The French dispatch steamer Alecton was cruising off the Canary Islands late in November of 1861 when its crew spotted something unusual in the water. It looked like a large sea monster with many arms and a long tail. The gunboat, firing cannon and musket at the strange apparition, pursed it until they could get close enough to throw harpoons into it’s body. The harpoons wouldn’t stay in the flesh for long, but finally the crew managed to get a noose around the tail of the monster. As they tried to pull the thing aboard, the rope tightened and cut though the animal. Most of the creature sank into the sea, but the ship’s captain, decided to take the tail of the thing back to the French Consul at Tenerife. From there the tail, and a report about the creature, made its way to the French Academy of Sciences. The Alecton attempts to capture a giant squid in 1861. At the Academy the report was widely ridiculed. No serious scientist could believe in such a creature. As one member said, it was against the laws of nature. Against the laws of nature or not, the creature seen by the Alecton’s crew did exist. Today we know that these creatures are real. What the Alectron sailors saw was the giant squid, or its close cousin, the colossal squid. The existence of the giant squid, genus Architeuthis, is well accepted by science though few have ever been seen, and little is known about their habits. Giant squid are carnivorous mollusks that have a long, torpedo shaped body. At one end, surrounding a beak-like mouth strong enough to cut through steel cable, are five pairs of arms. One pair, thinner and longer than the rest, are used to catch food and bring it to the mouth. Just past the mouth are the eyes. Eyes that are the largest in the animal kingdom, getting as big as eighteen inches across. All squid move through the ocean using a jet of water forced out of the body by a siphon. They eat fish, other squid, and perhaps as some argue, in the case of the largest species, whales. The legend of the Kraken, a many armed sea monster that could pull a whole ship under, may have been based on the giant squid. The largest giant squid ever measured was discovered at Timble Tickle on November 2, 1878. Three fisherman were working not far off shore when they noticed a mass floating on the ocean they took to be wreckage. They investigated and found a giant squid had run aground. Using their anchor as a grappling hook they snagged the still living body and made it fast to a tree. When the tide went out the creature was left high and dry. When the animal died, the fishermen measured it and then chopped it up for dog meat. The body of the squid was twenty feet from tail to beak. The longer tentacles measured thirty five feet and were tipped with four inch suckers. Giant Squid have been seen in battle with adult whales too. In 1965, a Soviet whaler watched a battle between a squid and a 40 ton sperm whale. In this case neither was victorious. The strangled whale was found floating in the sea with the squid’s tentacles wrapped around the whale’s throat. The squid’s severed head was found in the whale’s stomach. Sperm whales eat squid and originally it had been thought that such battles were the result of a sperm whale taking on a squid that was just too large to be an easy meal. The incident with the Brunswick might suggest otherwise. The Brunswick was a 15,000 ton auxiliary tanker owned by the Royal Norwegian Navy. In the 1930’s it was attacked at least three times by giant squid. In each case the attack was deliberate as the squid would pull along side of the ship, pace it, then suddenly turn, run into the ship and wrap its tentacles around the hull. The encounters were fatal for the squid. Since the animal was unable to get a good grip on the ship’s steel surface, the animal slid off and fell into the ship’s propellers. Perhaps, for some unknown reason, the Brunswick looked like a whale to the squid. This might suggest that the sperm whale is not always the aggressor in the battles. In fact, though many sperm whales have been captured, few of their stomachs seemed to contain parts of giant squid (though smaller squid seem to provide a large portion of the sperm whale’s diet) Unfortunately for scientists, but good for the rest of us, humans do not meet up with giant squid very often. There is at least one report from World War II of survivors of a sunken ship being attacked by a giant squid that ate one of the party. Squid are thought to be deep dwelling, open sea creatures Work by Dr. Ole Bri
Mozambique Deep Sea Creatures Giant Squid Proof .500 Silver 2010 Colored Medallic Issue
$29.99
Issued under authority of the Government of Mozambique, but to my knowledge, never monetized, this piece was struck from 29.1 grams of .500 silver for an Actual Silver Weight (ASW) of .4678 troy ounces of silver.
In stock
SKU:
2010_MOZ_14080
Categories: World Proof Silver Crowns, Animal & Nature Coins, World Silver Coins, Sealife Coins, Medals and Tokens, World Exonumia, Coins by Metallic Composition, Browse by Subject
Description
Additional information
Weight | 0.2000 lbs |
---|
Shipping & Delivery
Shipping Policy
- Free DOMESTIC (within the United States) Shipping on orders over $100.
- Free Shipping on orders over $100 on all products.
- Free Shipping offer valid on domestic (within the United States) purchases only.
Faster Delivery
- Shipping charges are calculated on the weight of the product ordered and the shipping method.
- Actual charges are displayed during the checkout process after you select your shipping option.
- Expedited Delivery is available according to the shipping options available at checkout.