Legend Of Sea Serpents: Reports, History, and Possible Explanations

The notion of an unknown sea monster has long been a part of our history. Since the ancient times, such creatures have appeared as mythological figures in literature, art, and oral accounts, most likely branching from Indo-European culture. The Hebrew bible, for example, has several mentions of sea monsters such as Rahab, the “demonic angel of the sea,” and the Leviathan, which has been widely adopted in video games and in the 1989 horror film bearing the same name. Sea serpents were described to be aquatic dragons without wings or four legs, something like Hydra and Scylla in Ancient Greek mythology. However, as time progressed from the ancient times, sailors began seeing these very same sea monsters on their oceanic voyages. They were quickly becoming something not only of mythology, but also of reality. Beginning in the 1500s, sightings gradually increased. In his 1555 book History of the Northern People’s, Olaus Magnus writes about a 200 foot long aquatic serpent living near the coast of Bergen. The late 1700s and entirety of the 1800s saw a sharp increase in sightings by oceanic voyagers, and in the Southern US, encounters in the 1830s even became prevalent. The Genius of Liberty reported on the 17th of April, 1830:


“The Sea Serpent in Georgia. —Capt Delano, of the schooner EAGLE, arrived at Charleston from Turtle River... ‘On Monday, 22d inst. at 10 o’clock, A. M. when about one mile inside St. Simon’s Bar, endeavoring to beat out, observed, at the distance of three hundred yards, a large object resembling an alligator, occasionally moving along in the same course with tho vessel, and at limes lying nearly motionless upon the surface. Capt. D. finding himself likely to approach very near this strange visitor, charged a musket with ball, and tacked so as to run within 20 or 25 yards of him, at a moment when he was perfectly still, and apparently unconcerned. Capt. D. took deliberate aim at the back of his head, the only part then exposed, and fired—the ball evidently taking effect. Instantly, to the no small astonishment and apprehension of the crew, the monster aroused himself and made directly for the vessel, contracting bis body, and giving two or three tremendous sweeps with hie tail as he passed, the first striking the stem, and producing a shock which was very sensibly felt by all on board...They had all a fair opportunity to observe their enemy both before and after the shot, and concur in describing him as upwards of seventy feet in length; his body as large, or larger, than a GO gallon cask; of a grey color, shaped like an eel—without any visible fins, and apparently covered with scales— the back being full of “joints,” or “bunches." The head and mouth resembled those of an alligator, the former about ten feet long, and as large as a hogshead!'”


In Georgia, the Altamaha river runs for 137 miles through the middle of the state, and is known for the Altamaha-ha, or Altie, a sea serpent that inhabits its waters. It is said to look like a plesiosaur, and lives near the abandoned rice fields in McIntosh County. In 2018, Jeff Warren and his son discovered a decomposing carcass on Wolfe Island beach. Because of its striking resemblance to a plesiosaur, many speculated it could be a deceased Altie. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources got involved, attempting to scientifically explain the occurrence, and eventually decided on the image being a hoax. Later, New York City artist Zardulu claimed responsibility for creating the “creature” with a stuffed shark and paper mache.

Further down south, Florida has experienced its fair share of sea monsters as well. In 1896, yet another strange carcass emerged on the beach shore near St. Augustine. Dr. George Grant described it as: “The head is as large as an ordinary flour barrel, and has the shape of a sea lion head. The neck, if the creature may be said to have a neck, is of the same diameter as the body. The mouth is on the underside of the head and is protected by two tentacle tubes about eight inches in diameter and about 30 feet long.” A 1995 biochemical and electron analysis concluded the globster was “the remains of the skin of an enormous warm-blooded vertebrate,” most likely a whale; though some speculate an undiscovered sea serpent to be the origin.

In 2009, the TV show Monster Quest aired an episode featuring a Florida sea monster. The episode focused on one man’s film in particular, showing a quick moving creature in a Florida river. In conclusion, however, experts decided the “monster” shown in the footage was either a Florida manatee or some species of seal. Throughout the episode, the narrator claimed sea monster sightings in Florida date back to the 19th century, which is definitely true. The Castle Rock Journal of Colorado even poked fun at the recent sightings in Florida in 1895:

“The reported appearance of an immense sea serpent In a Florida river indicates that the failure of the orange crop has driven the Floridians to drink.”


A similar creature to the one in Georgia in 1830 appeared just weeks after the incident, this time sighted in the neighborhood of St. Augustine by Captain Hamford.


“His head appeared to be as large as a sugar hogs-head, resembling that of an alligator, with his upper jaw-bone back; he had fins or paddles on each side near his neck, resembling the flippers of a seal, apparently the size of a common door. We saw him afterwards standing in for the bar, with his head and tail out of water; the tip of his tail appeared very sharp, resembling a harpoon.” (Genius of Liberty, May 8, 1830)



Genius of Liberty reported on a possible sea monster sighting again, this time in 1837 and on the Virginian coast, writing,

“We deem it our duty to lay before our readers, all the evidence which comes into our possession relative to the appearance of a marine monster, on our coast, supposed to be a sea serpent(…) Capt. Bridges informs us that he had himself been utterly incredulous to the existence of a sea serpent, until he saw what he did on his late voyage. ‘On the 18th of May, 1833, on my passage from Salem to Philadelphia , in the schooner Mechanic, a man at the mast-head discovered something in the i cater, which he supposed to be an empty hogshead floating...We however found that the object seas alive, and soon sate very plainly that it was the sea serpent...He appeared upwards of 80 feet long.. his body , in the biggest part, appeared about the size of a 60 gallon cask, and his head was much larger, and appeared very rough, and shaped much like a horse's.’”


In 1837, Captain Robert H. McKown and his crew aboard the Havre saw a sea serpent while sailing from Havre, France. The newspaper Alexandria Gazette reported the incident, citing the ship log: “Lat. 85,32 N. long. 26,05 W. saw something very singular, about 100 feet from ( the ship, and, as it approached, discovered that it was a snake, its head, which was shaped like that of a flying fish, and about the size of a barrel, lay within fifty feet of the ship’s side, and the end of its tail between 4 and 500 feet in a perpendicular from the same—color of its body greyish and about the size of a ship’s main mast. As this monster of the deep moved gradually from the ship near the surface of the water, its motion appeared like that created by a series of barrels rolling in water in direct line.”

After the encounter, Captain McKown continued to travel the ocean, but never saw the creature again.


In the New England area, the Nahant, or the Gloucester Sea Serpent, supposedly lurks in the Northern waters. The first sighting was in 1638 in Gloucester. In 1817 it was seen again, this time by hundreds of witnesses. The Virginian newspaper the Alexandria Gazette wrote in 1837, “Notices of the Sea Serpent begin to appear in the Northern papers. It is rather soon to announce the ‘monster.’ Nahant is not yet ‘in season,’ and until then, it is out of the question for any sea serpent actually to show himself.”
Reports of this creature described it to have a face similar to a dog, except the size of a horse head. The body reached lengths of 60-150 feet. A possible explanation was proposed by Elizabeth Fama in her 2012 Tor article. “Between 1817 and 1819 (more likely much longer) I believe the “sea serpent” was in fact the same poor humpback whale, entangled in a net or rope lined with keg or cork buoys, migrating to the Gulf of Maine every summer, powerful enough to survive the massive drag of its entanglement, and even to submerge the length of its torment into the depths with it, giving the illusion of the snake sinking.”

In 1830, a similar creature (perhaps the same) was spotted off the coast of Nantasket Beach in Massachusetts. The Western Register reported the sighting in September that same year, writing, “Much as people may ridicule the idea of the existence of some huge monster of the deep, resembling a mighty serpent, we have no more doubt of the fact, than of any other well attested fact in natural history. On Friday last, the monster was again seen off Nantasket, by two very respectable gentlemen of Boston... his head was erect, his motions graceful...It is now thought by many that it was the sea serpent, and not a shark..”



-1905: Lord Crawford’s yacht the Valhalla was sailing regularly when suddenly, M. J. Nicoll, an English ornithologist, zoo director, and naturalist saw a strange serpent creature and illustrated it.

Excerpt from The Pacific Commercial Advertiser

-June 7, 1901: Passengers aboard the RMS Celtic report seeing a winged aquatic creature in pursuit of a shool of young whales. The creature "rose frequently ten feet from the water," and faded from sight within a few minutes. Link


Up North, Canada's sea serpent allegedly lives in the Okanagan Lake in British Columbia. The Ogopogo is said to have a dark green snake-like body; and the size descriptions vary, estimated to be about 15-50ft long. Sightings date back to the late 19th century and go all the way to today. In 2018, there were 3 reports of the Ogopogo, all bearing essentially the same details: a giant snake that was about 49 ft long. In Summer 2019, an Okanagan man captured video of multiple ripples moving at the same speed on the Skaha Lake, which is just below the Okanagan Lake. The video, however, most likely shows a group of otters swimming in a row, a behavior they show often. It could also be just water ripples caused by the wind.

In nearby Alaska, the Tizheruk is a snake-like creature encountered by local Inuit and is said to inhabit the waters near Key Island, Nunivak Island, and the Bering Sea. It bears a striking resemblance to a leopard seal, and also shares its aggressiveness; reports say it attacks and drags people from docks and piers.

Possible Explanations

In most cases, aquatic dwelling monsters bear one of four body descriptions:


                            I. A stout chest and lower body build with pectoral flippers, with a elongated neck and                                       narrow head similar to a plesiosaurus

                            II. A snake-like body and head, sometimes with fins

                            

                            III. A combination of the two

                            IV. A mammalian aquatic creature, or a whale-like figure

In case #1, many theories have been proposed to offer an explanation. One popular conjecture postulates the existence of the Jurassic-era plesiosaur. However, this theory has been debunked many times. If a population of plesiosaurus lived in today’s waters, it would most likely be discovered, since they were reptiles and they would have to appear frequently at the surface to breathe. That in and of itself disallows any leeway in the plesiosaur theory. Another explanation would be a living species of long-necked seals. Today, although seal necks are particularly flexible, they are no way near the description of case #1. The Acrophoca longirostris, a seal which is now extinct, possessed an incredibly elongated neck long enough to fit case #1. Although it is now extinct, some believe it still exists in small populations or there is a similar undiscovered species living today.

Giant Oarfish

In the case of #2, misidentification is often used to account for these sightings. In the pre-modern era, many water dwelling species were yet to be discovered. Such animals are very easy to mistake for a giant sea monster. For example, a giant oarfish’s many physical characteristics, such as its ability to grow up to 36 ft and its serpentine body form, makes it a perfect match for this misidentification. Other animals, such as greenland sharks, eels, and giant squids all have similar features. 

Perhaps one of the most believable of these creatures is the frilled shark. Growing up to almost 7 ft in length, this species of shark is terrifyingly similar to what a sea serpent would look like. Granted, it is thought to be the origin of some, if not many sea serpent sightings. Perhaps the best example of this is a sighting in May 1901, when the Australian newspaper the Tenterfield Intercolonial Courier and Fairfield and Wallangarra Advocate published this:

“A huge sea monster has been seen off the Gippsland coast.”

The serpentine-like frilled shark

Back then, it could have been anything, but in 2015, a fishing trawler in the Gippsland region caught a frilled shark at the depth of 700 metres, confirming that there was a population of this species living in the area. Looking back, the 1901 sighting was almost certainly a sick or confused frilled shark at the surface of the water. Many sea serpent enthusiasts have pointed out the larger species present in the frilled shark’s genus, Chlamydoselachus. The species Chlamydoselachus garmani from the Miocene period had teeth measuring twice the size of its living relative. Chlamydoselachus goliath, another extinct species of large frilled shark (though older) from the late Cretaceous epoch--dating back to 75 million years ago--reached lengths up to 20 ft long. Could one of these giant beasts still be alive today? Probably not. Based upon fossil records, the Chlamydoselachus goliath hunted its prey in shallow waters, and therefore, scientists would have most likely found this species by then. The Chlamydoselachus garmani probably acted similarly.



Case #4 is relatively self explanatory. Although not mentioned in this post, some sea monster sightings describe a mammalian type creature, similar to a whale, or sometimes a mixture of a serpentine body with the head of a dog or horse. Usually, these cases are also most likely to be misidentification. Manatees fit the description of a serpent with a mammal head, and therefore are presumably the source of such sightings in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and the Florida coast. As for whale-like sightings, most people point to existing large whale species like blue whales and sperm whales. Some old sea legends involve enormous predatory whales sinking ships. Ancient Greeks fancied the idea, creating the Cetus, a large whale creature in their mythology involving Perseus. And the illustrator of Moby Dick was in fact inspired by the whaling ship the Essex, which was sunk by a colossal sperm whale. Because of these encounters, it is widely thought that these whale sea "monster" encounters are the work of a sperm whale, the largest toothed predator on Earth. Its diet includes giant squids and colossal squids. However, a small amount of people believe in the existence of extinct whale species, ones that were top predators when they were alive. Some examples would be the Livyatan, named after the mythological creature, and a hyper-predatory when it was alive--some 9.9–8.9 million years ago. The Basilosaurus was also a predatory whale, 49-66 ft in length, that lived about 41.3 to 33.9 million years ago. Although it is an intriguing idea, the possibility of the existence of these creatures in today’s waters is almost zero. Both species liked to swim near the surface, and there is no way they would escape the hands of modern science. Additionally, there is no reason not to believe whale-like sea “monsters” are not caused by existing species such as sperm whales or blue whales.


Today many people decide to create elaborate hoaxes to spark interest revolving around sea serpents. Therefore, it is difficult to distinguish fictional accounts with fake ones. That being said, this post was created with the intent to uncover some little known sightings dating back to hundreds of years ago. In these times, hoaxes were far less popular than they are today, and thus the accounts were more honest. Of course, this does not mean more real, because you would have to take into account the massive scientific gap between then and now. So many species were either misidentified or undiscovered that one could easily mistaken an animal for a sea serpent. If such an improvement in knowledge has been made in only 100-200 years, imagine what we would know in another century or so. About 95% of the ocean and 99% of the ocean floor has yet to have been explored. Perhaps there is a large, undiscovered aquatic species that is the spawn of the countless sea serpent sightings throughout history. For now, we can only imagine what lurks undetected in the unreachable depths.