Sea serpent
A giant serpent reported at sea; its best-known appearance was in the harbour of Gloucester, Massachusetts, in August 1817.
Meaning
Newspapers as far away as Kentucky printed the Gloucester reports. One account, carried by the Kentucky Gazette in September 1817, said credible witnesses had seen it swim into the harbour at great speed with its head eight feet above the water; that more often it swam with its head under water, showing the line of its back; that it was dark brown; and that it turned so quickly it bent itself into the shape of a staple. According to Henry Lee (1883), the Linnaean Society of New England took sworn depositions from eleven witnesses, who agreed that it looked like a serpent fifty to a hundred feet long, with a head like a turtle's or a snake's but as large as a horse's.
Origin and history
Gloucester set out to catch it. The same 1817 report describes baited shark hooks floating on buoys in the harbour and boats "well manned and armed" ready to attack, and a drawing by Captain John Beach that was to be engraved.
How the sources explained it
Henry Lee, a naturalist, argued that many sea serpents were giant squid swimming half-submerged with their arms trailing: the same animals he took for the Kraken.
Read next
- Next in Cryptids and folklore creaturesLoch Ness MonsterA creature reported in Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands, whose sightings drew thousands of visitors and newspaper coverage around the world in the 1930s.
- In Animal symbolismSnake symbolismIn Genesis the serpent tempts Eve, and Moses raises a bronze serpent on a staff; in Roman legend the god Aesculapius, “the restorer of health” in Ovid's words, comes to Rome as a serpent; in Norse myth the Midgard serpent circles the world biting its own tail. The Cherokee regard snakes as supernatural beings, to be neither killed nor named carelessly.
See also
Kraken, Champ (Lake Champlain monster), Bigfoot (Sasquatch), Yeti (Abominable Snowman), Mongolian death worm, Chupacabra.
Sources
- Kentucky Gazette (Lexington, Ky.), 13 September 1817, Kentucky Gazette, 13 September 1817, page 2, Library of Congress, Chronicling America, page 2; page 2 (continued)
- Sea Monsters Unmasked (Henry Lee, 1883), Henry Lee, Sea Monsters Unmasked (London, 1883), Internet Archive, The Great Sea Serpent; Preface
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 28, 2026. How we research
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