The following account of THE AMERICAN SEA SERPENT, is given in the words of an eye-witness :
I, the undersigned Joseph Woodward, captain of the Adamant schooner, of Hingham, being on my rout from Penobscot to Hingham, steering W. N. W., and being about ten leagues from the coast, perceived, last Sunday, at two P. M. something on the surface of the water, which seemed to me to be of the size of a large boat.
Supposing that it might be part of the wreck of a ship, I approached ; but when I was within a few fathoms of it, it appeared, to my great surprise, and that of my whole crew, that it was a monstrous serpent.
When I approached nearer, it coiled itself up, instantly uncoiling itself again, and withdrew with extreme rapidity. On my approaching again, it coiled itself up a second time, and placed itself at the distance of sixty feet at most, from the bow of the ship.
I had one of my guns loaded with a cannon ball and musket bullets. I fired it at the head of the monster ; my crew and myself distinctly heard ths ball and bullets strike against the body, from which they rebounded, as if they had struck against a rock.
The serpent shook his head and tail in an extraordinary manner, and advanced toward the ship with open jaws. I had caused the cannon to be reloaded, and pointed it at his throat ; but he had come so near, that all the crew were seized with terror, and we thought only of getting out of his way.
He almost touched the vessel, and had not I tacked as I did, he would certainly have come on board. He dived ; but in a moment we saw him appear again, with his head on one side of the vessel, and his tail on the other, as if he was going to lift us up and upset us. However, we did not feel any shock. He remained five hours near us, only going backward and forward.
A library of wonders and curiosities found in nature and art, science and literature
NEW AND REVISED EDITION, by John Platts, 1884.
