Prior to these reports, I had read two other reports on this creature.
One was in Pacific waters by Vancouver Island and the other in storm
tossed waters in the Atlantic during the
nineteenth century. Here we have two
cases by excellent observers who had careers to mind and crews to confirm their
observations.
These observations are rare. As indicated, the best one occurred because
the creature was caught napping, an impossibility with the advent of the
engine.
As I have posted a lot on the
subject it is worthwhile writing what we actually know.
1
The creature is a sea snake that grows out to enormous
size easily matching the largest in the Amazon or the Congo
2
They sport a crest like comb that serves as an external
gill. This allows them to reside
primarily in the deep at their best operating temperature and to almost never
surface. That they come to surface at
all is a surprise and very unusual.
3
Their life cycle includes a trip(s) for the females
back to their ancestral river in order to set a nest in a convenient
swamp. They use deep lakes as part of
their spawning strategy. Thus we have
Loch Ness and many others were observations of the creature have been made.
4
They quickly take fright at the presence of surface vessels
and swiftly retreat.
5
I expect that they operate in the true deep below the
surface layer of warmer waters we are familiar with and well away from fishing
gear and the like.
6
The rarity of sightings is no indicator at all of
actual population size. The sheer size
of the specimens observed suggests that the population could be large
particularly if spawning populations use the Amazon and Congo
7
They are also nocturnal in habit and these daytime
observations are additionally unusual for all that. They appear to have been basking when they were
disturbed.
Apparently more reports are
available and will be now forthcoming.
Perhaps all these records will find their way onto the internet as have
the contents of the Vatican library and the records of the Spanish efforts in
the New World .
They are surely worthy and a testament to good men often long forgotten
who took their responsibilities seriously when confronted with the unusual
The Sea Serpent Files
Monsters of the Sea
By Nick Redfern December 25, 2010
Located just outside of central London ,
England
As might be expected, the bulk of the records that the British
Government has released into the public domain via its Freedom of Information
Act – and that are now available for scrutiny by the public - focus upon such
matters as Cold War activities, espionage, the Second World War, and the
routine, day-to-day work of governmental bodies.
As well as the strictly down-to-earth material, however, intriguing
files have surfaced demonstrating that a whole variety of official bodies
within the British Government have taken a deep and keen interest in tales of
sea-serpents.
One of the most notable reports of an encounter with such a beast of
truly monstrous proportions, and that attracted the keen attention of elements
of the British Government, can be found within the official archives of the
Admiralty. The documentation at issue details the remarkable encounter with a
sea-serpent that was seen on May 9, 1830 by the crew of the Rob Roy: a
British Royal Navy ship that was homeward bound after a lengthy sea-journey
across the Atlantic Ocean .
As the ship sailed by the island
of St. Helena
“Judge my amazement when what should stare us all in the face as if not
knowing whether to come over the deck or to go around the stern – but the great
big sea snake! Now I have heard of the fellow before – and I have killed snakes
twenty-four feet long in the straits of Malaca, but they would go in his mouth.
“I think he must have been asleep for we were going along very
softly two knots an hour, and he seemed as much alarmed as we were – and all
taken aback for about fifteen seconds. But he soon was underway and, when
fairly off, his head was square with our topsail and his tail was square with
the foremast.”
Captain Stockdale continued:
“My ship is 171 feet long overall – and the foremast is 42 feet from
the stern which would make the monster about 129 feet long. If I had not
seen it I could not have believed it but there was no mistake or doubt of
its length – for the brute was so close I could even smell his nasty fishy
smell.
“When underway he carried his head about six feet out of water –
with a fin between the shoulders about two feet long. I think he was
swimming about five miles an hour – for I watched him from the topsail yard
till I lost sight of him in about fifty minutes. I hope never to see him more.
It is enough to frighten the strong at heart.”
A second report of a sea-monster sighting has been declassified at an
official level by the British Government and describes an extraordinary December
13, 1857 encounter that also occurred in the vicinity of the island of St. Helena
“While myself and officers were standing on the lee side of the poop –
looking toward the island – we were startled by the sight of a huge marine
animal which reared its head out of the water within twenty yards of the ship –
when it suddenly disappeared for about half a minute and then made a
reappearance in the same manner again – showing us its neck and head about
ten or twenty feet out of the water.
“Its head was shaped like a long buoy – and I should suppose the
diameter to have been seven or eight feet in the largest part with a kind of
scroll or ruff encircling it about two feet from the top. The water was discolored for
several hundred feet from the head, so much so that on its first appearance my
impression was that the ship was in broken waters, produced, as I supposed, by some
volcanic agency, since I passed the island before.”
And Captain Harrington had far more to impart: “But the second
appearance completely dispelled those fears and assured us that it was a
monster of extraordinary length and appeared to be moving slowly towards the
land. The ship was going too fast to enable us to reach the masthead in time to
form a correct estimate of this extreme length – but from what we saw from the
deck we conclude that he must have been over two hundred feet long.
“The Boatswain and several of the crew, who observed it from the
forecastle, state that it was more than double the length of the ship, in which
case it must have been five hundred feet. Be that as it may – I am convinced
that it belonged to the serpent tribe.”
How many further reports of sea-serpent-style animals the British
military have on-file is, of course, a matter for another day and another
article!
Nick Redfern is the author of many books, including Contactees, Science
Fiction Secrets, and On the Trail of the Saucer Spies.
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