More Water Moose sightings

Heuvelmans-sea-serpent-motley-Oct-2009

Know_your_Sea_Serpents_by_Pristichampsus

In both of the Sea Serpent charts above the "Merhorse" is the one at the lowest right hand corner.
Below is the "Merhorse" of the second chart by Tim Morris (Pristichampsus) and I have modified it slightly to match the other Merhorse in the other chart more (I could have made the head even larger and morse horselike, but I settled on a compromise: likewise I cut the tail in half as a compromise between not tail at all and the length of tail as illustrated) and I darkened the beard for emphasis because it is important (It represents the bell of the moose). In the chart below I think it makes a fair comparison with a moose, including even the legs and feet (the toes are clawed in the Pristichampsus drawing but it is hard to see how many: however it is easy enough to read the feet as cloven hooves.

 

The lowest end sizes for "Water Horses" seen at Loch Ness are actually about six feet long and six feet high in the body, which is a really good approximation for a not especially large moose. We are also assuming a predominance in sightings of cow moose without antlers. Peter Costello gives the sizes for a "Water Horse" (in his interpretation, the creature behind most freshwater sightings worldwide, or at least all over the Northern Hemisphere)  as about 18 feet long for the female, 30 feet long for the male (In Search of Lake Monsters page 288), which does make it just barely up to the lower end of Heuvelmans' Merhorse category: he is using Mackal's (LNIB) figures and applying the averages to all similar such creatures at Lake Okanogan, Lake Champlain, Lake Storsjon and all the rest. He assumes that all of the larger reported creatures have had their lengths doubled and he automatically cuts all larger estimates of length in half (as does Mackal). Cutting the 18-30 feet estimates in half yields  9 to 15 feet long, which is really good estimate for moose size. The  other extremes of long length at 50 to 100 feet (even sometimes 150 feet long or more) are also consistent with the reported lengths of wakes in this category, and the Merhorse sightings in general as given by Heuvelmans (In the Wake of the Sea Serpents p. 553).

 

 

 UNDERWATER MOOSE

There is currently a move to consider moose that habitually swim for long distances underwater as another population or a distinctly different sort of creature with different adaptations. Officially moose are held to be able to swim across wide lakes in the Canadian Wilderness, and even cross narrow straits and fjords along the coastline, the same as they do in Scandinavia. They are said to be able to dive down to twenty feet and stay submerged for a minute at a time: moose can also swim for a pretty good distance completely submerged and a swimming moose is supposed to be able to travel along at ten miles an hour (estimated). While I was assembling this article, I just so happened to cross postings with Chad Arment and he says he is even working on a book that will focus on the theme of underwater moose as Cryptids, and they evidently even feature as "Unexpected encounters" in a popular video game. However to counter this view, this seems to be a matter of some moose being more adept at swimming and diving than others, rather than any kind of a new species to be involved. My definition of Cryptid includes the provision that it must be a potentially completely new species to qualify, and not to be classifiable as any currently known species. Most moose have features which work against them exploiting underwater habits: they have not got flippers or webbed feet, they have widely-spreading hoofs, which are much less efficient as swimming fins. They are also very buoyant, and if they have taken a deep breath to stay down longer, they are even more buoyant. And videos that show moose spending a long time underwater show them as tending to bob back up to the surface eventually.
It is only sufficient for my purpose that some moose are unusually good swimmers, they like doing it, and some individual moose are trained and/or adapted to be especially good at swimming and diving.

"This one was for Canoe & Kayak Magazine. The story was about how a moose can

 swim twenty feet underwater… I guess you learn something new every day."

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50293534@N00/513779368/

 

 Photos of a cow and a bull moose grazing at a depth of about 15 feet underwater.

  

Underwater Moose video. These are becoming more and more common and more and more popular lately.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MYSTERY MOOSE
http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/ja06/indepth/default.asp

It is instructive to note that the Canadian Geographic (Canadian version of the National Geographic)
 includes a section on Cryptozoology and lake monsters under the heading of "Moose Facts"
and in fact some of the cited sources do speak of swimming moose as being the significant sources for some of the sightings at many of these lakes
http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/ja06/indepth/justthefacts.asp

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Moose tracks  |   Studying southern moose  |   Keepers of the crypt
Departments:   Knowledge toolbox  |   Cartographer’s table  |   Just the facts  |   From the CG vault
 

JUST THE FACTS 

Moose Facts

 •  Moose have a life span of 15 to 25 years.
•  The average moose weighs between 550 to 700 kilograms.
•  Moose are the largest member of the deer family.
•  The flap of skin that hangs beneath a moose's throat is called a bell.
•  Only males have a rack of antlers. They are flattened and range from 120 to 150 centimetres across and weigh 20 kilograms. Their antlers may have as many as 30 tines (or spikes).
•  Each year, antlers are shed in November or December and another, slightly larger set begin to grow the next midsummer.
•  Moose live in every Canadian province.
•  Moose are very good swimmers and can easily swim 16 kilometres.[per hour]
•  Moose can run faster than 50 kilometres per hour.
•  Having poor eyesight, moose rely on their keen sense of smell.
•  A male moose is called a bull and a female moose is called a cow.
•  The word moose comes from the Algonquin word mooswa, which means "twig-eater."
•  Moose eat willow, birch and aspen twigs, horsetail, sedges, roots, pond weeds and grasses, leaves, twigs, buds and the bark of some woody plants, as well as lichens, aquatic plants and some of the taller herbaceous land plants.
•  Moose can feed under water.
•  Moose can dive more than five metres for food on a lake bottom.
•  It is estimated that there are between 500,000 and 1 million moose in Canada.
•  Unknown species of animals are referred to as cryptids.
•  The term cryptozoology was coined by Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans to scientifically describe his investigation of unknown species. It is not a recognized branch of zoology.
•  Cryptozoology is commonly grouped with paranormal research.
•  Many crytozoological phenomena are based on aboriginal legends.
•  Cryptids range from Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster to ivory-billed woodpeckers to more bizarre creatures, such as atmospheric beasts and werewolves.
•  The first recorded sighting of a Sasquatch was in 1811 near what is now the town of Jasper, Alta. A trader named David Thompson found some strange footprints, 36 centimetres long and 20 centimetres wide, with four toes, in the snow.
•  Bigfoot is said to stand 1.4 metres in height and weigh 58 kilograms and have long black, coarse hair covering its entire body.
•  Across western Canada, at least 19 water monsters have reputedly been spotted in three of the four provinces. Alberta has no reported cases.[Untrue]
•  Canada’s most famous water monster is Ogopogo of Lake Okanagan in the south central interior of British Columbia.
•  The first recorded sighting of Ogopogo by a Caucasian was by Mrs. John Allison in 1872.
•  The monster called Sicopogo lives in B.C.’s Shuswap Lake, not far from Kamloops.
•  Lake Memphrémagog — an international lake 113 kilometres east of Montréal located on the Canada-U.S. border — is said to be inhabited by a sea serpent.

Some Longnecked SeaSerpents

The Sumerian image of Tiamat has been identified as the oldest portrait of a Longneck we can feel pretty certain of according to Ted Holliday: the head and neck are in about the same position as the "Surgeon's Photo" at Loch Ness

 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiamat (Above)

http://www.artisannorway.com/447/borknagar-symbols-explained-at-the-viking-ship-museum/

 

These Plesiosaurian Viking "Sea Dragon" has exaggerated spines on their backs and exaggerated forefin "Wings"-The image is identified as meaning the Midgard serpent but it shows TWO creatures

 

 

The image above is a native petroglyph named "Puff the Magic Dragon" by sightseers and suggested to be a "Living dinosaur." Actually it is clearly a variation on the local "Water Monster" or Avan-Yu..

 This witness' sketch of "Cadborosaurus" shows how the top half of the "Stretched-S" shape is the same thing as is usually called the "Periscope" position. The rearward section I also judge to be the base of the neck becoming much broader before merging into the bulkier body.

A number of these illustrations from In The Wake of Sea Serpents (following) turned up during my recent researches and so I thought I'd make use of them here.

We have had a long discussion about this fellow on separate occasions before, most recently in the "Sea Giraffe" article. I am now considering if I should add this picture there or write a new blog now that I have this picture available. Incidentally, the eyes/irises looking blue or grey is a feature that has been noted on other occasions, and apparently the eyes are surrounded by a ring of ski the same colour as the eyes (Peter O'Connor surmised this in In Search of Lake Monsters, but the exact statement of this observation has been around since the late 1700s and early 1800s)

Below are some early Longnecks, some of them confusingly leaving the "Many-Humped/String of buoys" effect in the wake: these first two are marked as ?SO for no especially good reason.

 

The mast was 18 feet tall. This is like the Umfuli SS turned up on end. 

 

 

These ones were apparently drawn as too thick by the witnesses: both feature the "Sawtoothed" back ridge. The one below was represented in a different drawing in the blog about "Cadborosaurus"

(This Massachusetts Bay SS on the other hand looks like a standard threehumper): 

 

This creature has the usual very broad and flat head attributed to BOTH The Longneck and the Merhorse: Oudemans also agrees to the proportions that the head is half as thick as it is long, but the width is 2/3 the length. The eyes are not actually directed forward, they merely seem so from this view: from the side the eyes are described as being more "Elongated"

 

 

This very confusing "Plesiosaur" drawing evidently means to show a "String of Buoys"

Very likely the sketch is so misleadingly different from whatever was actually seen as to be valueless. The witness did insist he had seen a Plesiosaur with "Erected nostrils" that others took to be "Ears"

This thick bodied Sea Serpent matches a sighting at Loch Ness where the head was not brought up out of the water. We can only imagine the witness exaggerated the thickness in his drawing

This one evidently showed a hind flipper up out of the water while it was being watched. Once again, a good length of tail is behind the rear flipper.

This is an obscure sighting made before the Surgeon's photo was taken at Loch Ness but displaying a neck of much the same shape. It was only published after the photo had been in circulation but was supposedly based on a drawing made in earlier letters.

This one has its neck in the typical arched position often seen while the animal is fishing, only it has been startled and is now looking up. Several Plesiosaurs have a head shaped like that.

 The Cuba SS was cited by Heuvelmans as having no tail. On the other hand, I read the drawing as showing a definite tail about as long as the definite part of the neck, very short and thick and quite possibly with a large fin on it. The cloaca would be about directly under the second hump back on this one, going by the shape of the body, and the two humps seem to correspond to where the foreflippers and rear flippers would be. Its actually a pretty decent depiction allowing for that

 

The Bali SS has a similar "Turtleheaded" appearance to the Valhalla creature, and upon checking the neck is at standard Longneck proportions for the forepart of the neck (Neck a foot thick and ten feet long, being the statistical average for a creature 40 feet long. The head of such a creature is about 2 feet long) See below:

 

The Campania SS reported by Sir Arthur Rostron turns out to match the top part of a neck of those same proportions.

Evidently the Vondel SS briefly held up a foreflipper near its head (below)

 

This would appear to have been a maned male "Merhorse" instead of just an ordinary "Longneck"

Although the illustrations SEEM very different, the creatures seen by the ships HMS Daedalus and the City of Baltimore were actually very similar and described in nearly the same terms.

 

The conventional explanation of the Fly SS is that it was a kind of a Plesiosaur,

but Heuvelmans opts for a Mosasaur or a kind of sea-crocodile instead.

 

 

 This rather repulsice creature was called a Merhorse by Heuvelmans. That could be right because the head seen on top of the water was very  small in comparison to the

 very large body that was indicated as being underwater.

 

 

This is an illustration of a Brazilian encounter from a book of fairy tales.

 

http://www.mandatrix.org.uk/shaw/Shaw/Limerick_Sea_Serpent.html


The Mystery of the Monster of Limerick DockWay back in October 2005, when fustar.info was but a mewling babe, I related the blood-curdling (1922) tale of The Mystery of the Monster of Limerick Docks. At the time I promised to dig out a copy of Denis O'Shaughnessy's Limerick: 100 Stories of the Century to flesh out the rather sketchy details I'd gleaned from Graham J. McEwan's Mystery Animals of Britain and Ireland and the Limerick Leader. Despite my half-arsed efforts the book had remained, like mystery beasties themselves, frustratingly elusive. That is, until now.

Goodbye sketchy details, hello not-very-detailed sketch:





The artist was one Stephen O'Gorman (a Limerickian who'd emigrated to Birmingham) and the above depiction was submitted to the Limerick Leader after they'd reprinted the story in 1974.

Stephen was a teenager at the time and was playing handball in Shannon Street with several of his pals when suddenly they noticed that people were gathering in large numbers at the quayside. "We immediately joined them and to our amazement saw this strange creature in the middle of the river. It was travelling very slowly towards Sarsfield Bridge.""The creature travelled as far as Limerick Boat Club and then turned back[...]A group of Free State soliders with rifles came dashing by (I believe they came out of the Strand Barracks) and they kept pace with the creature. When it passed the end of the Docks…they opened fire from Cleeve's Bank and every so often they repeated the shooting until the creature passed Barrington's Pier and finally disappeared into the distance."
"They did not hit it, merely content to hit the water just behind it. I believe they were just trying to encourage it on its way".

A parallel read of the events of the time is the Book "Not while I have Ammo" written by Jim Corbett which is the story of Jim's Grandfather Captain Connie Mackey.. The book is a worthy read of the History of Captain Connie Mackey....Defender of the Strand who was defending the Strand Barracks, Limerick whilst all this was happening.

In the case of the Tyne Sea-Serpent (below) the head and neck were stuck up unusually high, over 35 feet, and the back trailing behind it unusually long, perhaps 90-100 feet long, and in this case I feel it is much  more likely the witnesses were viewing a waterspout. 

Christian Spurling's 'Surgeons Photo Hoax' Hoax

According to a certain story that has been going around since 1993, the best-known photo of the Loch Ness Monster was the result of a conspiracy between several men (now all dead and Spurling's "Admission of guilt" is frequently mistakenly called a "Deathbed Confession"). It is now time to put that claim to rest. Here is a retelling of Spurling's allegation from the UnMuseum:

The Surgeon's Hoax

The most famous picture of the Loch Ness Monster, a grainy black and white photograph showing a long head and neck emerging from the lake, turned out to be a hoax.

In 1993, Christian Spurling, stepson of the flamboyant movie maker and big game hunter "Duke" Wetherell, admitted he'd made the "monster" out of some plastic and a clockwork, tinplate, toy submarine. The picture (Often referred to as the "Surgeon's Photograph," because Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson, a physician, claimed to had taken it by the Loch in April of 1934) had withstood careful scientific examination. Monster fans had speculated that the pictures showed a plesiosaur, while skeptics said it must have been an otter head or tree trunk. Nobody seems to have suspected it was actually a toy submarine.

Marmaduke Wetherell

Tracking Down the Story

According to two Loch Ness researchers, David Martin and Alastair Boyd, in 1993 they'd heard Wetherell's son, Ian, in a 1975 article, had alleged that his father had faked one of the "Nessie" photographs. A couple of things seem to ring true about his statement. First he named Maurice Chambers as a part of the conspiracy. This was the very man Wilson had said he was going to visit the day he took photo. Also Ian Wetherell had mentioned that some of the photos taken that had been included the far shoreline in the image.

Since, with only one exception, every version of the published pictures had the shoreline cropped out, it seemed likely that Ian only knew about it because he'd been there when the photo was taken.[No. There was still the one exception and that makes the statement unnecessary. DD] Since by then Ian Wetherell was dead, the two men decided to talk to Ian's stepbrother, Christian Spurling. When Martin and Boyd visited him, Spurling, then 93, admitted he'd been approached by Duke Wetherell to build a fake monster.

Duke Wetherell apparently concocted the plan as revenge upon the London Daily Mail newspaper. In 1933 the Daily Mail had hired Wetherell to find the Loch Ness Monster. Soon after arriving at the lake Wetherell found some strange tracks of a four-toed creature in the soft mud near the water. Wetherell estimated that whatever left the tracks must be twenty feet in length. Plaster casts were taken and sent to the London Museum of Natural History. While the world awaited the Museum's analysis, however, hundreds of monster hunters and tourists showed up at the Loch. Unfortunately after a few weeks the Museum announced that the tracks were not that of an unknown monster, but those of a hippo. Apparently Wetherell himself had been hoaxed. The dried foot used to make the print was probably part of an umbrella stand or ash tray. The Daily Mail was angered at Wetherell and ridiculed and humiliated him.

Wetherell's Revenge

It was soon after this that Spurling, who was a model-maker by trade, was approached by his stepfather to build the "beast." Construction was done with plastic wood over the conning tower of the toy submarine he'd purchased. The neck, estimated by some from the photograph to be over three feet high, actually measured (a stated) 12 inches.

"We'll give them their monster," Duke told his son. Ian Wetherell and his father took the completed contraption and a camera to the Loch and photographed it on a quiet bay, then sank the evidence in the mud at the edge of the lake. The undeveloped film was then passed to Chambers and on to Colonel Wilson, who had them developed. He then sold them photo to the Daily Mail. The conspirators were quite unprepared for the publicity the photo generated and apparently decided not to admit the hoax. The story stayed unknown for over sixty years.
http://www.unmuseum.org/nesshoax.htm

Now there are several things which are not likely in the given account from the onset, but of particular interest is the supposed model which was said to have been photographed in this case.  Below is an illustration of the model as it was described:

But in reality the construction would be very unstable, owing to the fact that it would be top-heavy without adequate bouyancy to keep it floating on an even keel and without adequate drag to hold the "heads-up" position. If placed in the water, it would tend to tip over because the center of gravity for the superstructure is forward of the center of buoyancy for the toy submarine holding it up (next two photos)

A friend of mine just sent in the comment "I doubt if a professional model maker would have constructed such an unstable model. The slightest disturbance would send it toppling over." To which I replied "I sincerely doubt there really was such a model ever made. it is all a made-up story"

Beyond that simple fact, the story is full of many other holes. And the most glaring error was there were actually allegedly several photos taken but only two developed. This one was the best known of the two photos but the second photo was also published and it is in the book In Search of Lake Monsters by Peter Costello. And it is simply not possible for the same model to have been photographed a second time to have produced the second photograph.

Spurling was lying and the whole "Hoax" story is only a hoax itself.