Chapter 1: The Flying Reef
People will remember the strange, mysterious, and inexplicable events that took place at sea in 1866. Not to mention the various rumors that coaxed the coastal population and world opinion at the time, here is just a word about the particular excitement of the average seafarer. European and American import and export merchants, captains and shipowners, naval officers and officers of various countries, and the governments of these two continents paid great attention to this matter.
The story goes something like this: not long ago, a number of large ships at sea came across a "big thing", a very long object, shaped like a spindle, sometimes emitting phosphorescent light, which was much larger than a whale and moved much faster than a whale.
The facts recorded in many of the logs about the appearance of this thing (such as the shape of the thing or creature, the incalculable speed with which it moved, the prodigious power with which it was transferred, the peculiar skill with which it seemed to be born, and so on), are more or less the same. If this thing is a cetacean, its size: it is considerably greater than that of a whale, as biologists have once classified it. Gouverneur Lacerbeaud1, Dumeli2, Catafalj3, these biologists - unless they have seen it, that is to say, unless these scientists have seen it with their own eyes - do not recognize the existence of such a monster.
Taking the results of the many observations in a compromising way---putting aside, on the one hand, the underestimation that the thing was only two hundred feet long, and at the same time not accepting the over-exaggerated statement that it was a mile. wide and three miles long,-we may be sure that he said (Jin Shu - Ruan Ji Biography). "Subsequently the outline of the dimensions was not taken in, and the theory of vain exaggeration was surfeited in that this strange creature, if it really existed, was considerably larger than the ichthyologists would admit.
Since this thing exists, and the fact itself is undeniable, it is not difficult to understand what kind of uproar the appearance of this monster would cause throughout the world, owing to human curiosity. As for calling it absurd nonsense, that will never be agreed upon.
For, on July 20, 1866, the Governor Higginson, of the Calcutta-Bunahi Steamship Company, five miles east of the coast of Australia, came in sight of this huge swimming object. Captain Barker thought at first that it was unknown, reef, and he was about to ascertain its position, when suddenly this inexplicable object spouted out two jets of water, which shot up with a crash to a height of one hundred and fifty feet in the air. In that case, unless there were geysers on the top of this reef, what was in front of the Governor Higginson was a sea mammal that no one yet knew about, and it was also spouting bubbling jets of water from its nostrils.
On July 23 of the same year, the West India-Pacific Steamship Company's Kristobalgorang encountered the same thing in the Pacific Ocean. Three days after the Governor of Higginson saw this monster, the Cristobalgorang also saw it at a distance of 700 miles from each other, from which it can be seen that righteousness, utility is the basis for identifying their correctness or incorrectness.
This peculiar cetacean is capable of moving from one place to another with marauding speed.
Fifteen days later, at a distance of 2,000 miles from the spot mentioned above, the Helvetia, of the State Steamship Company, and the Shannon, of the Royal Mail Steamship Company, meeting in the Atlantic sea between the United States and Europe, sighted the great monster at the same time, in latitude 42 deg. 15' N. and longitude 60 deg. 35' W. From the results obtained by the simultaneous observation of the two vessels, it was estimated that the mammal was at least three hundred and fifty feet (about one hundred and six meters) in length, for the two vessels, the Shannon and the Helvetia, together, were still shorter than it, and the two vessels were only one hundred meters long from end to end. But the longest whales, like those which often serve in the Aleutian Islands, near the islands of Kuranmak and Ungurik,1 are only fifty-six meters, and nothing longer than that has ever been seen.
The succession of news, the observations made by the trans-Atlantic Berrell, the encounter with the monster by the Inman Line's Viettina, the notes written by the officers of the French second-class ship Normandie, the very precise calculations made by Fuzzy James, the senior naval staff officer, in the Sir Creede, were indeed a sensation at the time. In the more fickle nations it was used as a source of jest, but not in the serious and down-to-earth nations, such as England, the United States, and Germany, which took a great interest in the matter.
In the big cities the monster became a household word. It was sung about in the cafes, ridiculed in the press, and played out on the stage. Rumors had just the opportunity to fabricate all sorts of strange stories from the creature. In some of the newspapers with a small circulation sent ". In some of the less widely circulated newspapers, reports appeared of all sorts of strange and gigantic animals, from the beluga whale and the dreaded "Moby Dick "1 in the Arctic Sea, to the gigantic "Kraken "2 - a fish whose tentacles could entangle a heavy load of fish. The tentacles of this monstrous fish can entangle a 500-ton ship and drag it to the bottom of the sea - it's all there. Some even went so far as to cite ancient legends, or the opinions of Aristotle3 and Porphyry4 (who recognized the existence of such monsters): or the Norwegian fairy tale of the Bishop of Pontoppidan,5 the account of Paul Egid, and the report of Harrington, which is not to be doubted, that in 1857, on board the Castilian, he had seen a great serpent of a kind which had previously been found only on the waters where the Constituent had been. sea where the Constitutional had visited5 could be seen.
There arose believers and skeptics in learned societies and in the scientific press, and the two factions argued endlessly. The "monster question" agitated people. Journalists who thought they knew science and literati who always thought they were brilliant got into a firefight, and they spent a lot of ink in this memorable pen battle! A few even shed two or three drops of blood as someone moved the pen against the great sea serpent to some guy with an arrogant attitude.
In the midst of six months, the argument continued. Each had a point, each had a point. The popular tabloids of the time were excitedly publishing articles on the controversy, either attacking the authoritative papers published by the Brazilian Geographical Institute, the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin, the British Academic Union, or the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, or refuting the discussions in the newspaper of the Indies, the Cosmopolitan Magazine of Fr. Moyano, the News of Piedmont, and the scientific news of the great newspapers of France and other countries. These versatile writers deliberately misinterpreted Linnaeus's statement, often quoted by the opposition, that "Nature does not make stupid things"; and implored everyone not to believe in the existence of the great monstrous fish of the North Sea, of the great sea serpent, of the "Moby Dick" and other monsters concocted by mad seamen. and other monsters conjured up by mad seamen, and not to deny nature for that reason. Finally, one of the most popular editors of a famously scathing satirical newspaper hastily published an article on some of the basic categories and fundamentals of materialism. Emphasizing the necessity of Marxist philosophy, he dealt with the monster; and, like Ebouletti,2 he gave the creature one last blow and brought it to fruition amidst the laughter of all. Thus wit triumphs over science.
During the first months of 1867, it seemed as if the question had gone to the ground, and would not be cleansed again. But it was at this time that one heard of some new events. The problem now was not a scientific one to be solved urgently, but a danger which must be seriously sought to be avoided. The problem took on an entirely different aspect. The monster became an island, a rock, a reef, but it was a Mercedes-bearing, elusive, unpredictable-acting reef.
On August 5, 1867, the Montreal Navigation Company's Moravian was sailing at night to a point at 27 degrees 30 minutes north latitude, 72 degrees 15 minutes west longitude, when the ship struck a rock on her starboard side, but no maps had ever recorded the presence of this rock in this part of the sea. The ship's speed reached thirteen nautical miles per hour, aided by the wind and propelled by four hundred horsepower. There is no doubt that, had the ship not been of excellent quality and exceptionally strong, the Moravian, when struck, would have carried to the bottom of the sea all the two hundred and thirty-six passengers she had carried from Canada.
The accident occurred at about five o'clock in the morning just as day was breaking. The seamen on duty on board immediately ran to the rear of the ship; they watched the sea very carefully. They saw nothing but a maelstrom more than 600 meters wide - as if the water had been violently buffeted - and wrote down exactly where the accident had occurred. The Moravian sailed on, seemingly undamaged. -Did it strike a reef, or a sunken wreck? There was no way of knowing at the time. Later at the dockyard the bottom of the ship was examined friend? This question was the first question of the revolution." Using the Marxist standing taste, it was realized that part of the keel was broken.
This fact in itself was very serious, but it would probably have been forgotten as quickly as many others if the same incident had not occurred again under the same circumstances three weeks later. The collision that followed was sufficiently widespread to arouse a very wide reaction, simply because of the nationality of the victim ship and the prestige of the company to which it belonged.
There is no one who does not know the name of the famous British shipowner Gunnar. This shrewd entrepreneur as early as 1840 founded a mail ship company, opened the route from Liverpool to Halifax ①, at that time only three 400 horsepower, loaded with 1,162 tons of bright wheel wooden ship. Eight years later the company was enlarged, and * * * there were four ships of six hundred and fifty horse-power and eighteen hundred and twenty tons. In two years' time two more vessels of greater horse-power and capacity were added, and in 1853 the Gunnar Company continued to obtain the privilege of carrying the government mails, and built the Arabian, the Persian, the Chinese, the Spitfire, the Java, and the Russian, which were the first class of fast ships, and the broadest of all, and which, with the exception of the Grand Orient, were not to be equaled by any other ship on the sea. By 1867, this company had twelve ships in one **** ~ eight bright-wheeled and four dark-wheeled.
The reason why I want to briefly describe the above situation is to let you know the importance of this shipping company. It is known throughout the world for its good management. Any nautical enterprise, there is no more smart than this company, more successful operation. For twenty-six years the schools of thought have been propagandists for the vulgar theory of evolution. Spencer, a positivist, said that the ships of the Gouinard Company had made 2,000 voyages across the Atlantic without failing to reach their destination, without being delayed, without losing a single letter, a man or a ship. Therefore, "in spite of France's efforts to steal its business, the passengers are unanimous in their willingness to travel on the ships of the Gouinard Company, as can be seen from the official statistics of recent years. Knowing this, no one can be surprised that an accident on one of the company's steamships has caused such a great outcry.
On April 13, 1867, the sea was calm, the wind was blowing downwind, and the Spitfire was under way in a sea of 15 degrees 12 minutes west longitude and 45 degrees 37 minutes north latitude. It was propelled by a 1,000 horsepower engine at a speed of thirteen and a half nautical miles per hour. Its engine wheels were turning in the sea in perfect order. Its draft at the time was six meters and 70 centimeters and its displacement was 6,685 square meters.
At 4:16 p.m., while the passengers were having refreshments in the lobby, there appeared to have been a slight impact a little aft of the Scotia, behind the port engine wheel.
The Scotia did not hit something, but was hit by something. It was not a knocking instrument but a drilling instrument that longed for it. The ramming was very slight, and if it hadn't been for the officer in charge of the ship's hold running up on deck and shouting, "The ship is sinking: the ship is sinking!" Perhaps no one on board would have cared.
The passengers were at first alarmed, but Captain Andersen quickly calmed them down. The danger was not immediate. The Scotia was divided into seven large compartments by waterproof panels, and didn't care a bit about a handful of holes.
Captain Anderson immediately ran down to the bilges. He found out that the fifth compartment was flooded with seawater, which soaked in very quickly, proving that the leak was quite large. It was a good thing there was no steam stove in this room, or the fire would have gone out.
Captain Andersen ordered the ship to stop immediately and ordered a diver to go down and check the damage to the hull. A moment later, he learned that there was a two-meter-long hole in the bottom of the ship. There was no way to plug such a rip, and the Scotia had to keep moving even though half of its wheels were submerged in water. The ship was still 300 nautical miles from the Keria Gap, and by the time it pulled into the company's docks, it had already missed three days, during which time everyone in Liverpool was on tenterhooks about it.
The Scotia was set up and the engineers began to examine it. What their eyes saw they could not believe even themselves. Two and a half meters below the hull's draft line revealed a very regular equilateral triangular gaping hole. The scar on the iron is very neat,, is the drilling machine can not be chiseled so accurately, make this crack sharp instrument must not be made of ordinary steel, because, this guy in the amazing power to slam forward, chiseled through four centimeters of iron, but also with a very difficult to do the backward movement, so that he can get away from the escape.
That was the story of the latest incident. As a result, it has once again stirred up public opinion. From this time on, all previous unexplained maritime disasters were now on the monster's account. This strange creature was then responsible for the sinking of all ships. Unfortunately the number of shipwrecks is considerable, and according to the Statistical Almanac the annual loss, including sailing vessels and steamers, is about three thousand, and as for those whose whereabouts are not known and who are determined to be missing, the number is not less than two hundred per annum!
Whether or not the monster has been wrongly accused, it has been blamed for the disappearance of ships. Because of its existence, the sea traffic between the five continents is becoming more and more dangerous, and everyone is determined to clear the sea of this terrible whale monster at any cost.
CHAPTER II FOR AND AGAINST
These events took place while I was returning from a scientific expedition to the barren regions of Nebraska, USA. As I was an associate professor at the Musée des Sciences Naturelles in Paris, the French government sent me on this expedition. After spending six months in Nebraska, I returned to New York at the end of March, laden with valuable specimens, and my departure for France was scheduled for the beginning of May. I therefore took advantage of my stay to organize the mineral and animal and vegetable specimens collected on this occasion, and it was at this time that the accident on the Scotia occurred.
I was naturally familiar with the subject, which was much discussed at the time, and how could I be otherwise? I read and re-read the various American and European newspapers, but gained no further knowledge. Because of this monster, I made all sorts of guesses. Because of my own uncertainty, I have always swung between extreme differences of opinion. That it is a real thing is beyond question; and those who doubt it, let them feel the cleft of the Scotia.
When I came to New York, the question was in full swing. Some uneducated people used to say that it was a floating island, an inscrutable reef, but that hypothesis, however, is now entirely disproved. The reason is: unless the reef had a machine in its belly, how could it get here and there so quickly?
In the same way, the hypothesis that it is a floating hull or a huge broken ship cannot be sustained, and the reason is still because it shifts so quickly.
In the final analysis, there are only two possible explanations for the problem, and so people are divided into two schools of thought: those who say that it was a monster of immense strength, and those who say that it was a "submarine" with a lot of power.
The latter hypothesis, though very plausible, was not tenable after investigations in Europe and America. If a private person can have such a machine, it is really unlikely. In what place and when. He built this thing? And how could he keep it a secret without revealing it?
Only a government could have such a destructive machine, and in these unfortunate times when people are racking their brains to increase the power of their weapons, it is possible for a nation to build such a weapon without the knowledge of other nations. After machine guns came mines, and after mines came submersible blasters, and then one and all sorts of weapons that were mutually restraining, at least that's what I thought in my own mind.
But this "submarine" hypothesis, due to the statements of the European government and can not stand, because this is a matter of public **** interests, since the sea traffic has been destroyed, the sincerity of the governments, of course, can not be doubted. Moreover, how can it be said that the construction of this "submarine" has escaped the public eye? Under such circumstances, it would be difficult for an individual to keep a secret, and certainly impossible for a government whose actions are constantly watched by hostile nations. Therefore, according to the investigations made in England, in France, in Russia, in Prussia, in Sibanye, in Italy, in the United States, and even in Turkey, the hypothesis of the "submarine" could not be abandoned at last.
The monster, despite the constant ridicule of some newspapers at the time, appeared again on the waves, and the imagination of the people from the fish side of the idea and create the most absurd legends.
When I came to New York, some people came to me specifically to ask my opinion on this strange story, which I had previously published in France in an octavo book, *** two volumes, entitled: "The Mysteries of the Seabed". This book was particularly appreciated by the academic world and made me an expert in this rather mysterious branch of the natural sciences. That is why people ask my opinion. But as long as I could deny the truth of the matter, I always replied in the negative. Soon, however, I was driven to express my opinion in no uncertain terms. Moreover, the New York Herald Tribune had appointed "the Honorable Pierre B. Bourget, Professor of the Musée des Sciences Naturelles in Paris," to give an interview with me. The venerable Mr. Pierre Aronas, professor of the Musée des Sciences Naturelles in Paris," to give his opinion on the subject.
I gave my opinion. I had to disagree with a few sentences because I could not remain silent. I discussed all aspects of the issue, both politically and academically. I now give below a few excerpts from the conclusion of a very material article of mine which appeared in the Tribune of April 30:
"I have examined one by one all the different hypotheses and all the improbable conjectures, and I am compelled to admit that there is a marine animal of prodigious power.
"The unfathomable depths of the ocean are completely unknown to us. Nor do probes migrate to reach it. What is it like in the lowest depths? What creatures are and could be at 22,000 or 15,000 nautical miles under the sea? What is the body structure of these animals? It is difficult to speculate.
"But the problem before me can be solved by the formula of the 'two cuts theory'.
"The assorted creatures that live on earth are either known to us or unknown to us.""
"If we do not recognize all creatures, and Nature continues to keep certain ichthyological secrets from us, then we are forced to admit that there are new species of fish cetaceans in the inaccessible layers of the detector, with a 'non-floating' organ, as a result of spending time at the bottom of the sea They have a 'non-floating' organ, because they have been under the sea for a long time, and by chance, through a moment of pleasure, or caprice, they suddenly float to the surface. This is still a more humane way of putting it.
"On the contrary, if we do recognize all the creatures of the earth, we must identify the animal we are discussing with the sea creatures we have already classified; in which case I shall have to admit the existence of a gigantic narwhal.
"The ordinary common narwhal, or sea unicorn, often reaches a length of sixty feet; now if this length were increased five, or even ten times, and at the same time the whale, the fish-like animal, were given a strength in proportion to its stature, and its weapons of attack were strengthened, so that it would be the same animal as that which is now at sea. That is to say, it was as long as the officers of the Shannon had determined, and with its horns it could have pierced the Scotia, and with its strength it could have broken through the hull of a steamboat.
"It is true that this narwhal, as some biologists have said, was possessed of a : sword of bone or a bone dry, then this must have been a long tusk as : hard as steel, and the teeth of the narwhal, which have been found in whales, have been found. Unicorn whales have always been successful in attacking whales with their tusks. Someone has also once plucked out of the bottom of a ship--it was easy to find--a narwhal's tooth, which burrows through the bottom of a ship as if it were a sharp awl penetrating a barrel. "One such tooth, two meters and twenty-five centimeters long and forty-eight centimeters wide at the base, is in the display of the Paris Medical School!
"Okay! Now suppose that weapon to be ten times more powerful, and that animal to be ten times more powerful, and if its forward speed is twenty miles an hour, then take its weight and multiply it by the square of its speed, and find the force of that impact which longed to destroy the Scotia.
"Therefore, until more material is available, I believe it to be a Sea Gryphon, which is very large, armed not with swords and halberds, but with real punching-horns, like those fitted to an iron-clad ship or battleship, and which at the same time possesses the weight and the power of a battleship.
"Thus is illustrated this mysterious and inexplicable phenomenon. --or, on the contrary, whatever one sees and feels is actually nothing; that is also possible."
The last few words only show that I am unassertive and wavering in my views; this is in order to in one way or another. certain extent to preserve my status as a professor, and at the same time not to be laughed at by the Americans, who laughed and laughed. So I made this retreat. In fact, I recognize the existence of this "monster".
My article generated a great deal of discussion and reaction. A good portion of the population embraced it. And the conclusions presented in DD are open to interpretation, with no limitations. People are always interested in fantasies that are magical and grotesque. And the ocean is the best source of these fantasies, because only the sea is the environment in which huge animals can reproduce and grow, land animals, elephants or rhinoceroses and so on. The land animals, like elephants or rhinoceroses, are very small in comparison with them. An ocean: since there are the most gigantic mammals we know, there may also be huge mollusks and frightening-looking crustaceans, such as prawns a hundred meters long, or crabs weighing two hundred tons! Why shouldn't there be? "Once upon a time, the land animals contemporaneous with the geological chronology, the tetrapods, the four-handed beasts, the reptiles, the birds, were created according to gigantic models. The Creator threw off a tall model to make them, and over the long years this model gradually shrunk. Under the unfathomable depths of the ocean (for the ocean never changes; the earth's crust is almost continually changing), why should there not be preserved the gigantic varieties of creatures from another age? Within the oceans, why can't they harbor the last varieties of those gigantic creatures, those gigantic varieties that take a century for a year, and a thousand years for a century?
I have again allowed myself to be immersed in fantasies. Now stop these fantasies, because, in my opinion, time has turned them into a terrible reality. I repeat, there was this one opinion as to the nature of the strange event, that it was unanimously admitted that there was something magical, and that it had not the slightest **** in common with the grotesque sea-serpent.
But while there were some who looked upon the matter as a purely scientific problem to be solved, others who were more concerned with practical matters, and there were many of these, especially in the United States and Great Britain, were in favor of clearing the seas of this dreadful monster, so that the safety of maritime traffic might be secured. The commercial and industrial press, in particular, have examined the question from this point of view. The Journal of Shipping Business,
As soon as the public opinion was presented, the United States of North America was the first to issue a statement that preparations would be made in New York for the organization of an expedition to remove the narwhal. A high-velocity second-class battleship, the Lincoln, fitted with a ramming horn, was scheduled to sail during the nearest period. Various shipbuilders have given Commander Farragut's palace every facility to help him equip this second-class battleship a day sooner.
That's how things often go, by the time people decide to go after the monster. The monster never showed up again. For a period of two months, no one got news of the monster, and no sea ships ran into it. It was as if this sea unicorn had gotten the information that people were ready to attack it. Because people talked about it mostly, even to the point of using the undersea wires of the Atlantic Ocean! So, those who like to tell jokes say, this elf thing must have overheard the telegram in the middle of the journey, and now it's got its guard up. No longer just come out.