On April 27th, 1923, American naturalist William Beebe was aboard his yacht, the Norma, near Tower Island in the Galapagos Islands when he collided with something unusual. As Beebe ran to the side of his vessel to get a look at what the Norma had hit, his eyes caught sight of large manta ray swimming off, away from the boat and back out to see. Beebe quickly noted the appearance and characteristics of the mystery manta as it swam away and would later speak about the encounter in his 1924 book, “Galapagos, World’s End”.