On January 13, 1852, the captain of the whaling ship "Monongahela", Mr. Seabury, was pulled out of the state of morning bliss by the cry of the lookout: "Something big in the water - ahead on the left side!"
Seabury went up on deck: it would be nice to have some fun. The Monongahela drifts calmly in the calm Pacific Ocean. If it's a whale, the boats will take care of it: the wind is too weak to raise the sails and approach under its own power.
When the captain turned the telescope in the direction of an unknown object, he saw a monstrous creature, which rushed about in the cold water as if it was experiencing hellish torment. The first thing that came to Seabury's mind was that they bumped into a whale, which got caught on the harpoon of some other whaler, but jumped off, and now it has its death throes.
The captain ordered to launch three boats to relieve the animal from torment, and his crew from boredom. By catching a whale for processing, its people will not be so upset about the calm. Siberi himself was in the first boat, which came close to the huge "whale". He thrust the harpoon deep into the animal's body, and the team leaned on the oars to get a safe distance from their prey, distraught with pain.
Almost at the very moment when the harpoon reached its target, a terrible three-meter head rose from the water and darted towards the boats. A second later, two of them were overturned.
The frightened whalers realized that they were dealing with a creature the likes of which they had never seen; but at that moment they were so preoccupied with their own salvation from the furious rushes of the monster that they had no time to think about who it was.
Then the monster dived deep. As he sank to the bottom, a heavy rope swung over the tank. Seabury contrived in just a few seconds to tie another spare to the end of the rope. By the time the sea monster stopped sinking, more than 300 meters of rope had gone under the water.
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Somehow the Monongahela was able to slowly approach the boat and take on board the frightened sailors who could barely stay on the surface of the water. The remaining end of the rope was secured to the ship's bollard, but Seabury was not sure if his prey was still sitting on the harpoon.
The Rebecca Sims, under the command of Captain Samuel Gavitt, was sailing alongside the Seabury ship, and the sailors of the two crews (both ships were assigned to the port of New Bedford, Massachusetts), frightened and with the wildest assumptions, began to discuss the strange animal.
The next morning, Captain Seabury ordered the rope to be pulled out of the water. When the sailors pulled a good half of it onto the deck, a massive carcass suddenly floated to the surface. The impression was that it was a huge sea animal from another time - from that prehistoric era, when Homo sapiens had just begun to form as a biological species.
It was much longer than the Monongahela, at 30 meters from bow to stern, and had a huge body - about 15 meters in diameter. His neck was very thick, about three meters in girth, and his head - also three meters - was shaped like the head of a giant alligator.
The startled team counted the monster's 94 saber-shaped teeth, each about 7.5 centimeters long, which curved inward like a snake. The animal was brownish-gray in color with a wide, about a meter, light stripe along the body.
Captain Seabury, like a true Yankee - practical to the core, tried to determine how much fat could come out of this monster if it were a whale. He would be very upset if he found out that the monster has only thick skin - and no fat.
Estimated dimensions and appearance of the "Monongahela Monster" based on the description in the captain's report
Seabury clearly imagined how they would laugh at him because he was among those brave captains who saw the "sea devil", but could not prove anything. Therefore, he ordered to chop off the vile head and put it in a large vat of brine for conservation, so that it does not deteriorate until the team descends to the ground.
In addition, Seabury wrote a detailed account of how the Monongahela captured the monster, made a detailed description of its prey, and handed these papers to Captain Gavitt, who was heading for his home port.
Captain Seabury's story was safely delivered and, along with Captain Gavitt's personal oath, was archived, but Monongahela never returned to New Bedford with her incredible cargo. Years later, a plaque with the name of the missing schooner was found on the Aleutian Islands.
If Seabury, along with the report, handed over to the ship Captain Gavitt a terrible head, then more than a hundred years ago, the world would have received as an exhibit the head of the first "sea devil". But the sea was not yet ready to answer its most difficult riddle.
