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National Geographic : 1960 Nov
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PHOTOGRAPHEDTHROUGHTRITON'S PERISCOPEBY J. BAYLORROBERTS Terrified fisherman thought Triton a sea monster WHEN CAPTAIN BEACH raised periscope in Magellan Bay, he found himself looking into the eyes of the Filipino fisherman above. Although he did not realize it, the canoeist was the sole unauthorized person to detect Triton during her round-the-world voyage. With only the periscope picture and Captain Beach's description (opposite page) as a guide, the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC undertook to find and interview the fisherman through a Society member, Edson H. Canova, of Cebu City. Finally came the triumphant cable: "Have found needle in hay stack." At Punta Engafio on Mactan Island, Mr. Canova had located and identified the fisherman as 19-year-old Rufino Baring. When the periscope appeared, the youth recalled, he first thought it was a piece of wood. Then, seeing its wake, he wondered if it might be the fin of a fish. As the periscope dipped beneath the surface, he decided that his eyes were playing tricks. When it suddenly reappeared, Baring imagined he was sharing the bay with a sea monster. "I was very frightened," he said. "I tried to get away as fast as I could." Baring never looked back as he paddled for home, and he concealed the incident from his family, though he later confided it to a friend. His last trace of dread vanished only when Mr. Canova told him what he had really seen. Putting on the clothes he wore the day of his encounter, Baring climbed into his freshly painted banca for the portrait below. To protect the craft from further meetings with sea monsters, he had added the names of saints. By coincidence, he chose the apostles who gave their names to St. Peter and St. Paul Rocks, the Atlantic outcropping where Triton began and ended her circumnavigation. 602 EDSON H. CANOVA
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