Monday, March 28, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
LINDSAY SELBY: Sea monsters and opportunities missed
I was looking at some old sea monster reports.
One by Captain James Stockdale from May 1830. Stockdale and his crew of the barque Rob Roy were near the island of St Helena when they heard a noise in the water. They were astounded to view the head of “a great thundering sea snake” whose head rose six feet( 2 metres) out of the water “as square with our topsail, his tail was square with the foremast”. Stockdale said his ship was 171ft long ( 56 metres)with the foremast 42ft ( 14 metres)from the stern, which would make the monster 129ft long( 42metres). He wrote in his report to the ship’s owners “If I had not seen it I could not have believed it but there was no mistake or doubt of its length – for the brute was so close I could even smell his nasty fishy smell.”
A Board of Trade file from 1857 contains a report, from near the same South Atlantic island , by a Commander George Henry Harrington of the merchant ship Castilan, of a similar sighting. On the 13th of December he and two officers saw “a huge marine animal” which suddenly reared out of the water just 20ft( 6 /7 metres approx) from the ship.It had a long neck and a dark head, shaped “like a long buoy” , white spotted, “with a kind of scroll or ruff encircling it”. The creature submerge, then reappeared, leaving no doubt they were watching a sea monster “of extraordinary length moving slowly towards the land”. The boatswain, who watched it for some time, estimated that it was more than double the length of the ship, which was 250 feet long . This makes the sea monster 500 feet long(165 metres ).
What I wonder is why nothing seems to have been done at the time. No one seems to have gone to investigate the stories. Maybe they thought the crew had been on the rum or at sea too long? I wonder if it happened today would we investigate? I suspect even today, if it was no threat to shipping ,that no one would bother. At the heart of everything lies commerce and if there is no threat to that commerce ,things will be ignored. I can’t help feeling so many opportunities will have been missed by scientists , because something unusual was no threat, and the reports being filed away in MOD or other organisations files as not important. By the time the general public get to read the reports/ files it is too late to have an investigation. What wonders have been missed, what creatures remain undiscovered, or that may now be extinct?
IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT
Is the end near? Are aliens going to save us when the countdown to extinction begins? Do we stand a chance of hiding out at Area 51 when zombie-hordes are roaming the ruined cities? Imagine a scenario where someone truly believes that the end times are upon us and that it is time to repent of one's sins and ponder the afterlife. Who does one go to for advice? The Parish Priest? Maybe. A New Age guru geezer of some sort? Possibly. A bald Brummie Ufologist now living in Texas? You must be kidding.. http://aforteancalendar.blogspot.com/2011/03/apocalyptic-q.html
DALE WRITES..
"More on the Stone Giants", a followup to the Fomorian Giants blog on St. Patrick's day, has been posted at the Frontiers-of-Anthropology: http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2011/03/more-on-stone-giants.html Best Wishes, Dale D.
MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: FLYING SNAKE 1
Hello, this is the cover of Flying Snake 1 which I hope will be available from Flying Snake Press in about 3 weeks at £3 more or less,I pay postage.It will be available at by Pay Pal or £3cheque/postal order made out to Richard Muirhead NOT Flying Snake or FlyingSnake Press. I`m sorry its taken so long to be issued-financial difficulties,etc.
Richard
NEW FROM CFZ PRESS
New from CFZ Press, the second book in our acclaimed series of fortean anthologies. In this volume, Nick Redfern remembers his mis-spent youth, and presents anecdotes from a long career of causing fortean mischief. He also presents pieces of his writing from various times over the past three decades, with notes placing them into historical context. Of course, Nick being Nick, there are also quite a few smatterings of his inane humour. The contents:
Introduction Zero-Hour: 1982/1983
Saucer Files Exposed: 1986
Fatherly Words: 1987
The Beckenham Ball of Light: 1990
MJ12: The FBI Connection: 1993
Unexplained Ground Marking and UFO Incident: 1995
UFOs over Staffordshire: 1996
The Rising of the Moon: 1997
A Close Encounter of the Literary Kind: 1997
The Secret Life of Errol Flynn: 1998
Unconventional Aircraft: 1998
Banned - The BBC and the Bomb: 1999
Another Gig, Another Planet: 1999/2000
Foot & Mouth - Conspiracy or Accident? 2001
The C-Files, 2000/2001
Satellites from the Skies: 2001
Mystery on the Mountain: 2001
Something for the Weekend: 2001
Mothman Lives: 2002
A Conference, a Camera, a Conspiracy: 2003
In Search of the Chupacabras - New Revelations: 2005
Enter the Dragon Hunter: 2005
At the Edge: 2006
Opening the Government’s X-Archive: 2006
The Strange Saga of the Hexham Heads: 2006
Happy Anniversary, Roswell UFO: 2007
Weirdness in the Woods: 2007
Did Aliens Invade Britain 50 Years Ago?: 2007
MJ12, UFOs and the FBI: 2007
Island of Paradise: 2008
An Alien Who’s Who: 2008
The Missing Chapter: 2008
Manipulating the Crashed UFO Scene: 2009
Conferences and Cultural Clashes: 2010
Contactees and the Absurdities of Ufology: 2010
Why Roswell Will Never Be Solved: 2010
The Strange Tale of the Cardiff Giant: 2010
OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today
http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/ On this day in 1930 this happened: http://vimeo.com/6746927 And now the news: Are Chupacabra Recollections Real? El Chupacabra Legend Eliminated, Deadly Egyptian cobra missing from Bronx Zoo Another song then?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHngF_b3NuE
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