Mysteries Of The Deep

Can anyone shed any further light on any of the following snippets or add any to the list? The 150-ton schooner 'Pearl' sailing into the Bay of Bengal, on the 10th of May 1874, was attacked by a giant squid and sunk. Apparently some of the survivors were rescued by a P & O Liner.... Sir Francis Chichester, of solo navigation fame, wrote of the incident that, to him, the most convincing evidence of authenticity (of the report) was the casual remark that the man who warned the master of the Pearl not to molest the squid was a Newfoundlander...because, in Chichester's opinion, at the time of the incident the one place in the world where men were most likely to know about large squids, and their ferocity if attacked, was Newfoundland... On a raft, in 1942, shipwrecked men dying of thirst, surrounded by sharks and fast losing hope were astounded when a giant squid appeared beside them, and snatched a man with a huge tentacle. Another tentacle came over and fastened itself on the right leg and body of a man named Cox ,but the others grabbed him and prevented the squid from taking him. He lost lumps of skin but survived, scarred for life... More about this is contained in .pdf form at http://www.navyhistory.org.au/review/80-1.pdf Navy warship 'Stein's anti submarine sonar dome stopped functioning. On inspection it was found to be deeply scratched, with the longest cut at about four feet, as though raked by giant claws. An object found embedded under the rubber coating was either a tooth or a claw which looked as though it had been wrenched from something... About every 30 years in cold Labrador waters off St. John's in Newfoundland there is an incident involving giant squid. Giant squids were known for grabbing survivors of shipwrecks. Each sucker on their huge tentacles has a ring of teeth in it, the suction cups make contact and the teeth pierce flesh. The squid has a beak, like a parrot. The maximum size measured in the area was 150 feet. In 1896, Prof. Joseph Genaro of New York Uninersity found a 32' stump of a tentacle on beach, weighing more than 6 tons. Known as Web's octopus , a small piece remains at the Smithsonian Institute. Genaro found, on analysis, that it was too similar to 'true' octopus. It was indeed a gigantic octopus... 'Mega-mouth'...a shark weighing over a ton...a great sea serpent spotted by the crew of the Norwegian ship HMS Dedalus, in the Gulf of Aden. They clearly saw a giant serpents head... 35 miles from Vancouver a young man, John Andrews, fishing off a pier, clearly saw a long snake-like creature with fins. The head was about one and a half feet long and 8 or 9" wide. He even had time to observe that the eyes could move independently. The body was as thick as his thigh and was undulating as it swam right below him. Some monsters of the deep have been observed to have a giraffe-like head, some a 'mane'...there are apparently drawings made off Discovery Island of a creature with what seemed to be a mane... Thirty miles off Lizzard Point in Cornwall, UK, George Vinnicombe and John Cox saw what they thought was an upturned boat. It was something with humps about three feet above the sea which was flat calm. as they came astern of it, a head surfaced, it gradually sank out of sight...it must have weighed several tons, was prehistoric looking and about the same length as the boat which was 36 feet long... Off the Orkneys, a creature with a mane, tiny head and long neck was seen by many observers in December 1977... In a moment we will offer links to some fascinating sites on related topics, but first we must ask if YOU have come across an inexplicable sight or phenomenon at sea? We would love to hear your story and, if you have pictures, to see them and share them with our readers. Equally, if you have managed to find an explanation for any of the phenomena which are usually deemed 'mysteries' we would be fascinated. If there is something which is puzzling you and you think a reader might be able to explain it, this may be the place to ask...whatever the input you'd like to make, E-mail us and we'll share it with everyone... meanwhile, you may like to check one or more of these sites out: BBC Report on Giant Squid Attack On French Boat For Kids - Enchanted Learning on Giant Squids StrangeMag on Sea Monsters Encounter With a Finny Monster The Gloucester Sea Serpent More on the Gloucester Sea Serpent The Unnatural Museum on Sea Serpents

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