People must remember a strange, mysterious and unexplained thing that happened at sea in 1866. Not to mention all kinds of gossip that aroused coastal residents and world public opinion at that time, I only say that ordinary sailors are particularly excited here. Import and export merchants, captains, shipowners in Europe and America, naval officers and governments in these two continents are very concerned about this matter.
Generally speaking, not long ago, many big ships met a "monster" at sea, a very long object that looked like a spindle and sometimes gave off phosphorescence. It is much bigger than a whale and moves much faster than a whale. About the appearance of this thing, there are many facts recorded in the log book (such as the shape of this thing or this creature, the immeasurable speed of its movement, the amazing power it transmits, its special ability as alive, and so on). ) roughly the same. If this thing is a whale, then its size: it is much bigger than the fish that biologists have classified. Ju Weiye.
Rashid (1), Dumeli (2) and Katfa (3), none of these biologists have seen them, that is, unless these scientists have seen them with their own eyes-they don't admit that such a monster exists.
Let's compromise the results of many observations-on the one hand, let go of those low estimates, that is, this thing is only 200 feet long, and at the same time, we don't accept exaggerated remarks, that is, a mile. It is three miles wide and three miles long-we can be sure that this strange creature he said, if it really exists, is much larger than the ichthyologists admit. Since this thing exists and the fact itself is undeniable, it is not difficult for us to understand what kind of commotion this monster will cause around the world because of human curiosity. As for it's ridiculous, it can't be someone.
Agreed.
Because,1on July 20th, 866, Governor Higginson of Kolkata-Bunach Steamship Company, five miles east of the Australian coast, met this huge swimming object. At first, Captain Barker thought it was an unknown reef. He was about to locate it when suddenly this unexplained object spewed out two water columns and slammed into the air 150 feet high. So, unless there is a geyser on this reef, in front of Governor Xi Sun Jin is a kind of unknown marine mammal, which still spews bubbles of water from its nostrils.
On July 23rd of the same year, the Chris Tobar Golan of the West India-Pacific steamship company encountered such a thing in the Pacific Ocean. Three days after Governor Xi Sun Jin saw this monster, Chris Toba Grant also saw it 700 miles away. So this strange cetacean can move from one place to another at the speed of robbing people.
15 days later, two thousand miles away from the above location, the Helvi dia of the state-owned steamship company and the Shan Nong of the Royal Mail Company met in the Atlantic Ocean between the United States and Europe, and saw the monster at the same time at 42 degrees north latitude 15 minutes and 60 degrees 35 minutes west longitude. According to the results observed by two ships at the same time, it is estimated that the length of this mammal is at least over 350 feet (about 106 m), because Shan Nong and Helvetia are shorter than it, while the two ships are only 100 m long from beginning to end. However, the longest whale, like those whales that often go out to sea in the waters near Kulanmark Island and Onglick Island in the Aleutian Islands, is only 56 meters, and the longest one has never been seen before.
News came one after another, the observation made by the Vergel crossing the Atlantic, the collision between the Inman steamship company and this behemoth, the records written by the officers of the French second-class battleship Norman I, and the very accurate calculation made by the senior naval staff officer Fuze James on the Sir Clyde, all of which were really stirred up at that time. In countries where people are impetuous, everyone takes this as a joke, but in serious and down-to-earth countries, such as Britain, the United States and Germany, it is different. They are very concerned about this matter.
In big cities, this monster has become a household name. Sing it in the cafe, laugh at it in the newspaper and play it on the stage. The rumormonger just had a chance to fabricate all kinds of anecdotes from this monster. In some newspapers with a small circulation, there have been reports of all kinds of strange giant animals, from Mobidick in the Arctic Ocean to craken. This is a strange fish whose tentacles can entangle a ship with a load of 500 tons and drag it to the bottom of the sea. Some people even quoted classics, or moved out of ancient legends such as Aristotle (3) and Pliny (4) (they admitted the existence of such monsters), or moved out of the Norwegian fairy tale of Bishop Pontubidan (5), the account of Paul Egyud and Harrington's report; There is no doubt about this report. He said that at 1857, he saw a big snake on the Justilan, which was only seen on the sea before the Constitution.
As a result, there are believers and skeptics in academic groups and scientific newspapers, and these two factions are arguing endlessly. The "monster problem" is exciting.
Journalists who think they know science, and scholars who always think they are versatile, are angry. They spent a lot of pen and ink in this memorable pen battle! Even a few people shed two or three drops of blood because someone moved the pen against sea snakes to some arrogant guys.
The argument lasted for six months. Both of them have a point, and each has his own words. The popular tabloids at that time published controversial articles with great interest. They either attack the authoritative papers published by the Brazilian Institute of Geography, the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin, the British Academic Association or the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, or refute the discussions in Indian newspapers, Father Moyano's Cosmos magazine, Pidermann's Izvestia and French and other countries' Science News. These versatile writers deliberately misinterpreted a sentence that Linnaeus often quoted by the opposition: "Nature does not make stupid things"; I implore you not to believe in the existence of monsters such as big strange fish, sea snakes and "Mobidick" invented by crazy sailors in the North Sea, and not to deny nature because of this. Finally, the most popular editor of a famous satirical newspaper hastily published an article to deal with the monster; Like Henrietta (2), in the laughter of all, he gave this wonderful thing the last blow and finished it. So wisdom triumphs over science.
In the first few months of 1867, this problem seems to have been forgotten and will not be cleaned up again. But at this time, people heard that some new events had happened. The problem now is not an urgent scientific problem, but a danger that must be carefully avoided. This problem presents a completely different face. This monster has become an island, a rock and a reef, but it is an unpredictable reef and can run very fast.
1August 5, 867, the Moravia of Montelio Navigation Company sailed at night to the place of 27 degrees 30 minutes north latitude and 72 degrees west longitude 15 minutes, and the ship hit the rocks on the starboard side. However, there is no record of this rock on the sea in this area on any map. With the help of wind and 400 horsepower, the speed of the ship reached 13 nautical miles per hour. There is no doubt that if the hull is not excellent and particularly strong, Moravia must take its 236 passengers from Canada to the bottom of the sea after being hit.
The accident happened at about five o'clock in the morning, just before dawn. The sailor on duty immediately ran to the back of the ship; They observed the sea very carefully.
They only saw a whirlpool more than 600 meters wide-as if the water had been violently impacted-and only wrote down the exact location of the accident. Moravia continued to sail, seemingly unscathed. Did it hit a reef or sink?
There was no way to know at the time. Later, I went to the dock to check the bottom of the ship, only to find that some of the existing keels were broken.
This fact is very serious in itself, but if it hadn't happened in the same situation for three weeks, it would probably be forgotten like many other events. The subsequent collision incident, just because of the nationality of the injured ship and the reputation of its company, was enough to cause very wide repercussions.
No one doesn't know the name of the famous British shipowner Guna. As early as 1840, savvy entrepreneurs started a mail ship company and opened a route from Liverpool to Halifax. At that time, there were only three paddle boats with 400 horsepower and a weight of 1,162 tons. Eight years later, the company expanded its scale, with four ships with 650 horsepower and load 1820 tons. Within two years, two more ships with greater horsepower and load capacity were added. 1853, gunnar Company continued to get the privilege of delivering government mail, and successively added Arabian, Persian, China, Spanish, Java and Russian, all of which were first-class clippers and the most spacious. No ship sailing on the sea can compare with them except Orient. By 1867, the company has 12 ships ~ 8 bright wheels and 4 hidden wheels. So I want to briefly introduce the above situation, in order to let everyone know the importance of this shipping company. It is famous for its good management. No shipping company is smarter and more successful than this one. In the past 26 years, Gunnar's ship has sailed 2000 times in the Atlantic Ocean, never reaching its destination, never being delayed, never losing a letter, never losing a person or a ship. Therefore, despite the French efforts to grab business, passengers are willing to take the ship of gunnar Company, which can be seen from the official statistical documents in recent years. Knowing this situation, no one is surprised that an accident of a steamboat in this company will cause such a huge response.
1867 April 13, the sea was calm and downwind. Spytoya was sailing at 0/5 degrees west longitude and 0/2 minutes north latitude. It is driven by an engine with 1000 horsepower and its speed is 13.5 nautical miles per hour.
Its wheels turn in the sea, completely normal. At that time, its draft was 6 meters 70 centimeters and its displacement was 6685 square meters.
At 4pm16pm, while the passengers were having snacks in the lobby, there seemed to be a slight collision between the stern and the port wheel of the Scotch.
"Scotland" was not hit by anything, but was hit by something. It is not a percussion instrument, but a drilling tool. The collision was very slight, unless the cabin manager ran to the deck and shouted, "The ship is sinking: the ship is sinking!" " "Maybe no one on board will care.
The passengers were very scared at first, but Captain Anderson soon calmed them down. The danger will not happen immediately. The Scotia was divided into seven compartments by waterproof boards, and it didn't care about any loopholes.
Captain Anderson immediately ran under the cabin. He found that the fifth room was immersed in seawater, and the seawater soaked quickly, which proved that the leakage was quite large. Fortunately, there is no steam stove in this room, otherwise the fire would have gone out.
Captain Anderson ordered the ship to stop immediately and ordered a diver to go into the water to check the hull damage. After a while, he knew that there was a big hole two meters long at the bottom of the boat. Such a crack can't be stopped. Although Scotia's wheel is half submerged in water, it must keep running. At that time, the ship was still 300 nautical miles from the cliff gap. When the ship pulled into the company dock, it was already three days late. During these three days, people in Liverpool were very worried.
The "Scotland" was erected and engineers began to inspect it. They can't believe what they saw. Two and a half meters below the waterline, an equilateral triangle gap is exposed. The scar on the iron sheet is so neat that even the drill can't cut it so accurately. The sharp weapon to make this crack must not be ordinary steel, because this guy slammed forward with amazing power, and after cutting through the four-centimeter-thick iron sheet, he could escape himself with a backward movement that was difficult to do.
This is the general situation of this recent incident. As a result, this once again aroused public opinion. From then on, all the unexplained maritime accidents in the past are now accounted for in this behemoth. This strange animal is responsible for the sinking of all ships. Unfortunately, the number of sunken ships is quite large. According to the records in the statistical yearbook, about 3000 ships are missing every year, including sailboats and steamboats. As for those who are judged missing because of their whereabouts, yes, the number is not less than 200 every year!
Whether the monster is wronged or not, people blame it for the disappearance of the ship. Because of its existence, the maritime traffic between five continents is becoming more and more dangerous, and everyone insists on getting rid of this terrible whale monster at sea at any cost.