In June 1877 the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty received official reports from the Royal Yacht "Osborne", forwarded by Commander Pearson, regarding the sighting of an unidentified marine creature seen on the second day of that month off Cape Vito, Sicily.
Commander Pearson's report read: -
"I myself saw the fish through a telescope, but at too great a distance (about 400 yards) to be able to give a detailed description; but I distinctly saw the seal-shaped head, of immense size, large flappers, and part of a huge body"." Lieutenant Douglas Forsyth's report, written at sea on June 4th is as follows, "At 5 p.m. on the 2nd inst., while passing Cape St. Vito, north coast of Sicily, I observed a large, black-looking object on the starboard quarter, distant about two cables "[a cable is 240 yards]"; and on examining it with a telescope, I found it to be a huge monster, having a head about fifteen to twenty feet in length. The breadth I could not observe. The head was round, and full at the crown. The animal was slowly swimming in a south-easterly direction, propelling itself by means of two large flappers or fins, somewhat in the manner of a seal. I also saw a portion of the body of the animal, and that part was certainly not under forty-five or fifty feet in length. Another officer, Lieutenant Haynes, reported
"On the evening of June 2, the sea being perfectly smooth, my attention was first called by seeing a ridge of fins above the surface of the water, extending about thirty feet, and varying from five to six feet in height. On inspecting it by means of a telescope, at about one and a half cables' distance, I distinctly saw a head, two flappers, and about thirty feet of an animal's shoulder. The head, as nearly as I could judge, was about six feet thick, the neck narrower, about four to five feet, the shoulder about fifteen feet across, and the flappers each about fifteen feet in length. The movements of the flappers were those of a turtle, and the animal resembled a huge seal, the resemblance being strongest about the back of the head. I could not see the length of the head, but from its crown or top to just below the shoulder (where it became immersed) I should reckon about fifty feet. The tail end I did not see, it being under water unless the ridge of fins to which my attention was first attracted, and which had disappeared by the time I got a telescope, was really the continuation of the shoulder to the end of the body. The animal's head was not always above water, but was thrown upwards, remaining above for a few seconds at a time, and then disappearing. There was an entire absence of 'blowing' or 'spouting'." Mr. Moore, engineer of the Osborne, writes, "When looking over the starboard quarter of the ship, my attention was called by observing an uneven ridge of what appeared to me to be the fins of a fish above the surface of the water, about a cable's length distance from the ship. They varied in height, as near as I can judge, from seven to eight feet above water, and extended about forty feet along the surface. Not having a telescope with me, I regret I am unable to give a further description"." (if the fins were 6-8 feet high out of the water then they are certainly staged out over well more than 40 feet by that scale. It is more likely a hundred feet or more given the spacing of the fins)
Jay had noticed that one of the officers had seen an animal with the face of an alligator while the other officers described something they compared to a very large seal or turtle. Jay thought the ridge of pointed fins could be on the back of a large Marine Saurian This would then be comparable to the creature seen by the schooner "Eagle" off of Virginia, which had a head over 10 feet long and a total length of 75 feet. These proportions are in the range of the larger Marine Saurian, Dr, Shucker's Leviathan. The eagle creature was also reported to have a row of pointed projections on the back, possibly a row of fins as in the illustration for the Osborne creature. "Pristichampsus" (Tim Morris) has put his artistic interpretation of the Eagle creature on Deviantart and it is reprinted below Since there is a pretty definite tradition of a whale-eater around Ireland that chases Humpback whales until they "Fly" out of the water in an attempt to escape (The story of the Gorramolooch and the Bo-Dre-More) it is just possible we have a different encounter of the same type as witnessed around Sicily instead. The fins may belong on the back of the Whale-eater as Jay guesses, but they could also belong to some innocent bystander basking sharks, or some opportunistic predatory sharks foillowing along after the Whale-eater in hopes of scavenging from a meal left by the larger creature.I still feel the "Turtlelike" creature with the 15 foot flippers is a humpback whale, but from the description given, there could very well have been at least two creatures or sets of creatures. http://forteanzoology.blogspot.com/2010/12/dale-drinnon-irish-sea-serpent-addendum.html http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/07/some-other-pristichampsus-sea-serpent.html
