Old newspapers

Of mild interest to those wanting to search old newspapers may be -

A. Gwilliam...

Thanks for the heads-up.

I tried it and found that so far it seems to find only American hits.
I'd already found most of those of relevance to me by other sources

andrew...

Phil -

I came across the same web-search facility on reading the BBC news page
it this morning. As you say, most of it is US relevant only, although a
from The Times archives and extracted via an abysmal OCR system. I was
amazed by the number of 'small mid-west town' Sellons there were, and
also the number that had served in their Civil War.

I thought it was bound in with The Guardian Archives but did not come
across any such items, (of course it is perfectly possible that they
have never published anything concerning a Sellon).

Yours Aye Andrew Sellon

but there were one or two I'd missed. Perhaps it will expand.

I did find one or two things including an 1889 eyewitness account by
my 3xg grandfather of a battle between a giant octopus and swordfish.

roy.stockdill...

Yes, but who won?

A. Gwilliam...

Probably the g. g. g. grandfather. After all, he's the one who lived
to write the history!

Phil C....

I don't get the impression he was much of a marine biologist, though -
claws? crablike?

<outlook, we shipped our moorings at Boston and plunged ahead on a
southern passage to Baltimore, Md. In the morning after breakfast the

andrew...

Phil -

Great story!

Yours Aye Andrew Sellon

forward lookout roared out: 'Big fish! Weather side.'

Directing our optics over the side, we saw a great commotion in the
seething waters, in effect similar to that noticed when a propeller
first puts its wheel in motion. Our steamer was driving ahead at great
speed. The commotion in the perturbed waters was amidships, where our
attention was called to it by the lookout. We saw a gigantic black
arm, some thirty feet in length, protruding from the sea, instantly
followed by a second evidently in the act of something within those
grappling ----. The creatures and both below the surface of the water.
As these enormous claws emerged from the depths, a huge swordfish
leaped into the air some five feet high, curving like a bow as it
descended head and horn downward.

Graeme Wall...

More likely to have been a large squid than an octopus from that description.

Phil C....

That does sound likely. It would also seem to fit their predatory
behaviour. Both Jules Verne and Melville had published well-known
tales of encounters with giant squid by then. I'd say that my
ancestor's basic account is given authenticity by its ignorance of
those - he just wrote what he thought he saw rather than tailoring it
to fit any preconceptions.

It seems that giant squid sightings were so rare that they were seen
as semi-mythical until _very_ recent years. But it's interesting to

Family history takes us in all sorts of odd directions but I wasn't
expecting sea monsters.

The outline of the pursuing fish, fully seen and fully developed, was
some eighteen or twenty feet in length, and in circumference it was
not less than two yards over the shoulders. The pursuit continuing, it
naturally drifted into the steamer's wake, and from time to time this
contest for capture could be seen renewed again and again, until
distance made the object invisible.

Philosophizing on the singularity of the occurrence, we came to the
conclusion it was a struggle for life between an octopus and a
swordfish, the horn of the latter defending itself in the depths below
its crablike antagonist; but, forced to the surface, the mammoth arms
of the octopus grappled distance and every thing within reach.
Consequently the means of escape was for the swordfish to spring high
in the air, judiciously diving at some distance away. Of course this
relation, as well as our solution of the strange cause and effect, can
produce nothing but surmise and the repetition of the old saw,
'Travelers see strange ----.>>

A. Gwilliam...

I think you've just made my day!! {grin}

I also found, in the "London Literary World" archives of the
Washington Post, a potentially _very_ interesting report of a 1902
London court case. It was $3.95 but wouldn't download, ho hum, so I
had to get a refund.