In the year 1866, the world was shaken by a strange and unbelievable event that no one could forget.
Rumors about it spread quickly. People living near the sea were especially excited, but even those deep inside continents began talking about it. Merchants, sailors, ship captains, naval officers, and even governments from Europe and America all paid close attention to the strange reports.
For some time, ships had been encountering something enormous in the ocean.
It was described as a long, spindle-shaped object. Sometimes it seemed to glow in the dark like a living light. It was much larger and much faster than any whale known to mankind.
Many ship logs recorded the same details. The mysterious creature had a similar shape, incredible speed, powerful movement, and a strange sense of life.
If it was truly a whale, then it was larger than any whale ever discovered by scientists.
Some people estimated it was about two hundred feet long.
Others exaggerated even more, claiming it was a mile wide and three miles long.
After comparing all the reports, experts believed that this unknown creature, if it really existed, was far beyond the size of any sea animal known at the time.
And there was no longer any doubt that something unusual was out there.
People naturally loved mysteries, so the entire world became fascinated by this unbelievable creature.
Nobody could simply dismiss it as a legend.
The First Confirmed Sightings
On July 20, 1866, the steamship Governor Higginson from the Calcutta and Burnach Steam Navigation Company encountered the strange object five miles off the eastern coast of Australia.
At first, Captain Baker thought it was an unknown underwater sandbank.
He planned to measure its exact location.
But suddenly, the strange object shot two huge columns of water into the sky.
With a loud hissing sound, the water rose about 150 feet into the air.
A sandbank could never do that.
Captain Baker realized they were facing a gigantic sea creature that was unknown to science. It was breathing through openings on its body and sending out powerful streams of water mixed with air and steam.
Three days later, on July 23, the same creature was seen in the Pacific Ocean by another steamship, the Columbus, belonging to the West India and Pacific Steam Navigation Company.
What shocked everyone was the creature’s incredible speed.
The Governor Higginson and the Columbus had seen it in two different locations separated by more than seven hundred nautical leagues.
Somehow, the creature had traveled that enormous distance in only three days.
A Creature Larger Than Any Whale
Fifteen days later, the mystery became even greater.
Two thousand miles away, two ships—the Helvetia of the Compagnie-Nationale and the Shannon of the Royal Mail Steamship Company—encountered the creature in the Atlantic Ocean between America and Europe.
The two ships reported the sighting at almost the same time.
They estimated that the creature was at least 350 feet long.
Both ships were large vessels themselves, measuring around 300 feet from end to end, yet the creature was clearly bigger than either of them.
The largest whales known at that time, including those living near the Aleutian, Kulammak, and Umgullich Islands, rarely reached even sixty yards in length.
This creature was far beyond anything scientists had recorded.
The World Becomes Obsessed
More and more reports continued to arrive.
The transatlantic ship Pereire also saw the creature.
The Etna from the Inman Line even collided with it.
The officers of the French frigate Normandie wrote an official report about it.
A detailed investigation was also carried out by Commodore Fitz-James and his crew aboard the Lord Clyde.
These events changed public opinion.
Some people laughed at the idea of such a monster.
But serious nations like England, America, and Germany treated the reports as a real matter.
Everywhere people talked about the creature.
It became the newest sensation.
People discussed it in cafés.
Newspapers made jokes about it.
Theaters turned it into entertainment.
Stories about giant sea creatures filled the public imagination.
Newspapers published drawings of every possible monster, from the legendary white whale called “Moby Dick” to the enormous kraken whose giant arms could wrap around a five-hundred-ton ship and drag it into the ocean depths.
Ancient legends were brought back to life.
People remembered the writings of Aristotle and Pliny, who believed such creatures existed.
They also discussed old Norwegian stories about sea monsters and the reports of explorers who claimed to have witnessed giant serpents.
One famous account came from Mr. Harrington, whose honesty nobody questioned. He claimed that while aboard the Castillan in 1857, he had seen a gigantic sea serpent unlike anything ever seen before.
Science Versus Imagination
Soon, a huge argument began among scientists.
Some believed the creature was real.
Others thought it was impossible.
Scientific journals around the world debated the issue.
The “monster question” became one of the greatest controversies of the time.
For six months, experts argued in publications and meetings.
The debate spread through scientific organizations in Brazil, Germany, Britain, America, and France.
Even newspapers joined the fight.
Some writers mocked the believers.
They repeated a famous idea from the scientist Linnæus:
“Nature does not create fools.”
They argued that people should not believe in impossible creatures like krakens, sea serpents, or giant whales simply because sailors told unbelievable stories.
Finally, a popular satirical magazine published a humorous article that seemed to destroy the monster’s reputation.
The public laughed.
For a moment, humor appeared to defeat science.
The mystery seemed finished.
The Monster Becomes a Real Danger
During the first months of 1867, people thought the entire matter had disappeared forever.
But then new events changed everything.
The creature was no longer just a scientific mystery.
It had become a serious danger.
The monster was no longer considered a living animal.
Some people began to believe it was actually an island, a rock, or a moving underwater reef with a strange and unknown size.
On March 5, 1867, the Moravian, a ship belonging to the Montreal Ocean Company, was sailing at night in the Atlantic Ocean.
Its position was recorded as 27°30′ latitude and 72°15′ longitude.
Suddenly, the ship struck something on its right side.
The object was not marked on any sea chart.
The ship was moving at thirteen knots, pushed forward by strong winds and its powerful 400-horsepower engines.
If the Moravian had not been built with such a strong hull, the impact would have destroyed the ship and killed all 237 passengers returning from Canada.
The accident happened around five in the morning, just as daylight was appearing.
The officers rushed to the back of the ship and carefully examined the sea.
They saw nothing except a large swirling area of water about three cable lengths away, as if the ocean surface had been violently disturbed.
They recorded the exact location and continued their journey.
At first, nobody knew what the ship had hit.
Was it an underwater rock?
Was it the remains of a huge sunken ship?
The answer remained unknown.
But when the Moravian was later repaired, workers discovered that part of the ship’s keel had been damaged.
Another Ship Is Attacked
This incident might have been forgotten like many other accidents.
But only three weeks later, something similar happened again.
Because the victim was a famous ship from a respected company, the news spread quickly.
On April 13, 1867, the Scotia of the Cunard Company was sailing through calm seas with favorable winds.
Its position was 15°12′ longitude and 45°37′ latitude.
The ship was traveling at thirteen and a half knots.
At seventeen minutes past four in the afternoon, passengers were enjoying lunch in the main dining room.
Suddenly, the ship shook slightly.
The impact came from the rear side of the vessel, near the left paddle wheel.
The Scotia had not hit something.
Something had hit the Scotia.
And whatever struck it seemed sharp and pointed, not blunt.
The impact was so small that nobody would have worried.
But then the ship’s carpenter rushed onto the bridge shouting:
“We are sinking! We are sinking!”
The passengers became frightened.
Captain Anderson quickly calmed everyone down.
The Scotia was built with seven separate compartments divided by strong walls, so a leak should not immediately destroy the ship.
Captain Anderson went below deck to inspect the damage.
He discovered that water was pouring into the fifth compartment.
The speed of the flooding showed that the damage was serious.
Fortunately, the compartment did not contain the boilers.
Otherwise, the fires would have gone out immediately.
Captain Anderson ordered the engines to stop.
A crew member entered the damaged area to inspect the hole.
Minutes later, they discovered a huge opening in the bottom of the ship.
The hole was about two yards wide.
There was no way to repair it at sea.
The Scotia, with its paddle wheels partly underwater, was forced to continue slowly toward land.
It was about 300 miles from Cape Clear.
After three difficult days, the ship finally reached Liverpool, where many worried people had been waiting.
A Mystery That Could Not Be Explained
Engineers examined the Scotia after it was placed in dry dock.
They could hardly believe what they saw.
Two and a half yards below the waterline was a perfectly shaped tear.
The damaged iron plates formed a clean triangular opening.
The break was so precise that it looked as if it had been made by a machine.
It was impossible to believe that an ordinary object had caused it.
Whatever struck the ship must have possessed enormous strength.
It had broken through iron plates nearly one and three-eighths inches thick, then somehow pulled itself away.
No one could explain it.
This new discovery once again caused worldwide excitement.
From that moment, every unexplained ship accident was blamed on the mysterious monster.
The creature became responsible for countless disappearances.
The problem was serious.
Every year, thousands of ships disappeared according to records from Lloyd’s.
Among nearly three thousand lost ships, around two hundred vanished completely without leaving any explanation.
Now people blamed the “monster” for these mysterious losses.
The oceans had become dangerous places.
The public demanded action.
They wanted this terrifying creature removed from the seas at any cost.