90 
SEA MONSTERS UNMASKED. 
neck being out of the water several feet. This was seen only 
by the captain and one ordinary seaman. 
" George Drevar, Master. 
" A few moments after it was seen some 60 feet elevated per- 
pendicularly in the air by the chief officer and the following 
seamen : — Horatio Thompson, Owen Baker, Wm. Lewarn. And 
we make this solemn declaration, conscientiously believing the 
same to be true." 
In the I lliLstrated London News, of November 20th, 1875, 
there had previously appeared a letter from the Rev. E. L. 
Penny, Chaplain to H.M.S. London, at Zanzibar, describing 
this occurrence and also the representation of a sketch 
(which I am kindly permitted to reproduce here), drawn by 
him from the descriptions given by the captain and crew 
of the Paidine. " The whale," he said, " should have been 
placed deeper in the water, but he would then have been 
unable to depict so clearly the manner in which the animal 
was attacked." He adds that, " Captain Drevar is a singularly 
able and observant man, and those of the crew and officers 
with whom he conversed were singularly intelligent ; nor did 
any of their descriptions vary from one another in the least : 
there were no discrepancies." The event took place whilst 
their vessel w^as on her way from Shields to Zanzibar, with 
a cargo of coals, for the use of H.M.S. London, then the 
guard ship on that station. 
It is impossible to doubt for a moment the genuineness 
of the statement made by Captain Drevar and his crew, or 
their honest desire to describe faithfully that which they 
believed they had seen ; but the height to which the snake is 
said to have upreared itself is evidently greatly exaggerated ; 
for it is impossible that any serpent could " elevate its body 
some sixty feet perpendicularly in the air" — nearly one- 
third of the height of the Monument of the Great Fire of 
