THE FREELAND TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 2, 1896
A Giant Balloon Fish
Who has ever heard of a balloon fish? Not the little, puffing fellows that are so annoying to modest anglers fishing from a dock or small boat, but a huge monster that plows the seas far away from land, and one who is a worthy compeer of the great unknown and highly respected sea serpent.
Captain Slocum, of the schooner Saladin, out from Jacmel, Hayti, while in latitude twenty-six degrees north, longitude seventy-five degrees west, descried to the eastward an object which at first he supposed to be the wreck of a small vessel. Altering his course, he ran down to the supposed wreck, a distance of about five miles. The following extract from the ship’s logbook will explain the adventure :
“Time 7:30 a.m., June 4, at 6 a. m. the object was first seen—weather murky—and at 7 a. m. we came up to it. It proved to be a large and vicious looking sea monster, such as I had never seen or heard of at any time. The body appeared to be about forty feet long and the tail about sixty feet, with forked ends, each fork about four feet long. It had two feet, or fins, not unlike those of a sea serpent. The creature stood about twelve feet high out of the water, and was fully forty feet in breadth.”—New York Journal
From— Freeland Tribune. (Freeland, Pa.), 02 Nov. 1896. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
