SEA-PINK 



SEA-SERPENT 



Si-a-plnk. See THRIFT. 

 8ea-por'ii|in'. See DIODON. 

 Si-nrrli-liulil. s..,. NAVY, Vol. VII. p. 421. 



Search-warrant* an authority granted to an 

 officer of police, enipoi'i ing him to enter piemi-es 

 and to search for and sei/e propcriv. In Kngland 

 such warrant* seem to have IH-.-H illegal at common 

 laxv; they were first |x>niiitte<i by statute for seizing 

 stolen goods in 1782. Under acts now in force a 

 justice of the peace may grant warrant* to search 

 for stolen goods, false coin, forged lunik-notes, &c. ; 

 he limy also give a warrant to search any place 

 when- there is reasonable cause to suspect that an 

 explosive sulmtance or machine is concealed for a 

 felonious purjtose. 



The right of si-arching ships on the high seas 

 indisputably belongs to Itelligerente (see ENEMY, 

 CONTRABAND, NEUTRALITY). The right claimed 

 by Kngland to search United States ships for 

 British subjects on board, with a view to impress 

 them into tin- British naval service, was one of 

 the causes of war in 1812 ; and the right of search 

 for slaves on Itoard suspected slave-traders was 

 repeatedly a source of difficulty. The case of the 

 Trent (q.v. ) in 1861 nearly fed to war between 

 Britain and the United States. 



The proper officers have a right to search the 

 persons of apprehended thieves, cic. ; and custom- 

 house officers are entitled to search for smuggled 

 goods, not merely ships but all persons on board 

 tin-in or who land from them. But" any person 

 limy in-i-t, before being searched, on being taken 

 before a magistrate or superior custom-house officer 

 and raise the question whether there is reasonable 

 suspicion that he has smuggled goods about him. 



Sra-rnliiii. n common American name for 

 fishes of the genus I'lioiiotus. which represents in 

 America the European gurnards (Trigla). 



Sea-scorpion. See FATHER-LASHER. 



Sea-*erpent. the mime given to gigantic 



animal-. prr-m lly of ser|>entine form, which 



have been frequently described by sailors ami 

 others, and which are believed by many naturalists 

 to exi-t in tin- sea di-pths. especially in tropical 

 oceans. The question of the existence of a sea- 

 serpent has long formed one of the knotty problems 

 of zoological science. But it seems reasonable to 

 conclude that there exists a certain basis for the 

 siip|Hi-iiion that huge undescril>ed marine forms 

 -In '-\i-t in the sea-depths, ami that the most reli- 

 able tales of sea-serpents take origin from ap|>ear- 

 anccs of such animals. Of such tales possessing 

 a warrantable basis of fart, ami emanating from 

 authoritative smin-e-., thai nf Captain M'ljnlioe is 

 one of the best known. This account wiis pub 

 li-heil in IslS. Captain M'ljnlme commanded 

 II. M.S. [hnlahu, and encountered the serpentine 

 foim in '24 44' S. lat, and 9 20' K. long., and there- 

 in the South Atlantic Ocean, near the Tropic 

 i Capricorn, and not very far from the coast of 

 Africa. It wan not, as in other cases, in bright 

 and fine weather, but in dark ami cloudy weather, 

 and with a long ocean swell. The animal was 

 swimming rapidly, and with its bead mid neck 

 al-ove water. Captain M'Quliae in his report to 

 the Admiralty describes it with confidence as 'an 

 enormous serpent, wild head and shoulders kept 

 about 4 feet constantly above the surface of the 

 sea;' and he adds: 'As nearly a* we could approxi- 

 mate by comparing it with the length of what our 

 mainto|iail yard would show in the water, there 

 wan at the very least 60 feet of the Animal AJleur 

 ifrau, no (Kirtion of which was. to our perception, 

 used in propelling it through the water, either by 

 vertical or hori/ontal undulation. It pawed rapidly, 

 but so close under our lee-quarter that had 'it 



beesi a man of my acquaintance I should have 

 easily recognised his features with the naked eye ; 

 and it did not, either in a|i|noaeliing the ship 

 or after it had passed our wake, deviate in the 

 slightest degree from its course to the south-west, 

 which it held on at the pace of from 12 to 15 

 miles per hour, apjtarently on some determined 

 purpose. The diameter of the serpent was about 

 l.'i or 16 inches behind the head, which was with- 

 out any doubt that of a snake ; ami it was never 

 during the twenty minutes that it continued in 

 sight of our glasses once Mow the surface of the 

 water; its odour a dark brown, with \ellowish 

 white about the throat. It had no fins, but some- 

 thing like the mane of a horse, or rather a bunch 

 of seaweed, washed about its back.' Kcgret has 

 been verv naturally expressed that Captain M'ljuhoe 

 did not bestow a shot on it. Figures prepared from 

 a sketch by him were published in the Illustrated 

 London Newt of 28th October 1848. Aliont the 

 same time the testimony of another witness. Lieu- 

 tenant Driimiiiond, ap|>cared, and was found to 

 diller in some important points from the account 

 of the animal given by Captain M'Quliac and the 

 figures published with his approbation, particularly 

 in ascribing a more elongated form to the heaii, 

 in the mention of a hack-fiii, whereas Captain 

 M'O.nhae expres-ly says that no fins were seen, 

 and in a lower estimate of the length of the portion 

 of the animal visible. Lieutenant Dnimmond's 

 words are: 'The appearance of its head, which 

 with the liack-fin was the only portion of the 

 animal visible, was long, pointed, and flattened 

 at the top, perhaps 10 feet in length ; the umier 

 jaw projecting considerably ; the hn was perhaps 

 20 feet in the rear of the head, and visible occa- 

 sionally ; the captain also asserted that he saw 

 the tail, or another fin about the same distance 

 behind it; the upper part of the bead and shoulders 

 appeared of a dark-brown colour, and lieneath the 

 under jaw a brownish white. It pursued a steady 

 and undeviating course, keeping its bend horizontal 

 with the water, and in rather a raised position, dis- 

 appearing occasionally lieneath a wave for a very 

 brief interval, and not apparently for the purposes 

 of respiration. It was going at the rate of perhaps 

 from 12 to 14 miles an hour, and when nearest was 

 perhaps 100 yards distant. In fact, it gave one 

 quite the idea of a large snake or eel.' Lieutenant 

 Dnimmond's account is the more worthy of regard, 

 as it is derived from his log-bonk, and so gives the 

 exact impressions of the hour, whilst Captain 

 M'Quhnes was written from memory after his 

 arrival in Kngland. Sir Kit-hard ( >wen thought the 

 animal was a gigantic seal ; a supposition, how- 

 ever, which does not at all agree with the descrip- 

 tion given. 



In 1875 a battle between a sea-serpent and a 

 whale was viewed from the deck of the I'miline 

 of London, Captain I'tevar, when proceeding with a 

 cargo of coals from Shields to Xaimbar. \Vhen tlie 

 1'itii/iiic reached the region of the trade-winds ami 

 equatorial currents she was carried out of her cour-e, 

 mid after a severe storm found herself off Cape 

 San Koque, where several sperm whales were seen 

 playing almut her. While the crew were watching 

 them they suddenly beheld a sight that filled every 

 man on lioard with terror. Stalling straight from 

 the liosom of the deep, a gigantic serpent rose 

 and wound itself twice in two mighty coils round 

 the largest of the, whales, which it proceeded to 

 crush in genuine Itoa-constrictor fashion. In vain 

 did the hapless whale struggle. Insh the water into 

 foam, anil even bellow, for all its efforts were as 

 nothing against the supernatural powers of its 

 dreadful adversary ; whose strength may be further 

 imagined from the fact that the ribs of the 

 ill-fated cetacean were distinctly heart) cracking one 



