海船日誌和海怪

海船日誌和海怪
Ships’ Logs and Sea Monsters
2010 06 19
By David Clarke
ForteanTimes.com
The MoD keeps no secret files, but Admiralty records detail encounters.
英國國防部沒有保存秘密檔案，但海事法庭記錄詳細遭遇。
The Ministry of Defence does not keep any secret files on sea monsters reported by Royal Navy personnel, but crews of ships and submarines who make unusual sightings can record their experiences in official logbooks that are public records. This emerged as a result of a Freedom of Inform ation request made to the MoD by marine bio logist Sebastian Darby in February. Darby’s request asked the MoD if there were “any abnorm ally large, or dangerous sea monsters hundreds of metres under the sea that haven’t been revealed to the public”. If such creatures did exist, he argued, it would be in the public interest to publish the facts as marine bio logists’ lives could be at risk.
國防部沒有保存任何皇家海軍人員報告的海怪秘密文件，但船和潛艇有不尋常目擊的船員，可能有記錄他們的經驗在官方的航海日誌，那現在是公開的記錄。這出現是為一報告自由行動的結果，請求在2月由海洋生物學家塞巴斯蒂安打比向國防部作出。打比的請求是問國防部是否有“任何大的畸形盟友，或危險的幾百米海上怪物在海下，而仍沒有透露給大眾的。”如果這種生物確實存在，他爭論，它將是符合公眾利益去公佈事實，因為海洋生物學家的生命可能受到威脅。
Navy FOI officer Heather Godfrey’s response admitted neither the Navy nor the MoD maintained “any form of central repository of information purely devoted to sea monsters”. Although there was no formal requirement, the Navy did encourage personnel to record sightings of marine mammals “and it’s possible this could include unusual sightings”. All such reports were sent to the UK Hydrographic Office in Somer set, while individual ship’s logs are retained until they are deposited at The National Archives after 30 years. But a search of thousands of ship’s logs for entries on sea monster sightings would exceed the cost limits allowed for a FOI request.
海軍FOI軍官希瑟戈弗的回應承認，海軍既不國防部也沒有保持“任何形式的信息中央存儲庫專供海上怪物”。雖然沒有正式要求，海軍確鼓勵人員記錄海洋哺乳動物的目擊，“它是可能這可能包括不尋常的目擊。”所有這些報告都被送往在索梅爾石的英國水文局，而個別船隻的日誌被保留直到它們在30年後被存放在國家檔案館。但船舶日誌的數千搜索有關海上怪物出沒條目，將超過成本限制允許給FOI要求的。
Nautical folklore is replete with such stories and first-hand accounts of sightings have been recorded in Atlantic waters since the Middle Ages. In more recent centuries, one of the most cele brated sea serpent reports was made by the captain and officers of the frigate HMS Daedalus off the Cape of Good Hope in the South Atlantic on 6 August 1848 [...]. On arrival in England, the captain, Peter M’Quhae, sent details to the Admiralty and to The Times. He supervised a detailed drawing of the 60ft-long creature that was visible for 20 minutes. But his story was rejected by palæonto logist Professor Richard Owen, who insisted the crew had seen a giant seal.
航海民間傳說是充滿著這些故事，和第一手目擊的敍述自中世紀以來一直被記錄在大西洋水域。在最近的幾個世紀，其中最出名的海蛇報告是由HMS代達羅斯護衛艦的 艦長和人員，在1848年8月6日[...].於南大西洋好望角離岸，在抵達英國時，艦長彼得M'Quhae發送詳細資料至海事法庭和泰晤士報，他監督了一六十呎長生物的詳細繪畫，它是可見到達20分鐘。但他的故事被古生物學家理查德歐文教授否定，他堅持船員看到的是巨大海豹。
A number of other 19th-century accounts have emerged in British Admiralty files deposited at The National Archives in Kew. One contains an account of a sea serpent written by Captain James Stockdale in May 1830. Stockdale and the crew of the barque Rob Roy were near the island of St Helena when they heard a scuffling noise in the water. As they turned to the port bow, they were amazed to see the head of “a great thundering sea snake” whose head rose six feet out of the water “as square with our topsail [and] his tail was square with the foremast”. Stockdale said his ship was 171ft long with the foremast 42ft from the stern, which would make the monster 129ft long. He reported to his masters in London: “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.”
數項其它的19世紀敍述已出現在英國海事法庭的檔案，存放在基尤的國家檔案館。其一包括一項一條海蛇的敍述，在 1830年5月由詹姆斯代爾船長書寫的。在三桅帆船羅布羅伊的斯托克代爾和船員是近在聖赫勒拿島，那時他們聽到一在水中的扭打聲音；當他們轉舵向左，他們驚訝地看到“一大雷鳴般的海蛇”的頭，它的頭部出水上升6呎“，與我們頂帆對平 [和]他的尾巴則與前桅對平”。斯托克代爾說他的船是171呎長，前桅從船尾42呎，那會使怪物一二九英尺129呎長。他報告給他在倫敦的主人：“如果我沒看到它，我不會可能已相信它的，但沒有任何錯誤或疑問關於它的長度 - 因為那畜生是如此接近我什能聞到牠討厭的魚腥味。”
A Board of Trade file from 1857 contains an account from Comm ander George Henry Harring ton of the 1,063-ton merchant ship Cast ilan, again near the same South Atlantic island. On 13 December of that year, he and two officers saw “a huge marine animal” which suddenly reared out of the water just 20ft from the ship. For a few moments, its long neck and dark head, shaped “like a long buoy” and covered with white spots, were clearly visible “with a kind of scroll or ruff encircling it”. The creature was submerged for a moment and then reappeared, leaving the crew in no doubt they were watching a sea monster “of extraordinary length [which] appeared to be moving slowly towards the land”. The boatswain, who watched it for some time, said that it was more than double the length of the ship, which made it 500ft long.

Both reports appear to have been filed away without comment by the Admiralty, in much the same way that the Air Ministry dealt with reports of flying sauc ers and UFOs from RAF crews during the 20th century. Unless a clear threat was identified, either from sea monsters or aliens, unusual sightings like these were classified as interesting but of “no defence significance”.

[PA] D.Telegraph, 16 May 2010; Rickard & Michell: “The Rough Guide to Unexplained Phenomena”, 2007; National Archives files: BJ 7/49 and MT 9/207.

Article from: ForteanTimes.com
http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=11448

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