PART I

CHAPTER I

A SHIFTING REEF

The year 1866 was signalised by a remarkable incident,

a mysterious and puzzling 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 officers 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 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@ 15' N. lat.

and 60@ 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@ 30' lat. and

72@ 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@ 12' long. and 45@ 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.

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