Mississippi Monster


 

The Mississippi monster is one of those old time cryptid stories that appeared in 19th century news papers. And like many of these stories it pushes the limits of what can be believed. Although I find this monster in particular pushes those limits more than most. Stories like the Swan Valley monster had a bizarre creature that defies biology, but only a small number of witnesses and ultimately the creature didn’t do very much. The Ape Canyon attack has lots of action and damage, which should leave a paper trail of police reports and insurance claims that can be verified if someone where to look deep enough, but involves big foot, one of the more reasonable cryptids to exist. The Mississippi monster involves both a confounding monster that is like nothing else alive, and over the top damage, which should be able to be verified by its own paper trail. However the story takes place long enough ago that such things like insurance claims and repair reports of company owned ships would be long gone and lost to time, assuming such diligence was taken this far back in the past.


The story of this cryptid was first reported by the St Louise Globe and Democrat. The events happened very close in time to the attack by the Cahokia dragon, which is a cryptid I covered previously. While the new article came out after the Cahokia dragon, the actual events unfolded a week before the Cahokia dragon, in late September. These events happened several states to the south near Memphis, but ended up in a St Louise new paper because one of the crew members of the vessels involved had travelled north to warn of the oncoming monster, which was also travelling northward up the Mississippi after the events. I mention the Cahokia dragon because the news report raised the possibility that the two monsters were the same creature. Although I find this unlikely because they look nothing alike. The only possible thing they could share in common is both being reptiles, and I even have doubts about the Mississippi monster being a reptile.


The events involving the Mississippi monster happened in September of 1877, while passing Devil’s Elbow Cutoff, a location outside of the village of Bradley, which itself was near Memphis. The report involved a tow boat called the Bee Wing, which was towing six barges of coal at the time. Notable crew on board were Robert Matheson, the man who had travelled to St Louise to warn of the monster, Henry Decker, who was manning the last barge in the tow line, and Captain Caraway, who was heading the operation. Captain Caraway is of special note, he used to be a former whaler, but became a tug boat captain as that industry began to collapse. As such Captain Caraway was exceptionally good at judging distance and speed of objects out in the water, and he was familiar with the appearance of creatures like whales, seals and any other large ocean life which might have strayed into the Mississippi. The events happened on a clear day and visibility was good. Traffic on the Mississippi at the time was also light.


Things started with the crew hearing a loud puffing noise, coming from a considerable distance up river. Most on board though it was just the sounds of an ailing engine from another ship, although no one could see a ship in distress or any smoke. The sound didn’t carry any immediate threat so the crew ignored it. The noise continued at intervals for the next five minutes, getting closer. The crew could see for a thousand yard up river, at which point it disappeared around a bend. There at the bend the monster reared its head up out of the water. It began to swim at speed down the river towards the Bee wing. As it approached the beast would dip its head into the water, lift it back up again and spout out water from its beak in a wide fountain, in between loud guttural roars. Caraway noted that there were two streams of water coming from either side of the beak at diagonal angles and it was completely different then a whale blowing water from its blowhole.


The monster was massive, whale sized, although an exact estimate of its size couldn’t be made because so much of it was hidden underwater. The creature had a wrinkled, bull dog like head, with a five foot long pelican beak at the front. This bizarre head sat on a long sinuous neck ten feet in size, covered in slimy looking scales and having a horse like main down its length. There was possibly two small horns on top the monster’s head, but the witnesses were not sure. Most of the body was hidden underwater, save for a back fin which was five feet tall and fifteen feet long. The monster had incredibly long pectoral fins, 10 feet long each, which would occasionally surface out of the water and the beast swam. It was unknown what the body looked like, some of the crew guessed it was whale like, while others described it as serpentine, although both were just guesses as only glimpses of the rest of the monster could be seen when it reared its tail and back out of the water. The whole creature was shades of black and green in colour.


The monster swam at the tug boat at 20 miles an hour, Captain Caraway estimated. The crew began to panic, but he got them back under control. The Bee Wing was travelling at a mere 8 miles an hour. Caraway commanded evasive measures to get out of the monster’s path, yet the monster turned and followed the Bee Wing. At only 150 yards away the monster came to an abrupt stop. It pushed its pectoral fins forward to slow itself, causing a large wave which rocked the Bee Wing and its barges. The beast then reared up with its head and neck held vertically, and bellowed so loudly the sound rumbled through the crew. The monster then dove under the water completely.


The creature swam underwater on a ramming course for the tow boat and the barges. The track of the beast was indicated by a large bow wave following in front of it as it moved through the water. It turned and headed for the last barge in the line. The crew panicked again, this time they were beyond Captain Caraway’s control. There was no time to react. All he could do it watch in horror.


The monster plowed under the barge, and the barge was thrown from the water. Its rear end hurled 20 feet into the air, spilling out its cargo of coal. Henry Decker was thrown a substantial distance from the barge and landed in the water. The lashing between the barges and the tow boat were broken and all the vessels were jerked about violently. The monster reared up again on the other side of the barge. It slammed its weight down on the barge. It dove down and swam under the barge again, and in similar fashion reared up again for another attack. This time the monster slammed its beak down on the deck of the barge, causing the other end to lift out of the water again and the barge to drift 50 feet away in the water. The monster’s beak shattered against the hull. It roared out in pain, louder even then before. The monster sank back under the water. It swam away at 40 miles an hour with a substantial surge riding in front of it, creating a wake which shoot the ailing vessels again. The monster dove down into the deeper parts of the river and was gone from sight.


Henry Decker swam to the Bee Wing, where he was hauled on board by the rest of the crew. Miraculously he only had minor injuries. Captain Caraway drove the tow boat to retrieve the loose barges, which had floated 300 feet away by now. The last barge in the line was in sinking condition. The entire bottom had been torn open by the attacks from the beast. Captain Caraway spotted a splinter of the beak sticking out of the hull of the barge. It was a dense material resembling ivory, yet was black in colour. It was lodged into the wooden hull with such force that even a steam engine couldn’t pull it out. Caraway had the crew chop into the wooden hull with axes to free the beak splinter, which he then kept as a memento of the events.



Source


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5L1BmR-1bg&t=4224s Who in turn got their information from Monsters In Print by Adam Benedict


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kotobuki

Image
   The kotobuki was a chimeric beast from Japan which was made of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac. It had the head of a rat, the ears of a rabbit, the beard of a ram, the comb of a rooster, the horns of a bull, the neck of a dragon, the mane of a horse, the back of a boar, the belly of a tiger, the front legs of a monkey, the back legs of a dog and the tail of a snake. It’s name in Japanese means congratulations or long life.  It was said that the kotobuki lived in India, which often features as a place of holiness or goodness in Japanese stories as it’s the homeland of Buddhism. The kotobuki was also said to be able to understand human speech. Other than these two facts there’s little else said about the kotobuki as a creature, no legends or stories about it. The kotobuki was seen more as a luck charm that would grant people luck based on its association with the zodiac. It became popular to carry small woodcuts with images of the kotobuki during the Edo period....
Read more

Cetus

Image
   In ancient Greece cetus referred to sea monsters in general, as well as whales, as they didn’t see a difference between the two, and it was seen as the ocean equivalent of the draikon, or dragon. While cetus was thought of as a type of monster, rather than an individual, there are two myths about notable individual cetus, the Trojan cetus, which was killed by Heracles, and the Ethiopian cetus, which was killed by Perseus. There were two main ways the cetus was depicted. One was as a bulky sea beast with the head of a boar and the tail of a whale, sometimes with paws. Another was a more serpentine creature, with the head of a greyhound, and it’s long serpent tail ending in a whale fluke. Even though there are two major cetus myths, both appearances were equally associated with both myths interchangeably, rather than each being a specific monster. The Trojan Cetus was sent by Poseidon to torment King Laomedon. Laomedon had asked Poseidon to build the walls of Troy f...
Read more

Orabou

Image
  The orabou was a creature reported by André Thevet during his journeys, sometime in the 1600 th century. The creature was seen in the waters near Mount Marzouan. No mountain is named Mount Marzouan today, so it’s unknown which mountain this was supposed to be, but it was believed to be near the Red Sea. The orabou was a fish cat hybrid with an unusually humped back. The creature was covered in armour like scales that Thevet compared to brigantine armour. The orabou was nine to ten feet long. It made sounds similar to a cat. According to Thevet, the locals would occasionally fish and eat the orabou, even though the meat was said to cause kidney stones. The locals would treat the kidney stones with a folk remedies made from herbs and the orabou’s own fat. Thevet tried some of the orabou’s meat while he was there. He said it was foul tasting and compared it to preserved camel meat. The orabou was said to be extremely ferocious towards other sea life. Much thought has ...
Read more