THE GREAT SEA SERPENT. 



throw some light on what the Rev. Mr. Highton saw, and on sea 

 serpents in general : In 1848 I was attached to H.M.S. St. Vincent, 

 bearing the flag of Sir Charles Napier, and lying at Spithead. One 

 summer evening, about six o'clock, just as the officers were sitting down 

 to dinner, the midshipman of the watch ran into the wardroom and 

 reported that a sea serpent was passing rapidly between the ship and 

 the Isle of Wight (this was after the reported appearance of the 

 Dcedalus sea serpent). We all got our glasses and went on deck, and 

 there, sure enough, about a mile off, was a large monster, with a head 

 and shaggy mane, about 100 feet long, and tapering towards the tail ; 

 it was going with the tide, and had a rapid, undulating motion. Two 

 or three boats were manned, and some officers got their guns and went 

 in pursuit. We watched them from the ship ; they gradually got close, 

 and guns were raised and levelled at the creature's head ; but just as 

 we thought the sport was about to begin, down went the guns, and 

 from their gestures we saw something very laughable had occurred. 

 On their return we found that the supposed serpent was a long line of 

 soot. Some steamer in the Southampton Waters had evidently swept 

 her dirty flues, and the soot from tubes or flues is always of a very sticky 

 nature, and as it was pitched overboard it went away with the tide, 

 sticking together, and gradually forming into the shape of a long 

 serpent, the wave motion giving it an undulating life-like appearance. 

 In this case, if the boats had not gone we should have all believed we 

 had seen the real sea serpent; and this 'arrangement in soot' is 

 evidently what Mr. Highton saw. The curl he describes towards the 

 tail end arose from an occasional wave having a little more than 

 ordinary velocity, and carrying its dusky crest for a moment along with 

 it, while a strong tide and fair wind would give considerable velocity. 

 My story will, I think, supply a raison d'etre, not only for Mr. Highton's 

 sea serpent, but probably for the whole brood. 



" W. GORE-JONES, Vice-Admiral." 



The foregoing anecdote is interesting and very instructive, 

 as showing how easily even the observant and practised 

 eyes of naval officers and sailors may be deceived as to the 

 identity of objects seen at sea ; but it certainly does not 

 account for " the whole brood " of supposed sea serpents in 

 general, nor Mr. Highton's in particular. The soot from a 

 steamer's flues, and her cinders shot overboard, leave a long 



