 |
| Gloucester Monster |
During the summer of 1817, many sightings of a gigantic sea serpent were reported in Gloucester Harbor, Massachusetts, USA. Sightings in the area may go back all the way to 1638, when John Josselyn reported that he was told of "a sea serpent, or snake, that lay quoiled [sic] up like a cable upon the rock at Cape Ann."
In August of 1817, sightings really took off. Many people around Gloucester Harbor reported seeing the serpent. One example comes from shipmaster Solomon Allen III:
"His head formed something like the head of a rattlesnake, but nearly as large as the head of a horse. When he moved on the surface of the water his motion was slow, at times playing in circles, and sometimes moving straight forward."
About a month after the initial sightings, two boys found something strange at Loblolly Cove. Their father, says R.T. Gould in his book The Case for the Sea-Serpent, attacked it with a pitchfork and killed it. They were all astonished because the snake had several bumps along its back. It was sent to the Linnaean Society of New England, who concluded that it was a baby sea serpent, the same kind as the one seen so many times over the summer in Gloucester Harbor!
The Linnaean Society named their new species Scoliophis atlanticus, or the "Atlantic Humped Snake." They wrote a three-and-a-half page paper on their find and stated at the end:
"On the whole, as these two animals [the sea serpent and the "baby"] agree in so many conspicuous, important and peculiar characteristics, and as no material differences between them has yet been clearly pointed out, excepting that of size, the Society will probably feel justified in considering them individuals of the same species, and entitled to the same name, until a more code of examination of the great Serpent shall have disclosed some difference of structure, important enough to constitute a specific distinction."
However, when zoologists and naturalists heard of the "baby serpent," they were quick to point out that it was nothing of the sort. As it turned out, it was nothing but a common black snake with some odd lumps on its back, either from "blows in its youth" or some other abnormal condition.
The sightings of the larger sea serpent, though still remain unexplained.
This post is excerpted from my future book Global Globsters: An Examination of "Sea Monster" Carcasses from Around the World.
Comments
Post a Comment