A photograph-still from Encounter In The Abyss by Richard
Svensson, depicting the anonymous horror from the underwater abyss about to
encapsulate the stricken shark whereas the terrified diver stood immobile, on a
ledge on the abyss’s edge, watching in petrified fascination (© Richard Svensson)
The
decidedly creepy cryptozoological report of a lethal underwater thriller beast documented
by me right here immediately is one among my all-time private favourites, which I’ve included
in a number of of my books and articles down via the years, and in addition beforehand
on ShukerNature (click on right here). Now,
due to a beautiful new animated quick that brings the eerie encounter
vividly to life for the very first time (full particulars on the finish of the current
weblog article), I made a decision that it was time to revisit this terrifying denizen of
a deepwater abyss and supply some further info, so right here it’s.
In
1953, whereas testing a brand new kind of deep-sea diving go well with within the South Pacific, an
Australian diver named Christopher Loeb encountered a Lovecraftian horror from
the ocean’s unpenetrated depths. In my ebook From Flying Toads To Snakes With Wings
(1997) and in addition in my earlier ShukerNature protection of it, I supplied a
much-abbreviated paraphrased model of Loeb’s report, however right here now could be his full
first-person account, as initially supplied by Eric Frank Russell in his personal ebook Nice
World Mysteries (1967:
All the way in which down I used to be adopted by a 15 foot shark which
circled round filled with curiosity however made no try and assault. I stored
questioning how far down he would go. He was nonetheless hanging round some thirty
ft from me, and about twenty ft increased, once I reached a ledge beneath which
was an awesome, black chasm of monumental depth. It being harmful to enterprise
farther, I stood trying into the chasm whereas the shark waited for my subsequent
transfer.
All of a sudden the water turned distinctly colder. Whereas the
temperature continued to drop with stunning rapidity, I noticed a black mass
rising from the darkness of the chasm. It floated upwards very slowly. As at
final gentle reached it I may see that it was of lifeless brown color and
great dimension, a flat ragged edged factor about one acre in extent. It
pulsated sluggishly and I knew that it was alive regardless of its lack of seen
limbs or eyes. Nonetheless pulsating, this frightful imaginative and prescient floated previous my stage, by
which period the coldness had develop into most intense. The shark now hung utterly
immobile, paralyzed both by chilly or worry. Whereas I watched fascinated, the
monumental brown factor reached the shark, contacted him with its higher floor.
The shark gave a convulsive shiver and was drawn unresisting into the substance
of the monster.
I stood completely nonetheless, not daring to maneuver, whereas the brown
factor sank again into the chasm as slowly because it had emerged. Darkness swallowed
it and the water began to regain some heat. God is aware of what this factor was,
however I had little doubt that it had been born of the primeval slime numerous
fathoms beneath.
Furthermore,
this is probably not a novel report, for as revealed right here by the
on-line Encyclopaedia of Cryptozoology
web site:
In line with Russian sources, not less than two different sightings of
the amorphous sea monster have been reported in native newspapers. Members of a Chilean
hydrographic expedition to the South Pacific in 1968 informed the press that they
had seen an animal which resembled the Australian diver’s “black
mass,” close to an abyssal trench. A deadly encounter with such an animal
allegedly occurred off Thailand in 2005, when a French scuba diver named Henri
Astor informed the press that he had noticed a really massive “unusual brown
mass” paralysing and killing a shoal of fish. Astor’s unnamed companion
allegedly disappeared after trying to observe the entity.
Cirrothauma murrayi, a species of deepsea cirrate octopus (public area)
In
the previous, a deepsea octopus has been supplied as a potential identification for this
disturbing creature, however as I mentioned intimately inside my ebook, a much more
passable candidate is a deepsea jellyfish, probably akin to one of many identified
comparatively shapeless varieties, similar to Deepstaria
enigmatica, which strikes by way of peristalsis and lacks tentacles. This weird
species remained undescribed by science till 1967, following its discovery by the
well-known French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau whereas exploring the deep waters of the central
Pacific Ocean close to Southwest Baker Island in a submarine known as Deepstar 4000. It’s identified from the Pacific Ocean,
Antarctica, and the Gulf of Mexico, however solely at depths beneath 3,000 ft.
Whereas
all octopuses have tentacles, some deepsea jellyfishes don’t. What they do
have, nonetheless, are potent stinging cells known as nematocysts on their our bodies
(and tentacles in the event that they possess any), armed with venom that swiftly paralyses
their prey. This is able to readily clarify the speedy paralysis of the shark.
Furthermore, jellyfishes don’t possess true eyes however they’re outfitted with
sensory buildings conscious of water actions. Consequently, the creature
would have learnt of the shark’s presence by detecting its actions within the
water. How fortunate, then, that the diver had remained stationary!
Creative illustration of el cuero, the lethal Chilean cover (© Tim
Morris)
Curiously,
Chilean legends inform of a really comparable beast known as el cuero or the cover, because it
is likened in form and dimension to a cowhide stretched out flat, with numerous
eyes round its perimeter, and 4 bigger ones within the centre. Because it occurs,
jellyfishes possess peripheral sensory organs known as rhopalia that incorporate
easy light-sensitive eyespots or ocelli.
Furthermore,
some jellyfishes even have 4 bigger, deceptively eye-like organs seen at
the centre of their bell. In actuality, nonetheless, these organs will not be eyes at
all. As a substitute, they’re truly parts of the jellyfishes’ intestine, often called
gastric pouches, with the jellyfishes’ horseshoe-shaped gonads sited immediately
beneath these pouches and in addition very seen (as within the acquainted moon
jellyfish Aurelia aurita).
So
maybe the lethal cover is greater than a fable in any case, lurking like so many
different maritime horrors reported down via the ages within the deep oceans’
impenetrable black abyss, however solely very not often encountered by humankind – which
in view of the dreadful destiny that befell the hapless South Pacific shark in
1953 could also be simply as properly!
And now, as famous above, this chilling
cryptozoological vignette has been dropped at vivid life by longstanding pal
and superior Swedish animator Richard Svensson, aka The Lone Animator, in a
great 3-minute mini-movie entitled Encounter
In The Abyss, and accessible to look at without cost on YouTube since 8 August
2024 – simply click on right here. Do not miss it!
Thumbnail
picture on YouTube for Encounter In The
Abyss by Richard Svensson (© Richard Svensson)