| "The Sea Raiders" | |
|---|---|
| Author | H. G. Wells |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction |
| Published in | The Weekly Sun Literary Supplement |
| Publication type | Periodical |
| Media type | |
| Publication date | 6 December 1896 |
"The Sea Raiders" is a short story by H. G. Wells, first published in 1896 in The Weekly Sun Literary Supplement. It was included in The Plattner Story and Others , a collection of short stories by Wells published by Methuen & Co. in 1897. It was included in The Country of the Blind and Other Stories , a collection of short stories by Wells published by Thomas Nelson & Sons in 1911. [1]
The story describes a brief period when a previously unknown sort of giant squid, which attacks humans, is encountered on the coast of Devon, England.
Legendary sea monsters include Scylla and Charybdis of Greek mythology, and the kraken of medieval times which is thought to have been a giant squid.
Previous fictional encounters with giant squids are described in chapter 59 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick of 1851, and in Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea of 1870.
The narrator describes a recent period when a new sort of giant squid, a species named Haploteuthis ferox, became known. (This fictitious name can be compared with the genus name Architeuthis of the giant squid.) As a part of the survey of the period, including early encounters near Land's End and Terceira Island, he describes the adventure of Fison (whom he has met), the first person to see one and survive:
While walking along the a cliff path, Fison, a retired tea-dealer on holiday in Sidmouth (Devon, England), sees some birds interested in something on the rocky shoreline. He goes to investigate, and finds octopus-like sea creatures, along with a partially eaten human body. At first he thinks the sea creatures are harmless, but when they notice his presence they chase him to the foot of the cliffs; he barely manages to escape their grasp.
He returns in a boat, with the boatman and two local workmen, to the same area, where the tide is now coming in, and he shows them where he encountered the creatures. They see them below in the shallow water. Their tentacles start to reach for the occupants of the boat, and there is a prolonged struggle, the oars and a boat hook are used as weapons, which are gripped by the creatures. During all this, a larger boat is seen: the occupants, which include three women and a child, seem unaware of the danger and Fison tries to warn them.
The arm of the boatman in Fison's boat becomes covered with tentacles: "the eyes of one of the brutes that had hold of him, glaring straight and resolute, showed momentarily above the surface." He is pulled underwater.
The incoming tide carries the boat onto the rocky shore; Fison and the two workmen, in terror, leave the boat and run from the sea. Fison realizes he is no longer being pursued, and then remembers that there was another boat. "He looked back again, and there were now two boats floating, and the one farthest out at sea pitched clumsily, bottom upward."
After describing a few later incidents, the narrator suggests theories for the presence of the creatures: that hunger forced them to move away from their usual habitat in the deep sea; or that a shoal of them, after a foundering ship happened to sink amongst them, took a liking to human flesh and followed Atlantic traffic to the coast. It seems the incidents have ceased and that the squids have returned to deeper waters for good, but this is not certain.
Squid are cephalopods in the superorder Decapodiformes with elongated bodies, large eyes, eight arms and two tentacles. Like all other cephalopods, squid have a distinct head, bilateral symmetry, and a mantle. They are mainly soft-bodied, like octopuses, but have a small internal skeleton in the form of a rod-like gladius or pen, made of chitin.
The giant squid is a species of deep-ocean dwelling squid in the family Architeuthidae. It can grow to a tremendous size, offering an example of deep-sea gigantism: recent estimates put the maximum size at around 12–13 m (39–43 ft) for females and 10 m (33 ft) for males, from the posterior fins to the tip of the two long tentacles. The mantle of the giant squid is about 2 m long, and the length of the squid excluding its tentacles rarely exceeds 5 m (16 ft). Claims of specimens measuring 20 m (66 ft) or more have not been scientifically documented.
Sea monsters are beings from folklore believed to dwell in the sea and often imagined to be of immense size. Marine monsters can take many forms, including sea dragons, sea serpents, or multi-armed beasts. They can be slimy and scaly and are often pictured threatening ships or spouting jets of water. The definition of a "monster" is subjective; further, some sea monsters may have been based on scientifically accepted creatures, such as whales and types of giant and colossal squid.
Bigfin squids are a group of rarely seen cephalopods with a distinctive morphology. They are placed in the genus Magnapinna and family Magnapinnidae. Although the family is known only from larval, paralarval, and juvenile specimens, some authorities believe adult specimens have also been seen. Several videos have been taken of animals nicknamed the "long-arm squid", which appear to have a similar morphology. Since none of the seemingly adult specimens has ever been captured or sampled, it remains uncertain if they are of the same genus or only distant relatives.
The Humboldt squid, also known as jumbo squid or jumbo flying squid, is a large, predatory squid living in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is the only known species of the genus Dosidicus of the subfamily Ommastrephinae, family Ommastrephidae.
The Kraken is a legendary sea creature of gargantuan size, said to have been seen off the coasts of Norway and Iceland.
In Caribbean folklore, the lusca is a name given to a sea monster said to exist in the region.
The giant squid's elusive nature and fearsome appearance have long made it a popular subject of legends and folk tales. Its popularity as an image continues today with references and depictions in literature, film, television, and video games.
Although fictional and the subject of myth, the legend of the kraken continues to the present day, with numerous references existing in film, literature, television, and other popular culture topics.
The Boats of the "Glen Carrig" is a horror novel by English writer William Hope Hodgson, first published in 1907. Its importance was recognised in its later revival in paperback by Ballantine Books as the twenty-fifth volume of the celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in February 1971.
The St. Augustine Monster is the name given to a large carcass, originally postulated to be the remains of a gigantic octopus, that washed ashore on the United States coast near St. Augustine, Florida in 1896. It is sometimes referred to as the Florida Monster or the St. Augustine Giant Octopus and is one of the earliest recorded examples of a globster. The species that the carcass supposedly represented has been assigned the binomial names Octopus giganteus and Otoctopus giganteus, although these are not valid under the rules of the ICZN.
Cephalopods vary enormously in size. The smallest are only about 1 centimetre (0.39 in) long and weigh less than 1 gram (0.035 oz) at maturity, while the largest—the giant and colossal squids—can exceed 10 metres (33 ft) in length and weigh close to half a tonne (1,100 lb), making them the largest living invertebrates. Living species range in mass more than three-billion-fold, or across nine orders of magnitude, from the lightest hatchlings to the heaviest adults. Certain cephalopod species are also noted for having individual body parts of exceptional size. The giant and colossal squids, for example, have the largest known eyes among living animals.
Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep, also known as Deadly Water, is a 2006 made-for-television natural horror B-movie produced by Nu Image Films and Brightlight Pictures as a Sci Fi Channel original film. It premiered on the Sci Fi channel on September 23, 2006. Directed by Tibor Takács and starring Charlie O'Connell, Victoria Pratt, and Jack Scalia, the film focuses on a marine biologist and a sailor who join forces to find lost Trojan treasures while battling the giant squid who killed the sailor's parents while he was a child, and a treasure hunting mobster who wants the items for himself. The film was primarily panned by critics for the special effects, far-fetched plot, and scarcity of scenes involving the titular creature.
The colossal squid is part of the family Cranchiidae. It is sometimes called the Antarctic squid or giant cranch squid and is believed to be the largest squid species in terms of mass. It is the only recognized member of the genus Mesonychoteuthis and is known from only a small number of specimens. The species is confirmed to reach a mass of at least 495 kilograms (1,091 lb), though the largest specimens—known only from beaks found in sperm whale stomachs—may perhaps weigh as much as 600–700 kilograms (1,300–1,500 lb), making it the largest-known invertebrate. Maximum total length has been estimated at 9–10 metres (30–33 ft).
The kraken is a legendary sea monster of gigantic size and cephalopod-like appearance in Scandinavian folklore. According to the Norse sagas, the kraken dwells off the coasts of Norway and Greenland and terrorizes nearby sailors. Authors over the years have postulated that the legend may have originated from sightings of giant squids that may grow to 13–15 meters in length. The sheer size and fearsome appearance attributed to the kraken have made it a common ocean-dwelling monster in various fictional works. The kraken has been the focus of many sailors passing the North Atlantic and especially sailors from the Nordic countries. Throughout the centuries, the kraken has been a staple of sailors' superstitions and mythos.
Cephalapod attacks on humans have been reported since ancient times. A significant portion of these are unverifiable tabloid stories, or at least questionable. Cephalopods are members of the class Cephalopoda, which include all squid, octopuses, cuttlefish, and nautiluses. Some members of the group are capable of causing injury or even death to humans.
Cephalopods, specifically pertaining to octopuses, squids, nautiluses and cuttlefishes, are most commonly represented in popular culture in the Western world as creatures that spray ink and latch onto things with their tentacles without releasing.
The Search for the Giant Squid is a non-fiction book by Richard Ellis on the biology, history and mythology of the giant squid of the genus Architeuthis. It was well received upon release and, though soon rendered outdated by important developments in giant squid research, is still considered an important reference on the subject.
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The Sea Raiders public domain audiobook at LibriVox