WI : Ramming Columbus

What would happen on the large scheme of things if Columbus, halfway across the Atlantic, rammed a huge Giant Oarfish (lets call it sick since otherwise they probably wouldn't enter those layers in the ocean) ... obvious thing happening would be some kind of mutiny with the sailors since they ran into a sea monster and they can not get back to known waters fast enough ... but otherwise?
 
A 7-metre oarfish? They might not even notice, to be blunt. Those things are huge compared to people, but unless the fish actively attacks the ships, it's not going to be a notable event. Sailors plying the Atlantic at the time routinely encountered whales. That didn't faze them.
 
whales you knew, as they weren't rare visitors, uncommon? sure, but hardly rare. ... an unknown huge fish looking like stories of sea serpents? ... superstition would supply quite a bit, specially if they only spot it, and don't actually catch it or get the chance of examining it for a while
 
But people expected sea serpents. It was common knowledge. A fish that size colliding with a 30-metre caravel would barely have registered - the ship would just push it out of the way - and any sailor that saw it would most likely conclude it was a little serpent, maybe a young one. The ones they'd heard about would drag down ships and eat people. It'd be like going into the jungle fearing a tiger and meeting an ocelot. Not exactly a terrifying moment.
 
Are you posting this because of the news item about the 18-foot oarfish some diver has found, earlier today? Just seems a bit of a coincidence.

Also, for the record it seems unlikely that an oarfish would ram a ship, since they live below 200m and swim sideways facing vertically.
 
But people expected sea serpents. It was common knowledge. A fish that size colliding with a 30-metre caravel would barely have registered - the ship would just push it out of the way - and any sailor that saw it would most likely conclude it was a little serpent, maybe a young one. The ones they'd heard about would drag down ships and eat people. It'd be like going into the jungle fearing a tiger and meeting an ocelot. Not exactly a terrifying moment.

more likely resulting in a good story that gets bigger and bigger after time.
After all part of being a sailor is telling this kind of big stories about their adventures :)
 
Are you posting this because of the news item about the 18-foot oarfish some diver has found, earlier today? Just seems a bit of a coincidence.

actually not ... was idling around looking for infomation on Japanese mythology and ended up reading about Ryūgū-jō
 
I think the more impactful event would be ramming into a whale, that stands a decent chance of harming the ship and threatening their ability to complete the voyage.
 
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