The Osborne, paddle royal yacht, Commander Hugh L. Pearson, which
arrived at Portsmouth from the Mediterranean on Monday, June 11,
has forwarded an official report to the Admiralty, through the
Commander-in-Chief (Admiral Sir George Elliot, K.C.B.), respecting a
sea monster which she encountered during her homeward voyage.
At about 5 o'clock in the afternoon of June 2, the sea being
exceptionally calm, while the yacht was proceeding round the north
coast of Sicily toward Cape Vito, the officer on the watch observed
a long ridge of fins, each about 6 feet long, moving slowly along. He
called for a telescope, and was at once joined by other officers. The
Osborne was steaming westward at ten and a half knots an hour, and
having a long passage before her, could not stay to make minute
observations. The fins were progressing in a eastwardly direction, and
as the vessel more nearly approached them, they were replaced by the
foremost part of a gigantic monster. Its skin was, so far as it could
be seen, altogether devoid of scales, appearing rather to resemble in
sleekness that of a seal.
The head was bullet-shaped, with an elongated termination, being
somewhat similar in form to that of a seal, and was about six feet in
diameter. Its features were only seen by one officer, who described
them as like those of an alligator. The neck was comparatively narrow,
but so much of the body as could be seen, developed in form like that
of a gigantic turtle, and from each side extended two fins, about
fifteen feet in length, by which the monster paddled itself along
after the fashion of a turtle.
The appearance of the monster is accounted for by a submarine volcano,
which occurred north of Galita, in the Gulf of Tunis, about the middle
of May, and was reported at the time by a steamer which was struck by
a detached fragment of submarine rock. The disturbance below water, it
is thought probable, may have driven up the monster from its "native
element," as the site of the eruption is only one hundred miles from
where it was reported to have been seen--_Portsmouth (Eng.) Times._
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