The Story of the Emerald Dragon

1684
“Hall thet thing up hare!” the sailor shouted. He was the first mate of the Emerald Dragon, a merchant ship. They were on a voyage across the Pacific, a trip the ship and crew has made several times before. This time was going to end differently.
“Naw don’t mangle thet thing!” the first mate yelled down at the crew. They were in boats surrounding the carcass of some huge creature. They were attempting to hook the carcass in order that it may be hauled on board. There was no real purpose for this activity. It was spurned on primarily by curiosity about the nature of the gigantic beast.
One of the crew climbed up the side of the ship and addressed the first mate. “We’ve hooked it as best we can, sir.”
“Wall, then, start hauling ‘er up. We’ve wasted enough time on this foolish endeavar.”
With all the crew back on board, they began to pull the great beast up onto the ship.
“Careful, she’s tearing!” someone called out. But the warning was too late. The carcass ripped free from the hooks and plunged back into the sea. All that was left was a single tentacle that had ripped free and was now dangling from a single hook.
The first mate growled in frustration. “Well, dan’t just stand thar watching ‘er sink. Haul that bit in ef you want it and get back to work!”
The first mate then turned away from the side of the ship and motioned for one of the crew, a seaman named Adaver, to come over. They spoke quietly together for a few minutes.
“Well Adaver, how’s the crew look’n?
“As ye know, we’re runnin’ with a light crew, since many of his favorites couldn’t make it on this trip. So most will side with us, though many will still remain loyal to ‘em.”
The first mate spat. “He’ll get whats comin’ to ‘em, and they’ll get the same ef thay stay with ‘em.”

Adaver lay on his back, with a knife in his chest. He felt his life ebbing away, but he still had enough strength to look around and consider his situation.
The mutiny had not gone as well as he though it would. More of the crew had sided with the captain. But the first mate was too stubborn to back down. It came to a fight, so fight they did, and now Adaver was the only one left alive. He smiled as he looked at all the dead bodies around him. All this, for what? The ship was now crewless, left to drift wherever it may. Then his gaze fell on a large tentacle in a corner of the kitchen.
“Who was the fool who put that thing in there?” was Adaver’s last thought.

1716
“Heav I ever told you ‘bout what happen’d to the Emerald Dragon?” and old seadog sitting on the pier asked a young lad who was busy unloading cargo from a ship.
Not getting a response, the old man continued. “Twasn’t mo’ then 32 years ago. I was on board the Sally Fey. Aye, she was a fine ship. We was en route across the Pacific, when all of a sudden, what does we see, but this ship come diften out o’ the mist. Wall, we calls out to the crew of the ship, so’s we don’t collide withs them, ya see. Now wouldn’t ya know it, we don’t get a reply. So, bein a might curious, we decides to board this ship. Wall wouldn’t ya know it? The crew all be dead! Ever last one o’ them. Worst carnage I ever did see. Never did quite figer out what ‘appened. Maybe it was a mutiny and both sides keeled themselves. That be odd though: you’d figer at least someone would survive a mutiny, the last man standing, ‘en all. But there was one other curious thing we found. A tentacle. Must ‘o been from a giant squid. Never could figer what that was doin’. May have somethun’ to so with the dead crew. Who knows.”

1835
“I heard a rumor that giant squid can be dangerous.”
The speaker was a tall, well dressed, young man named Thomas. He was speaking with two of his companions at the university. A large carcass had washed ashore at a nearby town, inspiring talk about sea monsters.
“I suppose they would be carnivorous, like other squid,” one of his companions considered. “So I imagine a giant squid would be dangerous, if you happen to be in the water when it was in the vicinity.”
“No, I mean I have heard a story about a group of giant squid devouring the entire crew of a ship.”
“Really?” Thomas’s other friend asked skeptically. “Where did you hear that from?”
“My uncle. He owns a fleet of merchant vessels and he has heard tale from his crew about a ship, the Emerald Dragon, which was found drifting aimlessly at sea. Much of the crew was missing, based on the size of the crew a ship that size should have, and those that they found on the ship were all dead. Those remaining bodies had parts, arms, legs, even heads, missing, and over the rest of their bodies, there were horrible scares left by suckers. They also found the severed limbs of giant squid on board, so apparently the crew had been fighting back.”
“That sounds like a tall tale to me.”
“That is what I thought at first, but I talked to several members of my uncle’s crew, and most of them have heard the story and confirm that it is true.”

2010
The radio host was speaking to his guest, George Calvert, an expert on the giant squid. They were on the air, and they were in the middle of a discussion about the physiology of the giant squid when the host decided to steer the conversation into a different direction.
“Now George, we talk about how big the giant squid is, and an animal of that size can be dangerous, right?”
“Oh, sure.”
“Now I have heard a story, and you tell me if this sounds plausible, a story about a ship way back in the 1600’s that was found drifting at sea. I believe the name of the ship was the Green Dragon. Anyway, the crew was gone, every one had disappeared, but they found a tentacle, a giant squid tentacle, on board the ship. Apparently, it had been hacked off by a sailor trying to defend himself.”
“Yes, yes, I know that story. Your description of the events is correct, though the ship was the Emerald Dragon, not the Green Dragon.”
“Oh, I knew it was green or some color like that,”
“Well, we want to make sure we get our facts correct, don’t we?”
“Oh, of course we do.”
“Anyway, the story of the Emerald Dragon is a dramatic example of how dangerous giant squid can be…”
George Calvert continued, telling other fascinating details about the mysterious giant squid, all of these details backed up with well documented sources.