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.
See also
Kraken, Loch Ness Monster, Kraken, Loch Ness Monster, Champ (Lake Champlain monster), Bigfoot (Sasquatch).
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
Last reviewed September 28, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research