“We know more about the surface of the moon than about the bottom of our deepest oceans,” is the old adage, the wisdom of which is confirmed from time to time. What kind of creatures are hiding in the depths of the sea?
Along the Bahamas and the southeast coast of America, there are stories of a giant octopus that grabs reckless swimmers and small boats. People from the islands call him "Luska" and believe that he lives deep under water in caves. However, no one has ever seen the creature in its natural habitat or survived a collision with it to tell about it.
One evening in November 1896, two men riding their bicycles by the seaside near their hometown of St. Augustine, Florida, spotted a huge carcass on the beach. She was 23 feet (7 m) long, 18 feet (5.5 m) wide and 4 feet (1.2 m) high, and to the men it seemed to have many legs.
The cyclists reported their find to Dr. Dewitt Webb, founder of the local Historical Society and the St. Augustine Research Institute, who came to research the carcass.
Webb photographed the body, noting that it was a silvery pink in color, took samples and wrote in a book that the skin resisted the ax, being three and a half inches (8.9 cm) thick. By his estimate, the body weighed approximately six or seven tons. It took four horses and a team of people from a nearby village to drag the carcass 40 feet (12 m) into the beach, away from the oncoming waves.
Webb was convinced that the found remains did not belong to a whale, but to some giant octopus unknown to science. Therefore, he soon sent out letters describing the carcass to many prominent scientists. One such expert was Professor Verill of the National Museum (now called the Smithsonian) in Washington, DC.
Promotional video:
Verill stated that the creature under study was a squid. When Webb supplied him with more information, he changed his mind and stated that it was an octopus, suggesting that it possessed tentacles about 100 feet (30.5 m) long.
Verill refused to personally inspect the dead creature, nor provide any material resources to ensure the safety of the carcass of the sea monster, but nevertheless suggested that this new species of octopus be named after him - Octopus Giganteous Verrill ("Beryl's giant octopus").
After receiving new tissue samples, he again changed his mind and said that it was most likely only a sperm whale head. Webb was disappointed, but kept as many samples of the creature's flesh as he could. Ultimately, the carcass was washed away by waves into the sea.
More than fifty years later, two marine biologists, Dr. F. J. Wood and Dr. J. F. Genaro, Jr., found stories of the St. Augustine sea monster in old newspaper clippings. They made a request to the Smithsonian Institution and obtained samples of the original remains, which Webb sent to Beryl.
Wood worked in the Bahamas and knew about the famous lusk. Legend said it was a giant tentacled octopus, 75 feet (22.9 m) long, and that it lived in large burrows in the deep blue sea at its very bottom. After examining the samples, Wood and Genaro came to the conclusion that the mysterious body really belonged to a huge octopus. In the end, thus, Webb was right.
True, in 1995 another study of samples was carried out. This time the analysis determined that the remains belong to a huge vertebrate warm-blooded creature, not a squid / octopus. The researchers said it was most likely decayed skin and whale oil.