Coffin Hop day 4 and Sea Monsters in Long Island Sound

The Monster Hit a Porpoise and Was Set Upon by a Boxing School, Which Finished Him. – Captain Obadiah Donaldson has plied the waters of the sound for years and years, and no one has ever accused him of telling a lie. If anyone else but Captain Donaldson had steamed into port with the yarn that he brought to Bridgeport, Conn. the other day, be would have been publicly scoffed at. But Captain Obadiah has said it, and it goes. He came into harbor with his steam oyster dredger, which is a cross between a tugboat and a mud scow in search of coal. Five of his sailors then landed with a thin substance looking very much like 100 feet of fire hose. This they laid out on the wharf. Sea dogs assembled in convention over it, but shook their heads nonplused, being unable to make it out at all. Then Captain Donaldson spoke in those words: “That,” said he, “is the arm of an octopus, which can be easily verified. I take it that its 100 foot long now, being as it’s shrunk, but it was twice that length when we caught it. “The fight in which we got it occurred shortly after 10 o’clock this morning. We were steaming five miles off Stratford light, were going four knots an hour, and we were in 15 fathoms of water. I was heading east by southeast two points, and the wind was blowing north by northwest seven points, all of which can be verified. “Suddenly on the starboard bow 500 feet ahead I spied a huge mass, black and motionless, lying on the surface of the water which was as smooth as a pond. I changed my course one point and rang the bell for a full head of steam in order to hurry up and see what the black thing was. I soon made it out as an octopus, 60 foot in diameter, with arms and legs a couple of hundred feet long. “I didn’t want any of that in mine. I brought the wheel down to clear the monster. He was in a deep sleep, and his snores could be heard quite a way off. But I was too late. The boat struck him amidships. He awoke in a jiffy. At first he thought we wore a nightmare, but he rubbed his eyes and identified us as enemies, though heaven know: I had no wish to fight him. “He darted at us, kicking up the sea. One of his long arms came aboard and seized the forward steam windlass. He wound his arm around it, thinking, I suppose, that it was a sailor. The mate, with great presence of mind started the windlass, and in less time than it takes to tell it a couple of hundred feet of the arm was wound in, and we had the fish a prisoner. “But we’d caught a Tartar. He began to pull at the boat, and I was afraid he meant to sink it and eat us at his leisure. The vessel rocked, and I thought she would capsize every minute. I called to Frank Taylor, the boatswain, to cut off the arm and he did so with a meat chopper. “The octopus, thoroughly aroused, swam half a mile to leeward and crouched for a spring, but suddenly a distraction occurred. Three porpoises came along, the pilot porpoise leading. He ran right into the arms of the octopus, who seized him and held him high in the air and squeezed the life out of him. We could hoar his bones crunching. Having killed the poor porpoise in his rage, he tossed him high in the air. The other porpoises at once turned tail and swam to Penfield Reef light, a favorite feeding ground of these fish. They returned with an enormous swarm of porpoises, all greatly excited and gnashing their teeth. The chums of the murdered porpoise evidently had made a speech to them and got them worked up. They lined up like football players and made a combined rush for the octopus, who gazed at them viciously with his cruel, slimy eyes. It was an awful battle that followed. “The sea was lashed into a crimson foam. As the porpoises came within reach the octopus seized them in his arms and tossed them high in the air. A she had seven arms he pitched ’em up” seven at a time. If we hadn’t got that other flipper, it would have been eight at a time. The sea for more than a mile was strewn with the fins and tails of porpoises and with bits of octopus. Any fellow who wants a load of good fertilizer can get it there. “I do not know how many porpoises were killed. Eventually they did up the octopus, however, and in their anger tore him limb from limb. Then they all swam to their homes, and I put into Bridgeport.”

There are so many great tales like this one on Lordshiphistory.com. You should definitely take a look at them when you have a spare moment.

You made it to the Coffin Hop giveaway of the day! To keep to my theme of water dwelling creatures I am giving away one limited edition print of the original lake monster design from my web-series Haunting Light. And both myself and the series director, Alexander Andriulli, will sign it before sending it along to our lucky winner.

If you’d like to see her in action check out Episode 1: And so it Begins  on the Haunting TV YouTube channel.

To enter to win you have to comment to this post with what your favorite monster is. The randomly selected winner will be announced on tomorrow’s post. I hope you have a monstrously good Monday and all the coffee you can drink.

Continue your tour of the rest of the awesome-sauce horror blogs, and for even more chances to win click on back to www.coffinhop.com