DALE DRINNON: More Super-Eels

Left: Titanoconger R: Megaconger

Again from Charles Gould Mythical Monsters:

(Continuing after the Pauline section)
A remarkable and independent corroboration of modern date comes from the Japan seas. It was reported both in local papers and in the San Francisco Californian Mail-Bag for 1879, from which I extract the notice and the illustrative cuts (Fig. 75).

“The accompanying engravings are fac-similes of a sketch sent to us by Captain Davidson, of the steamship Kiushiu-maru, * and is inserted as a specimen of the curious drawings which are frequently forwarded to us for insertion. Captain Davidson's statement, which is countersigned by his chief officer, Mr. McKechnie, is as follows:—

“‘Saturday, April 5th, at 11.15 A.M., Cape Satano distant about nine miles, the chief officer and myself observed a whale jump clear out of the sea, about a quarter of a mile away.

“‘Shortly after it leaped out again, when I saw there was something attached to it. Got glasses, and on the next leap distinctly saw something holding on to the belly of the whale. The latter gave one more spring clear of the water, and myself and chief officer then observed what appeared to be a creature of the snake species rear itself about thirty feet out of the water. It appeared to be about the thickness of a junk's mast, and after standing about ten seconds in an erect position, it descended into the water, the upper end going first. With my glasses I made out the colour of the beast to resemble that of a pilot fish"

In this case (and not the others) I DO think the object depicted is more likely to be a large conger eel, and this again counter to Heuvelmans: Heuvelmans says that the creature seems to be holding onto the whale's belly when actually a large conger-type eel should be holding onto a fin - but my reading of the picture is that the eel-like creature actually is holding onto the whale's pectoral flipper. It is in just the right position for that.


Heuvelmans mentions in a footnote that Gould mentions several reports of large conger-like eels around Singapore but he does not include them in his catalogue of reports. Here is the pertinent passage from C. Gould:

It is an open question whether conger eels may not exist, in the ocean depths, of far greater dimensions than those of the largest individuals with which we are acquainted. Major Wolf, who was stationed at Singapore while I was there in 1880, gave me information which seems to corroborate this idea. He stated that when dining some years before with a retired captain of the 39th Regiment, then resident at Wicklow, the latter informed him that, having upon one occasion gone to the coast with his servant in attendance on him, the latter asked permission to cease continuing on with the captain in order that he might bathe. Having received permission, he proceeded to do so, and swam out beyond the edge of the shallow water into the deep. A coastguardsman, who was watching him from the cliff above, was horrified to see something like a huge fish pursuing the man after he had turned round towards the shore. He was afraid to call out lest the man should be perplexed. The man,
p. 328 however, heard some splash or noise behind him, and looked round and saw a large head, like a bull-dog's head, projecting out of the water as if to seize him. He made a frantic rush shoreways, and striking the shallow ground, clambered out as quickly as possible, but broke one of his toes from the violence with which he struck the ground. This story was confirmed by a Mr. Burbidge, a farmer, who stated that on one occasion when he himself was bathing within a mile or so of the same spot, the water commenced swirling around him, and that, being alarmed, he swam rapidly in, and was pursued by something perfectly corresponding with that described by the other narrator, and which he supposed to be a large conger eel. In each case the length was estimated at twenty feet. Mr. Gosse gives the greatest length recorded at ten feet.

Gould also lists several other reports in the vicinity but without enough detail that we could tell if they were the same type or not. Heuvelmans is, however, of the opinion that most of the ambiguous "?LN?SE" reports from the Indian Ocean are of the 'super-eel' type. These reports as listed above illustrate the two poles of 'super-eel' reports: there are bigger ones and smaller ones, each conger-like generally but distinctive in several ways. In his conclusions on page 563 of In the Wake of the Sea-serpents, he states 'the size of animals of this type is not usually said to be large-usually it is less than 50 feet...The curve of lengths given by the various witnesses has two peaks, one around 30 feet and the other at 100 feet. this seems to confirm that there are at least two types of very different sizes.'

In point of fact, the reports are very nearly even halves at both of the peaks, about ten or eleven sightings in the range of usually 20-30 feet but up to 40 feet, as in the Singapore congers reports, and then again at the larger size of the really big eels. The Kyushu Maru creature falls into the latter category, it is much too large and thick to be a giant squid's tentacle.

I have called the smaller type Megaconger and the larger one Titanoconger in my analysis, not so much as official scientific names as to emphasise that there are two very different types. The Megacongers are not only smaller, they have a more even overall colouration with lighter backs and darker bellies than Titanocongers, usually desacribed as having a brownish back and yellowish belly. They are usually seen closer to shore and seem to prefer shallower waters. The Titanocongers are darker on top, lighter on bottom and are often noted to have large eyes: they are also seen at shore but also more frequently farther out to sea, and they are obviously more pelagic in habitat. They may swim at depth, but I doubt that they habitually sim at abyssal depths, that was something which Heuvelmans need not have added.

I include my maps for the sightings in my analysis, which include some re-classifications from Heuvelmans's and some others from other sources, and some from folklore. Heuvelmans indicates that he thinks the Valhalla SS was an eel-like fish with a prominent back fin that starts abruptly far back: I have cropped an illustration of a regular conger eel to illustrate his meaning. I presume all of the Finback category would most economically follow suit: Bruce Champagne has a special category for this which he assumes to be Plesiosaur-shaped. That was Meade-Waldo's opinion: the creature as a giant eel would not have the four flippers below water as assumed and in fact in the Valhalla SS sighting it is possible the pectoral fins were pressed close to the body and missed (if it was indeed an eel. The reported proportions in the Valhalla SS sighting are rather odd if that is actually the case)