The Captain Who Caught a Monster: Seattle’s Own Sea Serpent Hoax

Boyton's Sea Serpent.

Captain Pat J. Royton, the man who floats and paddles long distances in a rubber suit, with the American flag waving from the tip of his boot, says he is going to establish a monster marine museum in New York. Of course, he knows the wonders of the deep. He talked with a Sun reporter the other day on board the steamer of the North German Lloyd, which had brought with her the various German sea seals consigned to the museum. They were in the care of Herr Gunther Jesson, whom Mr. Royton sent to Germany especially to capture them. They are to be trained to harness, and then Mr. Royton will drive his monster donkeys and jump into the water and let them pull him along at a 2-40 gait.

All the time the captain had been displaying his animals he seemed to be laboring under some great mental strain. He had something to tell and didn't want to tell it. At last he took the reporter to a part of the saloon where nobody could hear him except his steward, who is a very discreet gentleman, and made a clean breast of it.

He began by taking a package from his inside waistcoat pocket. He undid it and took from it a letter. For a moment even then he hesitated. He fumbled the letter for a long quarter of a minute. Then he burst out:

"We've got the sea serpent! Look at it (the letter) and then tell me if I am wrong."

And yet again before he dared up the letter he paused. It was to explain that he was backed in his museum enterprise by a wealthy New Yorker.

"The ocean is a neglected study," he said. "There are things in it that no man has ever yet set eyes on. Our mission is to have these things, and have them alive, too, if possible. We have sent ships all over the world to get rare treasures for the young and old of this country to see and to study. We are going to educate the people on the mysteries of the deep.

"We sent a ship to Port Royal, Jamaica, to catch the famous shark 'Port Royal Prince,' which has eaten enough men to man three Britain's largest war-ships. This shark is 60 feet long... and the English sailors say that it is pensioned by the British government. When the British ships sail to Jamaica the sailors are not allowed to go ashore. The shore is always lined with dusky maidens splashing in the water. The sailors sometimes would jump overboard to go to the shore; but no sailor ever got there. Port Royal Prince, the man-eater, would arise and devour him before he could reach shallow water, and the waves would be turned to crimson. But read the letter and you will know all."

"Dear Captain," the letter began, "I have captured something wonderful. I don't want to tell you what it is, for I know that when the people hear of it they will say that I am crazy. But I'll tell you about it. We were sailing along on the 10th [the letter was written in October] when we sighted a school of porpoises. We trained our dynamite gun to shoot one, when suddenly the porpoises disappeared. A moment afterward a hideous head appeared above the water and came toward us. A long body followed. The thing was swimming with an up-and-down motion.

"We were thunder-struck, but we got the gun ready and fired a shell at it. It struck just below the head and the monster lashed the water furiously. We manned a boat and succeeded in harpooning him, after a long struggle, and then we took him aboard. I don't want to say that the monster is a sea-serpent, but in all my experience I have never seen anything like it.

"It measures 63 feet 5 inches in length, and is about a foot in diameter. Its head is something like a horse. The back of it is covered with shell-like lumps. It has two rows of sharp pointed teeth. Its back is all covered with shell-like barnacles and its tail goes out to a point. Its stomach is spotted dirty white and mouse-colored. It has two pom-poms, one on each side of its body, just below its head.

"From each shell-like lump on its head there is a sticker like those on catfish, only about ten times as large and like needle points sticking out. These in the water while the thing was fighting were like steel prongs, but after it was dead they wilted. What the thing was I will let the scientists of America tell. It is wonderfully strange, that is all. I have been at work on the body since we captured it, and with our new fluid I think it is safely preserved, all but the eyes, which I am afraid I cannot save as well as I should like. I will have it ready to ship by a week, and when you see it you can name it yourself."

The letter concluded with some comments on the action of the new fluid.

"Now," said the captain when the reporter had finished reading, "what is it? What do you think of it? Is it the famous sea serpent that has terrorized the world and always eluded capture? Have we got him? I have had that letter in my pocket for more than three weeks. I have not dared to show it to any one. I knew how the people would scoff. I would rather not have anything said about it now until the monster arrives. I have now been expecting the steamer with it on board for a week. I am looking for it every day. I don't want to say that it is the serpent, but I shall let the scientists of America examine it and give their unbiased opinion. I don't want to see it at all said the captain, 'until they are through with it.'"