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Strange Tales about Sea Serpents Tales about Strange Sea Serpents Many reliable eyewitnesses over the centuries have reported bizarre encounters with monstrous ‘sea serpents’. Are these reports really descriptions of the plesiosaur and ichthyosaur, living underwater relics of the age of dinosaurs? only turns up, say the jokers, when the silly season arrives with its prize gooseber- ries and showers of frogs. Nevertheless, there is reason to believe that the ser- pent is a living fact, and there is evidence that great living creatures yet unclassified by science inhabit the sea. Ts is a general disposition to regard the sea serpent as an everlasting joke. ‘He’ Many reliable The Norwegian fishermen of the past regarded the existence of the Sea serpent as some- TURAL sepsis appearance inne year 1522, Olaus Magnts described the sea serpent as being the centuries have 200 feet long and 20 feet in circumference, having fiery eyes and a short mane. reported bizarre Hans Egede, who later became a bishop, travelled to Greenland in the year 1734 as a missionary. In his account of the voyage, he described a sea monster which appeared near the ship on 6 July: encounters with "Its head, when raised, was on a level with our main-top. Its snout was long and sharp, ' and it blew water almost like a whale; it had large broad paws or paddles; its body was monstrous S$@a covered with scales; its skin was rough and uneven; in other respects it was a serpent; and when it dived, the end of its tail, which was raised in the air, seemed to be a full ship's length from its body." Erik Pontoppidan, the Bishop of Bergen and a famous Norwegian naturalist, was scepti- cal of sea serpents but confessed his conversion in his book of 1755 after receiving reli- able evidence. He stated that the creatures kept to the bottom of the sea except during spawning in July and August when they rose to the surface. He discriminated between the Are these reports Greenland and Norwegian sea snakes—the former being scaly, and the latter being per- Inti fectly smooth with a mane about the neck, hanging like a bunch of seaweed. He estimat- really descriptions ed the serpents at about 600 feet in length. They had high, broad foreheads, though some of the plesiosaur had sharp snouts and others flat. The eyes were large and bluish, and the skin dark-brown . or patchy. The Zoologist for the year 1847 contained many accounts of the appearance of sea ser- and ichthyosaur, pents in the Norwegian for s, but one of the most famous and best authenticated appear- living underwater ances of a sea monster was recorded by HMS Doedalus in 1848. The official report by . Captain M'Quhae to Admiral Sir W. H. Gage follows: relics of the age of "Sir, In reply to your letter requiring information as to the truth of a statement, pub- H lished in the Times newspaper, of a sea serpent of extraordinary dimensions having been dinosaurs? seen from Her Majesty's Ship Doedalus, under my command, in her passage from the East Indies, I have the honour to acquaint you, for the information of my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, that at 5 o'clock p.m., on 6th August last, in latitude 24 degrees 44' S. and longitude 9 degrees 22' E., the weather dark and cloudy, wind fresh from the N.W., with a long ocean swell from the S.W., the ship on a port tack, heading N.E. by N., some- thing very unusual was seen by Mr. Sartoris, midshipman, rapidly approaching the ship from before the beam. The circumstance was immediately reported by him to the officer of the watch, Lieutenant Edgar Drummond, with whom, and Mr. William Barrett, the serpents’. by C. D. Pollard ©1996 master, I was at the time walking the quarter-deck. The ship's company were at supper. "On our attention being called to the object, it was discovered to be an enormous ser- 1 Highfields Grange pent, with head and shoulders kept about four feet constantly above the surface of the sea; Cheslyn Hay and, as nearly as we could approximate by comparing it with the length of what our main- Walsall, WS6 7PF, UK topsail yard would show in the water, there was at the very least 60 feet of the animal a@ fleur d'eau, no portion of which was, in our perception, used in propelling it through the water, either by vertical or horizontal undulation. It passed rapidly, but so close under our lee quarter that, had it been a man of my acquaintance, I should have easily recognised his Telephone/Fax: +44 011922 414703 1 Highfields Grange Cheslyn Hay _ Walsall, wse ait Us APRIL - MAY 1997 NEXUS - 73 by C. D. Pollard ©1996