Sea Monster Attack!
Imagine this: you’re hard at work, doing what you do everyday, when all of a sudden fact and fiction collide and you find yourself face-to-face with, what might be, a mythological beast. That’s exactly what happened to fisherman aboard the schooner Augusta on Newfoundland’s Grand Banks in August 1888 when a sea monster attacked.
It was August 11 and a pretty typical day for the crew of the Augusta. The men had left the schooner and were fishing for cod from small dories.
Two of the fisherman, who were some distance from the Augusta, saw something unusual. The water around their dory became turbulent and something was rising above the waves. Whatever it was seemed to be all around them. It must be a herd of whales, they thought, but it wasn’t behaving like any whales they’d seen before.
Then they caught sight of a single giant eye. Whatever was surrounding them wasn’t part of a herd — it was one gigantic animal.
It was like nothing they’d ever seen. They were terrified.
One man threw a bait tub toward the creature, but it was undeterred. The animal seemed to ‘sniff’ at it, then raised its neck. Higher and higher it rose, until the creature’s head was towering some 5 meters above the water.
It was hard to describe but its face looked almost like a sculpin’s, and its giant eyes were looking right at them.
Sculpin, Biodiversity Library/Flickr. Public domain.
After getting a good look at the dory, the creature sank back into the water.
The men hoped the animal was descending back to the depths and out of their lives forever, but that was not to be the case.
Headline from the St. John's Evening Telegram, August 25, 1888 concerning the Schooner Augusta and her sea monster/sea serpent encounter.
Instead of slipping below the waves, the creature flattened its body and began to move across the surface of the water.
It was coming for the boat.
The terrified men began rowing but the creature was gaining on the. When it got close it threw, what seemed to be, coils of its tail on to the dory.
Frightening as this was, it seemed to cost the creature speed. Every time it tried to throw its tail aboard, it had to slow down and that gave the men an opportunity to put some space between themselves and the animal.
During one of these lulls the men threw another bait tub at the creature. Again, the animal appeared interested. It stopped and explored the tub — but not for long. It soon resumed its pursuit and caught up with the dory.
Once again the men were surrounded — the animal raised its head on one side of the boat, while its tail coiled on the other.
The creature was right beneath them and looked poised to grab the dory.
The men gave it everything they had. They rowed toward the Augusta as if their lives depended on it and, by the time the men reached the schooner, the creature descended below the waves.
Back on board the Augusta they described what they had seen — a brown-striped creature, they estimated to be over 30m long and 6m wide, with a large fin, enormous eyes and tail that tapered like an eel.
No one could imagine what it was.
An AI-aided edit of a public domain image from the Biodiversity Library.
For two hours the crew remained aboard the Augusta watching the water; with no further sightings, they decided it was safe to return to their small boats.
Six dories set out. For 5 of them, it was business as usual. The sixth crew was not as lucky -- it encountered the creature.
Just as before, the animal set its sights on the dory and attempted to throw its coils aboard.
It raised its enormous tail into the air.
The men were afraid it was about to strike. The animal brought its tail down hard, mere feet from the boat.
The fisherman were rowing for all they were worth, but they were barely able to put any space between themselves and the creature. As they approached the Augusta the animal, once again, raised its sculpin-like head above the water.
Then, there was a gunshot.
Captain Chidley, of the Augusta, had seen the attack and shot at the creature.
The animal, whatever it was, disappeared into the ocean and out of the lives of the terrified fisherman.
They were never to know the identity of the strange creature they had seen.
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The Evening Telegram, August 25, 1888
The Evening Telegram, August 27, 1888
