As this photo attests, elephants can swim. They are strong animals and when moving their four legs 'doggie paddle' style, they can move quite fast in water.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Just when you thought it was safe to go into the water, along comes a story that is hard to believe and terrifying, if true!
Those of us who know people who fish have heard tall tales about the one that got away; but when Frank Kissler encountered a beast from the deep, he was not thinking about telling a tall tale, he and his fishing partner only wanted to get back to shore safely!
Staten Island has long been a popular location for fishermen from the area, including those from Brooklyn and New Jersey.
Kissler, in fact, was from Jersey City and he and a buddy would often fish off New Dorp Beach in a small rowboat.
One June, they made plans to fish in their favorite spot. Frank left work early on Friday and traveled to Staten Island to get a good night’s sleep so he and his buddy could be fishing early Saturday morning. They got up, proceeded to the shore around 4 o’clock and launched their rowboat.
It was a gray morning and the visibility was limited to only a few feet. As they dropped their hooks into the calm waters and waited for their first bite, they heard a noise that they had never heard before.
Then they head it again, but this time, the little rowboat began to be rocked by waves coming from the direction of the noise. Soon they could see a huge object coming towards them shooting water into the air as it approached. Was it a whale? Was it a sea serpent? What was this beast coming after them?
They didn’t wait to find out. They dropped their lines and turned their little boat toward the shore and safety, only to find the “animal” was following them and getting closer. They rowed for their lives and made it to shore only to find the “beast” had followed them to shore. It was then that they realized what it was — an elephant!
The huge animal was not menacing but seemed lost and confused. Finally, with help from some other fishermen, they got some rope, lassoed the tusks of the gentle giant and led it off to the police station about a mile from the beach without a struggle.
Not knowing what to do, the police placed the mild-mannered elephant under arrest and charged it with vagrancy. The elephant was put in a stable that was used by the city to house horses for the mounted police on Staten Island.
It turns out that Luna Park in Coney Island had an attraction called the Indian Durbar — a recreation of a Royal Indian Court — that featured several elephants. Apparently there was no performance on a Thursday and the elephants were in their barn. All but three were properly chained.
The three elephants escaped through the rear door of the barn that led to Neptune Avenue and down to Coney Island Creek. Two elephants turned left and swam toward Long Island; one turned right and headed for Staten Island — and made it!
The elephants that headed toward Long Island were found and caught rather quickly; but the third, Alice, was still on the lamb. The next day, Luna Park management posted a Lost and Found ad in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle offering $100 for information/return of the one the got away.
Saturday evening, two representatives of Luna Park, Messrs. Thompson and Dundy, appeared at the New Dorp police station to claim Alice. They walked her down to the ferry and she sailed back to Brooklyn. Now some people believe that this was a publicity stunt orchestrated by an over imaginative press agent; the lighthouse keeper at Coney Island Point saw nothing strange that evening, but Frank Kissler and his fishing buddy knew better.
And you thought the migration from Brooklyn to Staten Island started when the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened.
BITS & PIECES
Elephants can, in fact, swim. They are strong animals and when moving their four legs “doggie paddle” style, they can move quite fast. Their trunks work like a snorkel, helping them to breath when their face is below water. Even their large bodies help them by acting like a large flotation device. The trip from Coney Island to New Dorp Beach is about six miles.