Northern water snake The belly also varies in color. It can be white, yellow, or gray. Usually it also has reddish or black crescents. The northern water snake is nonvenomous and harmless to humans, but superficially resembles the venomous cottonmouth and is often killed unnecessarily as a result of this mistaken identity. The two can be easily distinguished by morphological traits: the water snake has a longer, more slender body and a flattened head the same width as the neck, round pupils, and no heat-sensing pits. The cottonmouth has a fatter body, a wedge-shaped head with prominent venom glands that are wider than
HMS Venomous the North Atlantic 180 nautical miles (333 km) west of Gibraltar. While she was hunting for "U-515", the submarine fired four torpedoes at 00:15 hours at "Hecla", which sighted and avoided two of them but was hit by the other two. While "Venomous" and "Marne" continued to hunt for "U-515", the submarine torpedoed "Hecla" three more times, at 01:28, 01:49, and 02:06 hours, after which "Hecla" quickly sank at with the loss of 279 lives. "Venomous" and "Marne" began to rescue "Hecla"s survivors, but "Marne" had pulled only 64 out of the water when "U-515" torpedoed her at 02:11 hours,