The Great New England Sea Serpent
Author: J.P. O’Neill
Paraview Special Editions, 2003
237 pages
I decided to take a look at another cryptozoology-themed book that I’ve never gotten around to reading before. I got The Great New England Sea Serpent: An Account of Unknown Creatures Sighted by Many Respectable Persons Between 1638 and the Present Day (long title on this one!) probably 10 years ago. It’s sat on my shelf since, until recently at least.
The author, June O’Neill, makes clear right at the beginning of the book that she is a believer in the sea serpent. Unsurprisingly, she doesn’t always seem to make a critical examination of the sightings contained in the book. More on this later.
The book covers the history of sea serpent sightings off the New England coast from the 1600s to the “present” (the book was published first in 1999). A majority of the book is made up of eyewitness accounts straight from the sources. I respect the author for not messing up details by trying to describe the accounts, but after awhile the 18th century language in almost all of them can get a bit tedious.
I would rank this book slightly better than the thunderbirds book I read earlier this summer. With that being said, I still didn’t find it to be great. Mainly, this is because the author only seems to want to confirm that the sea serpent is real, even though the only “evidence” to go on is eyewitness accounts. As usual for cryptozoology-themed books like this, scientists and skeptics get treated as “bad guys,” as if they’re out to spoil everyone’s fun. I find this often occurs in cryptozoology when an author has a personal belief in whatever subject they are writing about and only want to see it “proven.”
Overall, an “alright” book. Those who are wishing for a critical examination of sea serpent reports will not find that here. But, if you just want to read the stories, you’ll probably enjoy it.
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