17th century squid?

Emperor

GPO
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Nov 8, 2003
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New documents have been made public from the English Civil War including, amongst more straightforward (if still fascinating) acoounts, some more fantastical ones:

There are also records of unusual discoveries, including the finding of a “miraculous sea monster with two heads and ten horns” — probably a giant squid — off the coast of Ireland. Another is an explorer’s account of “hairy giants” in a description of two islands in the South Sea, called Benganga and Coma, discovered in a voyage which started in January 1669 and finished that October.

It says: “The natives that rode in the canoes were all hairy, having no other clothing than what nature had furnished them with; and the least of them, by computation, above 11 foot high.”

www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,4484-1401565,00.html

Emps
 
Hello Emps,

I'll wager the animal was Ireland's Dingle-I-Cosh squid, whch aroused much comment in Britain. Can't find the stranding date at the moment, but there's a contemporary illo posted in the "Architeuthis Again" thread. Click here to go directly to that page. A very queer illustration, but it provided enough detail for Dr. O'Shea to speculate about possible species.

As for the Australopithicenes in the canoes, I plead the Fifth Amendment.

:roll:

Clem
 
the eleven foot hairy guys moved to baja to work on a script about humbolt current squid...
 
Dingle-I-Cosh Squid

Now that I need the documentaion, I can't find it, but I believe the stranding date was 1671, so slightly after the English Civil War.

Glub!
 
Clem said:
.... but it provided enough detail for pointy-headed peanut-brain O'Shea to speculate .....

:shock: dude ... where did you dredge this up from? I have to tell you that age has rendered me stupid; I have to plead the 5th on any and all speculation. Actually I don't know what I did 5 minutes ago ....
 
I've "cleaned up" (made honest) the Dingle squid link from the other thread, so here it is:

download.php

Like Ms. Taningia, I'm puzzled by the second "head" in the middle of the arm corona. Accounting for a fanciful engraver, it's still too long for a funnel, and I don't imagine that the buccal structure could be so distended, even by vigorous tugging. Here's a thought: perhaps this was a spawned-out male teuthid, found with his penis hanging out? The "head" looks a bit like a rooster. Cock-a-doodle-do?

:roll:

Clem
 
Hello OctopusV,

We're sick people, aren't we?

Isn't it funny that the engraver added trim to the squid's "cloak?" Back then, a fur-trimmed robe or cloak connoted real status. It's not just a big teuthid with a giggle-inducing second head: it's a royal big teuthid.

:?:

Clem
 

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