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Creature record / 1879

The Kiushiu Maru sea serpent gripping a whale off Cape Satano

April 5, 1879 · At sea about nine miles off Cape Satano (Cape Sata), Ōsumi Peninsula, Kagoshima, Kyushu, Japan
18Thinly documented Cryptid Creature 15 sources

Saturday, April 5th, 1879, at 11.15 in the morning. The steamship Kiushiu Maru was off southern Japan, Cape Satano about nine miles distant. Captain Davison and his chief officer, Mr. McKechnie, watched a whale jump clear out of the sea. It leaped again. Something was attached to it. Through his glasses the captain saw something holding on to the belly of the whale during another leap. Then a creature "of the snake species" reared about thirty feet out of the water. It stood erect for about ten seconds. Then it sank, upper end first. The two officers signed a statement and sent it, with a sketch, to The Graphic in London.

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Context

The Kiushiu Maru was a steamer working the waters of southern Japan in 1879. Little else is known about her. A later ship of the same name, built on the Tyne in 1887 for Nippon Yusen Kaisha, is a different vessel.

Sources (15, most influential first)

  1. Round Three · Futility Closet· 2011-05-03 · Wiki, blog, podcast · blog
  2. Dale Drinnon: More Super-Eels · Fortean Zoology blog· 2010-06 · Wiki, blog, podcast · blog
  3. The Great Sea-Serpent · Project Gutenberg (A. C. Oudemans, 1892)· 1892 · Press, book, documentary · book
  4. The Great Sea-Serpent (scan) · Internet Archive (A. C. Oudemans, 1892)· 1892 · Press, book, documentary · book
  5. In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents · ebin.pub (Bernard Heuvelmans)· 1968 · Press, book, documentary · book