyes wide, trying to see if the prey was the sperm whale of his dreams.
But as a fierce wave came, the crew of the "Monongahira" had to take a break so as not to be photographed off the ship by the wave, and the prey that had been tracked also dived underwater.
Finally, the lookout said that he had seen a patch of black skin, which he thought would never be a sperm whale, and Captain Sibery thought so, because he had never seen a sperm whale of this length and size.
But the prey of the tough Captain Seabury will never let go easily, not to mention this is a big guy.
At 14:36 on January 13, 1852, this was the most suitable time for the weather in the rapidly changing ocean, cloudless and calm, and the "Monongahira" was already in full swing.
A huge, barbed-filled iron spear—or a straight fish hook would be more appropriate—has already been loaded, and as soon as the shadow of the giant "sperm whale" appears, the experienced launcher Roger will not hesitate to penetrate it.
At 15:18, the black shadow appeared as expected, and the hook lived up to expectations to penetrate it, and after the hook caught its prey, the "Monongahira" only felt a huge force leading the hull.
The crew had grasped the railings before the emergency of the hull tilting occurred, and they were very experienced.
The fierce struggle soon ended, and the thick rope pulled by the hook had been pulled straight, but there was no sign of breaking, but the screws of the launcher tied to the rope were loosened a few times, as if they were about to break free at any moment.
Seeing this, Captain Sibery breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately ordered the sailors to close the thread together, intending to pull the prey up.
The first thing that came up was a section of body, which was clearly visible to the crew as a prey, with the recovery of the rope.
Finally, a shocking scene happened, it turned out that the hook shot straight at the junction of the head and body of this prey, and now when the first half of the prey was hoisted by the machine, its veil was finally lifted - it was a huge sea serpent.
According to Captain Seabury's letter, the serpent was 103.7 feet long, 19.1 feet in diameter at the neck, 49.4 feet at its fullest point, with a long and flat head and a black back.
There are brown stripes on the sides, two-thirds of the abdomen are white stripes, and on the skin there are sporadic black spots. But even more valuable to Captain Seabury was the subcutaneous grease and skull of this sea monster.
Captain Sibery found the snake's skin grease as flammable as pine oil, making it a good substitute for whale oil for sperm whales, and his head was hung on the stern of the ship as a trophy in an attempt to drag it back to make a fortune.
But regrettably, the captain's return voyage was not so smooth, and the "Monongahira" disappeared into the Pacific Ocean at an unknown time, and there was no clue under the search of countless people.
It was not until 1855 that a fishing boat salvaged the wreck of the Monongahira near the Aleutian Islands.
Nothing could be found in the letters about sea monster heads and grease, only some crew notes and diaries that recorded the killing of sea monsters.
In my opinion, the sea monster may just be a mutated sea snake, after all, in this planet where 70% of the ocean is oceanic, what kind of creatures exist in the deep sea has not yet been discovered.
And the silence after the inexplicable disappearance of the "Monongahira" may be partly due to infighting among the crew's interests, and partly because of the pirate attack.
Resources
【1】：《1852, March: Captain Seabury’s Serpent》
[2]: "The Mystery of the Ocean Python Who Doesn't Know the Truth"
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