Nessie, Champ, Caddy and Waterfowl

Posted earlier at The Zombie Plesiosaur Society on Facebook:

Dale Drinnon:


Loch Ness Monster. Longnecks are stated to take waterfowl at the surface in many locations and this could pad out the food supply that we need to consider as support for the theoretical number limit for the monster population in such areas





Gina Jones:
 Yes it is stated in both Champ and Nessie for sure






Dale Drinnon
And for Caddy at sea





William Robert Hancock
Quite possible. BTW......bad to the bone painting!!!!!!







Scott Mardis
http://www.njan.org/files/Champ%20Eats%20Seagull%20July%202004.pdf



Scott Mardis Plesiosaurs eating birds- the smoking gun.
http://saurian.blogspot.com/2012/11/svp-2012-some-tasty-morsels.html

Saurian: SVP 2012 - Some Tasty Morsels saurian.blogspot.com "Richardoestesia is an enigmatic theropod taxon of uncertain phylogenetic affini...





Dale Drinnon
Yes we already had fossils of Plesiosaur stomach contents that included pterosaur remains among other things



Scott Mardis
I have that paper somewhere.

For Champ:

Posted by Jay BizarreZoo C For Caddy, at Sea: Posted by Jay BizarreZoo C

San Francisco Nessie

San Francisco Sea Serpent: Our Own Nessie, Go Find Her

By Mollie McWilliams Wed., Jan. 29 2014 at 12:00 PM

12 Comments

Categories: animals

Cyrptomundo

There she is!

Forget Bigfoot, Yeti, and Nessie, San Francisco has its own mysterious creature.

The San Francisco sea serpent, according to Mysterious Destinations Magazine, has been swimming through the bay since at least the 1800s and has been spotted lurking in the waters near Marina Green.

In artist renderings of our sea serpent, who definitely needs a name -- and possibly a Twitter account -- she (he?) looks like an elongated eel with dorsal and pectoral fins. From a distance, one could say she resembles waves rolling in to the bay.

While we're not convinced of her existence, we will admit it does appear something is going on in the water in this video at the 1:58 mark.

One of the other famous sightings of her happened on February 5, 1985, where, according to Mysterious Destinations, the Clark brothers were watching some sea lions out in the bay, when suddenly they scattered, and she appeared!

"When it got within a few yards of the group of sea lions it suddenly raised its head and a portion of its body approximately 10 feet straight up out of the water and then it lunged forward into the group of sea lions."

You can watch the entire interview of this encounter at the end of this post, and read about other sightings on their site.

Our sea serpent is the main feature of their magazine this month, and to coincide with this, they're encouraging S.F. residents to grab a pair of binoculars and head to the bay to try and catch a glimpse of her. They say now is the best time of year for spotting her, as the warmer bay waters lure her in from the wintery ocean. We'd love to see an Instagram picture of her (or what wave ripples you think are her). Let's start a hashtag, #SFNessie. Now, go look for her.

For events in San Francisco this week and beyond, check out our calendar section. Follow us on Twitter at @ExhibitionistSF, Mollie at @MollieM10, and like us on Facebook.

[-The most compelling part of the description is where the creature put a 10 foot length of neck into the air and then brought it down to scatter the sea lions: this same behaviour has been reported before in several different parts of the world. Incidentally the illustration shows the Leda Sea Serpent from the late 1800s, Loch Hourn in Scotland, almost certainly a standing wave pattern. The illustration is in the Public domain.-DD]

Champ compilation

Jay Cooney just republished Scott Mardis' report from Lake Champlain previously posted here but in this case Id like to draw attention to another one of Thomas Finlay's illustrations for the Bizarre Zoology blog. There was a poster to illustrate Lake Champlain and its monster that Id like to mention here.

First off, Samuel de Champlain never described Champ, he spoke of a monstrous fish that was most likely a large gar. The name he used was like the native name for the Long-nosed gar in the region, but he gave the dimensions of an Alligator gar. Since in either event this giant gar has become extinct more recently, it is probably a moot point as to which species the fish originally belonged to.

Now Id like to reproduce two sections off of Thomas Finlay's work, but only the second one is what the discussion shall be about:

Right hand panel which contains the background information and Thomas' original copyright notice

And the bottom which has the reconstructions. The scientific name is irrelevant and means nothing. It presupposes an unproven and I think highly unlikely relationship for the creature.

The pointed fin on the back of the one model obviously corresponds to the hump on the back of the other creature model, and in the majority of the reports this is referred to as a hump.


In comparing the two versions of Champ it is obvious that one has a much larger head than the other and in fact this corresponds to certain reported creatures from Lake Champlain that have fairly big, horse-shaped heads (Indicated by the inset below) this corresponds to a series of reports which are distinguished not only by having large heads with horselike freatures (Including the typical placement of the eyes far back and near the top of the head, and the nostrils at the tip of the blunted snout which dialate to a large size, but also noticeable ears at the back of the head, and an overall coating of rough shaggy hairs, which can include the mane. Typically the neck is thickish and not especially long , and in such cases as David Miller's sighting off of British Columbia, there is a good cause for assuming the scale and distance have been misjudged (I the Miller case, going by the scale the creatures's head is six feet long and three feet thick going by the scale, which are figures that contradict most of the similar sightings by a wide margin)Since several such sightings on Lake Champlain even include Moose antlers, it would seem these sightings ordinarily refer to swimming moose. The Olsen videotape at Lake Champlain is evidently one of these and the shape of the head does appear to indicate antlers with the head turning at different angles and thus "Changing shape" (in the bad focus)

Stills from the Olsen video together with the most likely culprit, a swimming moose.

But then I noticed something odd about the "Tanstropheus" model for Champ: the proportions are approximately the same as in Oudemans' model for the Great Sea Serpent in the later 1800s, but with the neck and tail swapped;  Even the belly contour and limbs are of a similar profile.

And in fact the changeover from Model A to Model B for Champ would seem to be a change in perceptions in the public mind or the conceptions of witnesses rather than a real change in creatures. The changeover from sightings which agreed with Oudemans' model and the more recently common more Plesiosaurian reports has a direct parallel in the perceptions shown in Sea Serpent reports (See link below to blog article discussing the change in Sea Serpent popular peceptions following after the Daedalus sighting)

And this can be demonstrated in the "Caddy" witness' drawings from British Columbia in about the early 1930s for one specific example.

Now the really interesting part is hat the more recent, more Plesiosaurian series of descriptions follows closely after the model of Ivan Sanderson (And the Loch Ness Monster models of Gould and Dinsdale, which are both very close to Sanderson's version)

When the length of the neck of the one larger-Champ model is shortened to be more in line with the majority of reports, the proportions overall are much more like the other model for champ. Furthermore it seems that the both the size of the head and the length of the tail in the smaller creature model should actually be modified to be more like the larger creature model (which has both a smaller head and a smaller tail.)

This eliminates the obvious source of confusion with the swimming moose reports and provides us with the overall composite below

 (Three humps on the back is the most common variation reported both at Lake Champlain and at Loch Ness. My analysis of the Champ reports was done out of the reports included in Zazinsky's book, with additional later information included, and I have indicated several of the reports on this blog before)

This compares very well also with Dinsdale's composite for the Loch Ness Monster as noted (Versions of Dinsdale's composite included both two-humped and three-humped back, and in the version copied below I opted to leave them off which Dinsdale also indicated was a option) And it is also very much in line with my own Longneck statistical composites shown in different revisions below. The black and grey diagrams are most recent and probably the most precise, leaving aside the question of the humps on the back for another discussion another time.

It is important to emphasize that the various reconstructions done by Sanderson, Dinsdale, myself and the other were all done separately and yet they all match up pretty closely: and these composites were variously done for Sea Serpents in general, Loch Ness, Caddy, the Patagonian Plesiosaurs and Australian Longneck sightings each separately and yet they alll match up very closely. I consider that Thomas Finley's reconstructions for Champ show the same general agreement, allowing for the fact that the reports are also becoming more precise over time and so the older reports are less accurate than the newer ones are.

Former blog postings touching on the shubject of Longneck reconstructions outside of Lake Champlain are as follows:

http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/06/daedalus-sea-serpent-1848-and-start-of.html

http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2013/07/plesiosaurian-ss-models-check.html

http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2013/08/longneck-loch-ness-monster-composites.html

SeaSerpents and the hairpin turn

[This pattern of the String of Buoys humps making a tight hairpin turn is noticed first in the Massachusetts Bay Sea serpent cases of 1818-1819 and it is due to the way the wake moves and does not actually show the back of the creature. It is an unusual way for a wake to behave, but it says absolutely nothing about what is making the wake. It could be highly various.-DD

Posted at the Lake Monsters Facebook page:
[Vidcaps of new video at Lake Champlain]

Sequence of pictures from the Westport cams early evening Nov 21st.
Large mass appears off the end of the dock est. 400 feet distance.
Over the next 10 minutes object wanders up to the marina buoy which
it seems to avoid swimming past (or... through).
When the entire line turns around in frames 34-40, it's reminiscent of
the diagram of the string of humps seen on Loch Ness that Rupert T.Gould
presented in his classic 1934 book "The Loch Ness Monster." See Frame 56.
Estimated size again around 40 feet long.
Use the magnifying glass app. on the bottom of the page to get a close up
http://s1016.photobucket.com/user/newlab1/library/Westport%20Nov%2021?sort=2&page=1

 

Westport


--Jay Cooney wrote me subsequently that the curved object at the front of this wake [the one illustrated at Loch Ness] that suddenly emerged and submerged was probably an otter, and he said he had photos to show an otter leaping in the water doing that. He subsequently sent in this photo (One he did not consider the best example he had seen)

 

Laocoon Serpents

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laoco%C3%B6n

[One of the most important traditions about sea serpents  killing people is the story of Laocoon and his sons during the Trojan War-DD.]

 

History

Laocoön is a Trojan priest of Poseidon^[2] (or Neptune), whose rules he had defied, either by marrying and having sons,^[3] or by having committed an impiety by making love with his wife in the presence of a cult image in a sanctuary.^[4] His minor role in the Epic Cycle narrating the Trojan War was of warning the Trojans in vain against accepting the Trojan Horse from the Greeks—"A deadly fraud is this," he said, "devised by the Achaean chiefs!"^[5]—and his subsequent divine execution by two serpents sent to Troy across the sea from the island of Tenedos, where the Greeks had temporarily camped.^[6]
Laocoön warned his fellow Trojans against the wooden horse presented to the city by the Greeks. In the Aeneid, Virgil gives Laocoön the famous line "Equō nē crēdite, Teucrī / Quidquid id est, timeō Danaōs et dōna ferentīs", or "Do not trust the Horse, Trojans / Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even bearing gifts." This line is the source of the saying: "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts."

Death

 

Death of Laocoön from the Vatican Vergil.

The most detailed description of Laocoön's grisly fate was provided by Quintus Smyrnaeus in Posthomerica, a later, literary version of events following the Iliad. According to Quintus, Laocoön begged the Trojans to set fire to the horse to ensure it was not a trick. Athena, angry with him and the Trojans, shook the ground around Laocoön's feet and painfully blinded him. The Trojans, watching this unfold, assumed Laocoön was punished for the Trojans' mutilating and doubting Sinon, the undercover Greek soldier sent to convince the Trojans to let him and the horse inside their city walls. Thus, the Trojans wheeled the great wooden Horse in. Laocoön did not give up trying to convince the Trojans to burn the horse, and Athena makes him pay even further. She sends two giant sea serpents to strangle and kill him and his two sons.^[7] In another version of the story, it was said that Poseidon sent the sea serpents to strangle and kill Laocoön and his two sons.{Emphasis added by DD]
According to Apollodorus, it was Apollo who sent the two sea serpents. Laocoön had insulted Apollo by sleeping with his wife in front of the "divine image".^[8]
Virgil employed the motif in the Aeneid. The Trojans, according to Virgil, disregarded Laocoön's advice and were taken in by the deceitful testimony of Sinon; in his resulting anger, Laocoön threw his spear at the Horse. Minerva, who was supporting the Greeks, at this moment sent sea-serpents to strangle Laocoön and his two sons, Antiphantes and Thymbraeus. "Laocoön, ostensibly sacrificing a bull to Neptune on behalf of the city (lines 201ff.), becomes himself the tragic victim, as the simile (lines 223–24) makes clear. In some sense, his death must be symbolic of the city as a whole," S. V. Tracy notes.^[9] According to the Hellenistic poet Euphorion of Chalcis, Laocoön is in fact punished for procreating upon holy ground sacred to Poseidon; only unlucky timing caused the Trojans to misinterpret his death as punishment for striking the Horse, which they bring into the city with disastrous consequences.^[10] The episode furnished the subject of Sophocles' lost tragedy, Laocoön.
In Aeneid, Virgil describes the circumstances of Laocoön's death:

From the Aeneid Ille simul manibus tendit divellere nodos perfusus sanie vittas atroque veneno, clamores simul horrendos ad sidera tollit: qualis mugitus, fugit cum saucius aram taurus et incertam excussit cervice securim.

Literal English translation: At the same time he stretched forth to tear the knots with his hands his fillets soaked with saliva and black venom at the same time he lifted to heaven horrendous cries: like the bellowing when a wounded bull has fled from the altar and has shaken the ill-aimed axe from its neck.

John Dryden's translation:[11] With both his hands he labors at the knots; His holy fillets the blue venom blots; His roaring fills the flitting air around. Thus, when an ox receives a glancing wound, He breaks his bands, the fatal altar flies, And with loud bellowings breaks the yielding skies.

The death of Laocoön was famously depicted in a much-admired marble Laocoön and his Sons, attributed by Pliny the Elder to the Rhodian sculptors Agesander, Athenodoros, and Polydorus, which stands in the Vatican Museums, Rome. Copies have been executed by various artists, notably Baccio Bandinelli. These show the complete sculpture (with conjectural reconstructions of the missing pieces) and can be seen in Rhodes, at the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, Rome, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and in front of the Archaeological Museum, Odessa, Ukraine, amongst others.
The marble Laocoön provided the central image for Lessing's Laocoön, 1766, an aesthetic polemic directed against Winckelmann and the comte de Caylus. Daniel Albright reengages the role of the figure of Laocoön in aesthetic thought in his book Untwisting the Serpent: Modernism in Literature, Music, and Other Arts. [cite El Greco painting]
In addition to other literary references, John Barth employs a bust of Laocoön in his novella, The End of the Road. The R.E.M. song "Laughing" references Laocoön, rendering him female ("Laocoön and her two sons"). The marble's pose is parodied in the comic book Asterix and the Laurel Wreath. American author Joyce Carol Oates also references Laocoön in her 1989 novel American Appetites. In Stave V of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens (1843), Scrooge awakes on Christmas morning, "making a perfect Laocoon of himself with his stockings". Barbara Tuchman's The March of Folly begins with an extensive analysis of the Laocoön story.
In Hector Berlioz opera Les Troyens, the death of Laocoon is a pivotal moment of the first act after Aeneas entrance, sung by eight singers and a double choir ("ottetto et double chœur"). It begins with the verse "Châtiment effroyable" ("frightful punishment").

 

 

Since we are dealing with serpent-shaped SeaSerpents these were probably Giant eels. Heuvelmans makes mentions in several places about a larger version of the Mediterranean speckled moray, which he also calls he "Camoflage Eel" However, there is really very little support for the notion, only a couple of not really good reports. Instead I prefer the idea that the tradition was meant to refer to the more common "Megaconger" eels which have been occasionally reported as chasing human swimmers in the water (Such as the "20 foot Conger" seen chasing a swimming man off Singapore reported in Mysterious Monsters)

 

 

More Sea Serpents from Ivan Sanderson's Files

From the same source (The Greatest Study) by way of the Lake Monsters Facebook page. I apologise for any duplications of any material posted on this blog in earlier installments:

Sea Serpents. Reports.
As you can see, they are mainly US coastal cases. What you have are: 1). a "water elephant" from the Rio de la Plata in Uruguay [greater than five meters in length {good} and having pinkish spots {not so good}] [Could be an ordinary elephant seal, at one part of the year their skins peel off in irregular  and can be bloody, and hence pinkish-DD]
2). a "...sea monster" from Deception Bay, near Brisbane, Australia [with a 3' wide head and prominent eyes held above the water; no neck, possibly meaning serpentine];[also possible Elephant seal-DD]

3). a "monster" from Tampico Bay, Mexico [4' long plus half-moon tail, and six feet thick; sharp teeth and flippers ---a manatee??];

4). a "sea serpent" from Venice beach, CA [16' long with a serpent's head and a fin tail, estimated weight about 800 lbs];

5). a "[?Lobster, AKA "Specs"-DD]" from Miami Beach, CA [5 & 1/2' cylindrical body standing 3' high on eight hairy legs and eyes on stalks --- yep, that's the one I want to go after];

6). a "blob" from Delake Beach, OR [a 22' length whatever with a 4' body like a cow's and 9 "tails". A hairy chest". Scientists said: a piece of a whale; a whale shark; a squid.];

7). a "sea serpent" from Cadboro Bay, BC [ 35-40' long with snake-like head; body 1' diameter; can raise 4-5' out of water; dark color; coiled at about 6-7' --- well, at least we meet one old friend in these reports --- hello, Caddy];

8. a "seal serpent" [spelling on purpose] from Racoon Straights San Francisco Bay [10' long with seal's head and bluish-gray coloration];

9). a complete mystery thing from Sandy Hook, NJ [ a 40-50' long transparent cylindrical thing, 1/2' in diameter, undulating along beneath the surface like "fluid glass"-called a Venus' Girdle-DD];

10). a "sea serpent" from Ifafa Lagoon, Natal [ a serpentine body fronted by a pig-like face with bulging eyes staring at the witness at the waterline]; [Another possible Elephant seal-DD]

11). a "sea monster" from Marshfield, MA [ an elongated body about keg-thickness and two fins about twelve feet from the tail (tip?); an alligator-like head and gobbling fish --- one of my favorite kinds of sea serpents and maybe the only one I think could be a real animal];

12). a "serpent?" from Sutherland, CA [ an elongated thing swimming with its head raised 4' above the water].

Story #13: Shuyak Island [near Kodiak], Alaska. Glob on the beach. 30' long, headless "sea elephant" in state of decay. Had two hand-like front feet. A tail like a whale. Three-quarter inch thick brown-yellow "fur" on body. [Decayed whale-DD]

#14: Qualicum, Victoria, British Columbia. 30' long "sea serpent". Three heads [!!!]. Center head at end of trunk like neck. Other two at ends of necks branching off three feet below. Necks hairy and 12-18" thick. [Hairy indeed].[Three seals seen but combined by some funny journalism-DD]


#15: Near Mombasa, East Central African coast. A large animal seen just below the surface. This is known locally as the "Kilindini monster" and has allegedly been seen many times over the years.

#16: Pennock Island, SE Alaska. "Sea serpent". Flathead, cow-like shaped. Large goggle eyes. Curved neck. Body has a row of fins [humps] on back. Body "loops" as it swims.

#17: Northern Scotland. Historical tale: In the time of King Olof 14th, sailors would come across a Lorelei in these islands, who would make a sound so soothing that they would go to sleep or be entranced. It was a "sea troll" and referred to as female. Its head was like a horse's, with huge green eyes and strong jaws. Its body was like a serpent's and shaggy like a seal. It ended in a broad tail. [ a classic mermaid without the pretty girl, which to me is leaving out the best part ... but I bow to "reality" if that resides in here].

#18: Girvan, Scotland. "Sea serpent". Part of a representative of which was felt to be found decaying on a beach. "In life" allegedly seen to be a long body which swims with coiled motion and creating "humps" as it goes. A long neck [4'] and a "dragonish" head. The object on the beach had a skull reportedly weighing 17 lbs. [Basking shark-DD]

#19: Orkney Island, Scotland. "Sea serpent". Elongated body. [about 25']. Showing three humps as it swam. A long neck sometimes raised out of the water, and shaped like a cow's head.

#20: Cinsta, near E.London, South Africa. [extremely limited report]. Unknown sea creature, like a long-necked lion in shape [body not described]. Brown-skinned.[Likely Elephant seal again- DD]

#21. Off Soviet Research Station, Antarctica. "Sea serpent". 49' long. Light brown. Moved like snake with "convulsive movements". Labelled a "sea snake".[Whale-eater report, several other such reports in series, some reportedly twice that length-DD]

#22. Newport Beach, CA. "Sea monster". Estimated 20 tons [though not on basis of any carcass]. Round head held about 4' high out of water. Two-foot-wide mouth. Head described as "thorny" and one horn noticeable. Colored a "sickly green".

#23. Yarmouth, United Kingdom. Very poor quality photograph of a "sea serpent being held on the beach, my estimate from the size of the men= about 25-30' long. Photo from 1897. [Hoax-DD]

#24. Caddy country, British Columbia. A handful of clippings about one of our favorite critters. I'll try to summarize these clippings in a supplementary posting. I'll also try to get a scan of the Yarmouth "sea serpent" up later.

Case #25: off Brockton, MA, 1964. Minimalist report of a "sea monster" with a series of humps on its back.

#26: Mann Hill Beach, Scituate, MA, 1970. Another minimalist report. This time: thirty foot long "sea creature" like an Elasmosaurus. [Actually a basking shark-DD]

#27: Atlantic Ocean off South American coast [latitude 34.50 south; longitude 48 west]. 1824 0r 1834 [case is listed two ways on two different documents]. A "serpent", 40-foot long, no appendages, dark colored. Body = "barrel-sized" in diameter. Head held two feet above the surface and the size of a "ten-gallon keg".

#s 28&29: Gloucester Bay, MA, 1835 & 1834. Very long sea creature with head as big as a barrel and a "mane" on its neck. Head was raised seven to eight feet above surface as it swam. Motion was "serpentine". Each time it rose it made a hissing sound like steam escaping. Seen by several crew members. When told, another crewman said that he had seen an animal matching the description exactly while on the Bay the previous summer.[The brig Mangehan: it is really not known what was seen the year before-DD]

#30: Labrador Sea, 1834. On a voyage from Montreal to Greenock, UK, there was seen the head and "snout" of a "great fish" resting on the surface of the water. The head was twelve feet to its dome above the surface and 25 feet wide/long. The "snout" was 50 feet long. One very large dark "eye" stared out of the side of the head. The whole thing was colored a mottled light and dark green. The skin had a ribbed texture and the thing swam as fast as the ship.[Dead whale floating on the surface belly up #31: Camp's Bay, near Capetown, South Africa, 1845 or 1846. Observers saw a line of shining black objects like "casks" bobbing up and down. The line was 150-200 feet long. Object was one thing however as it showed in its entirety above the water during one sequence. This was one of those possibly paranormal days of water as smooth as glass; nevertheless, the thing produced frothing foam at one end. "Animal" suddenly turned and swam swiftly away.

#32: Table Bay, near Capetown, South Africa, 1857. This is the case of the drawing in the accompanying illustration above. Report is fragmentary. Case  involved a blob-like body with an extremely long "tentacle" or tail [I am just interpreting the drawing now; there was little in the partial clip --- note, by the way that the pictured clip speaks of more than one case]. One witness fired two shots at the thing. It apparently whipped around radically between shots.[Portugese Man-o-war kind of a thing-DD]
#33&34: Waters between Ireland and Bristol Channel, 1907? [reference in notebook does not have a date.] This is the Arthur Rostron case [and a supporting one]. Rostron and deckhands see "sea serpent" head and neck rise out of water nearby ship. Head elevated 8 or 9 feet from surface. Its neck was a foot in diameter. The head turned with suddenness like a bird's does as it hunts the ground. Later in port at Queenstown, Rostron and his captain heard of a report by a fisherman who had a confrontation with a "sea serpent" near the Bristol Channel the following day.

#35: 38degrees south/ 13degrees east roughly in the Cape of Good Hope area, 1855. On another of those remarkably calm smooth water days, a huge thing raised its head 30 feet out of the water. The head was about twelve feet long. The body was black and estimated at 180 feet long. It was 20 feet in diameter. There was a white stripe down the side of the head, and a "pouch" of lighter-colored loose skin under the chin. On its back was at least one "protuberance" shaped like a small water cask.

[Heuvelmans says this is a baleen whale-DD]

 #36: Lochs, Lewis, UK/ 1856. A "sea serpent" manifested in an inland lake near the ocean. It was 40 foot long.

#37: 29-degrees north/ 34+degrees west [roughly in the area of the Azores]/ 1856. In a sea so calm it was "glassy", an elongated undulating thing broke the surface, swimming strongly and creating ripples. It was 40 feet long and swam with its head raised.

#38: Near Bathurst, South Africa, coming from Madagascar or Mozambique area/ 1863. A huge "snake" manifest. It was about 100 feet long and swam with both head and tail out of the water. Its body was about a foot in diameter and dark brown. There was a "mane" on its head.

#39: 19-degrees south/ 10.6-degrees west [roughly near St.Helena Island]/ 1858. An "enormous sea serpent" swam rapidly with the ship, holding its head 20-30 feet out of the water.

#40: Waimarara Beach, New Zealand/ 1950. A carcass washed up on the beach [near Hastings] which was 30 foot long and with a head three feet wide. Described alternately as a "sea serpent", a huge "alligator-like" monster, or a decayed whale, the thing was stated as having one tusk sticking out of its head. A scientist said it was a Layards Whale, despite the fact that they only grow half this size

#41: Gloucester, MA/ 1817. Brief mention of this encounter with the "huge serpentine" monster with the head the size of a horse.

#42: Off the coast of Brazil [no further location given]/ 1905. A large strange animal with a head and neck like a huge turtle [raised up eight feet out of the surface], showed nearby a ship. It seemed to have "rubbery" skin. {My moneys on something in the "sea lion family" on this one}.

#43: During a military blockade in the North Sea/ 1917. An animal similar in description to the previous "turtle" surfaced and was fired upon by the British Navy.

#44: Long Beach Island, NJ/ 1906. This is the report which goes with the illustration/news story on this page. A "great snake" greater than 60 feet
long raised its head twenty feet above the surface. The head was like an eel's, but four feet in diameter and having eyes the size of dinner plates. Its mouth was four feet wide. The animal was black and its texture slick. No fins nor protuberances were seen. There was a flabby loose-skin gathering under its chin. It swam like slithering. This thing is a bit like a junior version of #35.

Case #45: Some year just after the turn of the century, c.1900 --- Prout's Neck. ME. Witnesses waving and shouting on shore. Fishermen rowed in direction of pointing. Close to the beach under the shade of trees floated a "sea monster". It was an "enormous snake" with a flat head widening at the rear. It was similar to the famous incident at Nantucket. The animal floated there with its head raised well out of the water. When it finally focused on the fishermen, who were right up to it, it calmly turned and swam away to sea.

#46: Cape Ferrat Bay, Bay of Biscay [no date given on this mini-clipping]. Carcass [we have three such carcass cases this time, so I've regaled us with a random carcass picture for visual stimulation]. This one was said to resemble a sea elephant 13 feet long and 9 feet wide. It weighed several tons. Huge ears protruded from on top of its flat head. Its feet were webbed and it had thick black body hair.

#47: Gloucester, MA, 1960. Witnesses reported a "sea serpent" 70 feet long with a snake-like head colored black and white. It had "bulging eyes". Unfortunately for our wonderment, another story said that the thing was just 15 feet long.[That would be the head and neck-DD]

#48: Suez, Egypt, 1950. Carcass. 36 feet long and 7 feet thick. Twin seven foot tusks protruding from head with a vestige of a trunk. Speculation was that a normal elephant had somehow died at sea.

[Actually a decayed whale-DD]

 #49: Saco River, ME, 1967. Carcass. An 8 foot skeleton with a head like a snake. It had fins and some "feathers" [!!] clinging to the bones.[Also cited as a"Thunderbird carcass", the head elsewhere compared to that of a horse-DD]

#50: Research Submarine, Atlantic Ocean Gulf Stream, 1969. [picture at left is not this but sort of gets the major point across anyway]. Research team saw schools of black-colored fish 30 foot long as average. Also spotted a huge Medusa Jellyfish four feet in diameter with 30 foot long tentacles. They were convinced that there is a whole lot of weird stuff down there.

#51: Hamilton, Bermuda, 1960. Seven witnesses saw a creature greater than 30 foot long and shaped like a serpent ['tubular']. It was black colored. A local scientist was quoted saying that he thought it must be a whale, a porpoise, or rubber tyres. [<-- Bermuda is British, remember]. Unfortunately for him, three of the witnesses were nuns. Sister de Chantel followed his opinion with: "I know a whale, a porpoise, or a rubber tyre when I see one. I saw a sea serpent!". And, if he has any sense, that will end THAT debate!!

#52: Burra Isle, Shetland Islands, 1903. The crew of a fishing boat saw an animal 30 foot long, with a horn on its head and enormous flippers [one was seen; presumed two]. The thing destroyed several nets. Later in the year, in two incidents with four witnesses each, something was seen in the same location which was described as a "sea monster". {Possible Basking Sharks-DD]

#53: Off the Maldive Islands, WW2 era, but exact year unspecified. British Admiralty trawler. This is another one of those "sea as smooth as glass" cases. It was nightshift and the sea was full of phosphorescence. [ strange balls of light were constantly floating by]. They fished at night by setting down towards the surface a bright lantern-like light. All manner of sea life were always attracted to it. The scene was, in fact, described as consistently magical to watch. This night, suddenly, all the fish et al vanished. Instead, in the lighted area, the deck officer saw only one large circle of greenish light. It resolved into one large eye. It was "attached" to a Giant Squid. The officer walked the length of the ship's deck and back; it lay all along the boat, and its size was "colossal". It was greater than the 175 foot length of the vessel, with tentacles at least 24 inches thick. Details like the suction disks and the parrot-beak were quite clear. After about 15 minutes, wherein it moved only languidly, it suddenly puffed up and shot away. (( now unless one of you folks tell me differently, this is probably my favorite Giant Squid case that I've heard about)). {but tell me if it's bogus}.

#54: Somewhere near the Gulf of Benin, Central Africa [5.31 South // 4.42 West], 1902. Here we are in another phosphorescent sea. The witnesses of the S.S.Fort Salisbury noticed a long dark object making a long luminous trailing wake. Two lights, like Masthead lamps, seemed mounted on the upper edge of its body. All of this sunk below the surface together. Upon coming up to the site of submergence, they could see a "huge monster" underneath the water. It has a scaly back with scales a foot in diameter. Barnacles grew on some of these. Shiny twinkling lights shown here and there on the creature. The length of the creature was 500-600 feet [!!!!!]. The body's width was 30 feet at the widest. They surmised that there must be two areas for fins, due to the disturbances of the water. There was a strong odor. Later, to the Zoologist, the Captain vouched for his second officer and the two crew.

Case#55: South China Sea, early 1900s. A "big snake" followed a ship for three days, keeping pace with it, but never closing in. Finally it just swam away.

#56: Fairway Beacon, Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 1934. An elongated animal estimated at greater than 40 feet long, swam with its head raised 8 feet out of the water. Along its body were three humps spaced about 20 feet apart.

#57: La Jolla, CA, 1955. A compact [i.e. not serpentine] monster swam about 50 feet from observers for 25 minutes. It had the head and shoulders reminiscent of a bull gorilla. But it had no discernible face. Observers swore it was no whale nor sea lion. ["Ugly Merman"-DD]

#58: Santa Barbara, CA, 1966. A 15-20 foot long "serpent" moved by underwater camera several times [film clip to the side]. Motion was "spiraling". It had "rudimentary" head but noticeable eyes and mouth. A long thin tail completed the creature. Scientists speculated about jellyfish. ["Marvin the Monster" possible salp chain-DD]

#59: Yakutat, Alaska, 1956. Carcass. Greater than 100 feet long. Fifteen feet wide at broadest. Reddish-brown hair. No blubber on carcass. Head 5 1/2 feet wide. 7-9" diameter eyes placed a foot apart. Ribs 5-6' long. Upper jaw protruded 5 1/2 feet beyond lower. Speculation about a Baird's Beak-nosed Whale.

#60: Whidby Island (Puget Sound), WA, 1958. A sea serpent of modest proportions [only twelve feet long] swam by using "snake-like" motions. Body was one foot in diameter. This thing was said to appear there seasonally in the warmer weather. [Oarfish?-DD]

#61: Queen Charlotte Islands, Hecate Straits, BC, date not stated [and no date on clipping either]. A very long "sea serpent" [but no estimate given for length] appeared for quite some viewing time. (Observer made three sketches; none included). Head was raised thirty feet out of the water. Head was 1 1/2' wide and 2 1/2' long. Body was greenish shiny and of telephone pole diameter. Submerged in a spiraling fashion. [Heuvelmans mentions sighting, gives date]

#62: Isle of Soay, near Skye, Scottish islands, 1959, maybe. This multiple witness sighting created a lot of news there. Witness diagrams are at left, plus a professional drawing. Professional drawing blows it as far as head conformation is concerned, as it should be rounder and more "turtlish".

Head protruded above water, two foot top to bottom and large eyes. Nasal holes easily seeable as well as mouth. Behind head 8-10 feet of body was seeable, rising three feet out of water. Creature was scaly and had row of serrated "fins" running down back. Body was 4-5' broad at waterline. Neck was about 8" in diameter. The head was described as like a tortoise's but as big as a donkey's. The eyes were large and round like a cow's. It made a terrific roaring-whistling sound when it breathed. Desperate scientists speculated about a displaced iguana lizard, even though they aren't nearly as big. There were claims that other seamen have seen this same sort of animal in these waters near the Isle of Mallaig.

#63: Mediterranean Sea, 1877. Relating perhaps to the Soay case, it was brought up that the HM Yacht Osborne had witnessed a strange creature the previous century. This was a long thing with serrated fins along its back [note the drawing below], and when it turned to swim away, appeared to be turtlish with flippers.

#64: near Barnstable harbor, MA, date not given [pre-1971]. Witnesses observed a large bony "grotesque" head rise up out of the water only twenty feet away. Head was covered with barnacles and "horse-like". It spouted water short distances. Its body "snaked" into view: thick, black, clean of fins or any protrusions, and 50-60 feet long. Witness had film as he was out to make film of something else at the time. Writer of story allegedly saw film and vouched for it.

Case#65: Georges Bank, Newfoundland, 1826. This case actually could be a great one "if". The "if" is because there was the claim that there were many witnesses on board this passenger ship, many testimonials were taken, AND a drawing was made. None of that came with the story, unfortunately. All that was said was that a "sea serpent" was seen and that 60' of its length could be observed out of the water [ therefore intimating that the thing was longer].

#66: Machrihanish, Scotland, 1944. Another carcass, and none too impressive. >20' long with enormous eyes. Feet unlike a seal's or anything like a whale. Speculated to have been killed by War maneuvers.
#67: Brockton, MA, 1964. A "sea monster" was seen having a raised head and humps on its back.
#68: Alexandra Bay, Newfoundland, 1860s. A man was sailing to his home, saw a "sea serpent" and got so scared that he turned back.
#69: Eastern coast between NYC and Portland, ME, 1912 or 1913. An animal with a huge eel-like body, raised its head 20' out of water, and turned slowly as if surveying the surroundings. The neck had a diameter similar to a barrel.

#70: Seal Rock, OR, probably early 1940s. Carcass. Eighteen feet long. Eight foot long neck. Small head. Four flippers. Short light-brown hair. [Could have been a seal-DD]

#71: Sunset Beach, north of Vancouver, BC, 1937. Fishermen had very "close encounter" [25' away]. Had a large head shaped like a long-nosed pig, but wider built. Huge body and two large flippers seen. Later in day, others claimed to see [at greater distance] a "sea serpent" with a body 50-60' long and a head like a camel's. Diameter of body said to be "barrel-sized". At other times others claimed to have seen a "sea serpent" about 100' long.

#72: South Pacific [position undisclosed (Actually NW of the Marquesas)], 1852. A whaling vessel [The Monongahela-DD] encountered something that captain and crew did not recognize as being any sort of whale. It was black, serpentine and moved with a snake-like motion. After some debate, they decided to chase the thing as they would a whale, harpooning it and killing it. It was 103' long. with a 6' diameter neck, widening to 8' at "shoulders". The body was about 16' at its broadest. The tail diminished to a point. The head was flat-topped and elongated. Its tongue was tipped with a "heart-shape". It had 94 teeth. Two spout holes, and four webbed paws. The back was black, the sides brown, and the belly yellow. They dismembered the thing as they would a Whale, but decided not to try to bring any of the bulk of it home. [I believe that some accident also occurred which flushed the evidence-ITS]. Oh well, such is Cryptozoology. [The Monongahela was later wrecked with a loss of all hands after the message was sent home by another ship in a parcel of letters. The authenticity of the letters was vouched for by the captain's surviving relatives and the letters together with the accompanying affidavits are now in the archives of the New Bedford Whaling museum. Several important points which needed to be specified!-DD]

#73: New Bedford, MA, 1964. An animal 50' long was seen just 50-100' off starboard. Water was "Flat and calm as a mill pond". The head was shaped alligator-ish, with lumps all along its midline, like camel humps. Head was also huge, about 20' long. The thing had a blow-hole, but was without a discernible neck. Body was dark but with white spotting. Its tail was like a lobster's and it flapped it upon the water. It paralleled the boat for some time and seemed "friendly". [Hey boys, come on in; the water's fine...]. [This one sighted by the Blue Sea was likely a whale but it is usually included together with the next one because both have "Alligator heads"-DD]

#74: New Bedford, MA, 1957. A creature with a very large body [of which 40' could be seen out of the water], was estimated at weighing over 35-40 tons. It had a seal-like shaped body but a long neck which held its head 26' out of the water. The head was "alligator-ish". It sported a mane of bristly hair.[The Noreen report, probably a "Whale-Eater" or the same as the Monongahela creature, and the midline crest is more ordinarily called a fin-DD]

More Comparisons of Longnecked SeaSerpent Models

 

The standard Heuvelmans model Longneck is above. However, on the internet you will find such alternatives as the one directly below, which seems to have been influenced by some conceptions representing the Loch Ness Monster as "Nessiteras Rhombopteryx"

 

 

http://newpagebooks.blogspot.com/2013/07/creature-of-month-sinuous-sea-serpent.html

  " Here are the categories of Sea-Serpents proposed by Heuvelmans, incorporating some more recent analyses by Loren Coleman, Patrick Huyghe, and Bruce Champagne. My illustrations are based on those of Heuvelmans:

"1.        Long-Necked or Megalotaria longicollis (“giant sea lion with a long neck”)—A 15- to 65-foot-long, plesiosaur-like creature with a long neck, several humps, and the ability to move in vertical undulations. The head has a distinctive horse-like or “cameloid” appearance, and hair and whiskers have been reported. Believed to be a long-necked, short-tailed sea lion. Seen worldwide, with 82 reported sightings." 

The head on this representation is way too small, but enlarging the head results in a decent depiction for the Hoy Island/Mackintosh Bell 1918 Sea serpent category and this is the one I was willing to allow to retain the name of Megalotaria because the basic concept and appearance for Heuvelmans' category is based on this type. 15 feet would be the normal adult size for the creature and not a minimum: a Scientific description exists for a 7 foot long pup and the biggest adult male should not be more than three times the length of the pup (Which Heuvelmans states himself in connection to the Hoy SS sighting. that would be just over 20 feet or a little under 7 meters)

Once again the given proportions for the 1918 Hoy SS are that the neck is about half the length of the body, about as long as the body is thick, and about a quarter as thick as it is long (Presumably near the base).

 

The reconstruction can be made to approximate a more typical Longneck if we move the illustrated portion ahead and allow a length of the neck is in the water and not showing because it is submerged. Several models for the Loch Ness Monster assume a shorter neck and estimates range from 1/4 of the whole length down to 1/6 or less: and Oudemans made the head and neck out as 1/5 of the length. these shorter estimates would all stem from observations of only part of the neck showing.

Dragging out the rear flipper as representing sightings that allege a tail does yield a real tail of appreciable size. Approximately 1/10 of Longneck reports at Loch Ness and at sea specify the tail

Below are Tim Morris' representations of the Longnecks as categorized by Heuvelmans and Bruce Champagne. The latter system contains two Long-necked subtypes, and both of them have tails.

 

 

http://cameronmccormick.blogspot.com/2008/01/unknown-sea-serpent-classification.html

Lord Geekington summarises the two Long-necked subtypes out of the Champagne system as follows:

Type 1: "Long-necked"

These are reports that, of course, are of long necked animals. Confusingly, other types have this characteristic (3, 4B), but presumably other characters took precedence. This type is somewhat comparable to the long-necked/merhorse/super-otter classification of Heuvelmans and the "waterhorse" category of Coleman and Huyghe. Unlike previous authors, it has been divided into two sub-types.


Type 1A:

This "long necked" is primarily distinguished by a head of the same or slightly smaller diameter than the neck. Type 1As are reported worldwide, but appear most in boreal climate zones. They aren't even limited to salt water and have apparently been sighted several kilometers inland in fresh water, possibly to breed. Champagne also suggests that this type is a pinniped and a relatively large one at 2.5-12 (9 avg) meters in reported length [=8.5 (!) to 40 feet long, 30 feet average. I am comfortable with the 30-40 foot usual adult size range.-DD]. Given peoples' tendency to exaggerate, I'd suggest that this type could fall within the mass range of pinnipeds [calculating the mass by given volume, it essentially is just about the same mass as an elephant seal-DD]. The proposition of a long necked and tailed pinniped raises a lot of questions. Pinniped necks actually aren't longer than a dog's ('cept Acrophoca see Darren of course [ERROR!Acrophoca's neck is NOT longer than a sea lion's]) and tend to be immensely thick to boot. Pinnipeds have very short tails, and [Heuvelmans, Costello and] the Coleman/Huyghe book suggested that reports of a long tail are due to the rear limbs. The superficial plesiosaur or elasmosaur-like body coupled with a pinniped-style flexible neck makes this type quite unique and would presumably indicate an unknown niche. The idea of a pinniped being fully adapted to a marine life and taking on a new form doesn't seem too outlandish, and at least this type resembles common sightings. The lack of resemblance to anything in the fossil record is still a major problem of course.[The obvious resemblance to Plesiosaurs suggests a different interpretation to Karl Shuker and to most observers, ie, that it actually IS a Plesiosaur. The supposed problem with the neck flexibility is more of a problem with Elasmosaurs in particular rather than all Plesiosaurs in general-DD]

Type 1B:

This "type" is only known from 5 sightings in the North Atlantic and is distinguished by a head larger in diameter than the neck. It is supposedly much larger (17 meters+/ over 55 feet, or the "Average length of 60 feet" given by Heuvelmans-DD]) than the 1A and displays more "primitive" characteristics and different behaviors (frequently associates with cetaceans, etc). Oh, these illustrations are ones that I did a while back, so you'll see I chose to portray it as a more robust "1A" type animal as opposed to another lineage of long-necked creature. Limbs were never observed and only inferred to exist by presumed relations. The proposed anatomy of this type is even stranger than the 1A, and I don't know what to think of a massive head on a long neck. Judging by the lack of sightings or apparently much detail, I'm suggesting that future analyses will probably just absorb these sightings into the "1A" or maybe "type 3" classification. Ah, to lump or to split, the eternal question. [I reviewed the cases of Longnecks associated with Cetaceans in an earlier blog, I saw no difference in head size from the common Longnecks and no differences from the more common Longneck sightings, period.-DD]

Below once again is the very useful comparison chart made by Tim Morris which contains the images excerpted above:

 

In a different matter,

While discussing the Marine Saurian of Heuvelmans with Jay Cooney, I mentioned that some of the "Many Humped" creatures could have been in that category since the "humps" were being produced by the wake and not a permanent feature of the anatomy. I then suggested that some of the Massachussets bay sea serpents (some of them were "Alligator-headed*) and Scandinavian "Super-otters" could have been the larger kind of Marine Sauran, the Whale-Eater, and that some reports with very large humps in a row could be such creatures stalking small pods of large whales. This would be why the Coleman/Huyghe Classic Sea Serpent resembles a "Marine Saurian" in design.

 

"Classic Sea Serpent: A quadrupedal, elongated animal with the appearance of many humps when swimming. Essentially a composite of the many humped, super otter, and super eels types."

 

In my statistical analysis of Sea Serpent reports (edition sent in to the SITU in 1980), I did make mention of the fact that suspected reports of zueglodonts. Mosasaurs and Giant eels tended to fall together statistically and were different to sort out from internal criteria.

 

(* footnote: Heuvelmans refers to a series of  "Alligator headed" Sea Serpent reports from the area of Nantucket in the 1960s as being "Typical": he has qualms about one of the reports stating it had a long neck and he assume that somehow a reported neck 2'6" long became reported as 26 feet long . This is the Noreen sighting. I had not noticed before but a head and neck length of 25 feet for the whale-eater Marine saurian is absolutely typical!  -In the Wake of the Sea Serpents, page 527)