Retro Review of "The Sea Raiders" (1896) by H. G. Wells
Synopsis:
The narrator introduces the story by stating::Until the extraordinary affair at Sidmouth, the peculiar species Haploteuthis ferox was known to science only generically, on the strength of a half-digested tentacle obtained near the Azores, and a decaying body pecked by birds and nibbled by fish, found early in 1896 by Mr. Jennings, near Land's End.
and
The first human being to set eyes upon a living Haploteuthis-the first human being to survive, that is, for there can be little doubt now that the wave of bathing fatalities and boating accidents that travelled along the coast of Cornwall and Devon in early May was due to this cause-was a retired tea-dealer of the name of Fison, who was stopping at a Sidmouth boarding-house.
thus rather neatly setting-up the reader to expect that something very nasty indeed is about to be discovered. There is a Bilingual Bonus here for anyone familiar with Classical Greek and Latin (any educated man in 1896) in that the name of the species means "Fierce Singular Squid," which is a fair description of the beast.
Fison is walking along the cliffs between Sidmouth and Ladram Bay on the coasts of Cornwall and Devon when he sights a human corpse lying in the tidal zone. Coming down to investigate, he finds that it is being devoured by a number of large, unusual-looking cephalopods.
...
Read the rest at Fantastic Worlds.