Season of the Sea Serpent: A Century of Sightings
by M.P. Pellicer | Noir Notebook
In 1939, a strange report stirred the coast of Vancouver: a sea serpent had washed ashore on Point Grey Beach. Yet this was no isolated incident. For more than a century, sailors, fishermen, and townsfolk along the North Atlantic had whispered of something vast and serpentine moving beneath the waves.
In 1939, a strange report stirred the coast of Vancouver: a sea serpent had washed ashore on Point Grey Beach. Yet this was no isolated incident. For more than a century, sailors, fishermen, and townsfolk along the North Atlantic had whispered of something vast and serpentine moving beneath the waves.
That same month, far from the frozen lakes of Canada, a dust storm stripped away layers of earth on a Nebraska farm near Lynch. In the exposed soil of C.B. Campbell’s cornfield lay the fossilized remains of a creature that defied easy explanation. The skeleton stretched roughly 20 feet in length. Deep gouges—marks of massive molar teeth—scarred its bones and skull, evidence that a larger predator had once devoured it.
The creature’s anatomy puzzled investigators. It appeared to shed its gills, as though caught in the act of evolving between worlds. Two front appendages resembled claws or paddle-like wrists. A blowhole crowned its skull, suggesting a bizarre adaptation. Scientists placed it tentatively in the Cretaceous period, yet disagreement fractured their conclusions. Some insisted the remains belonged not to one animal, but to fragments of three distinct marine reptiles assembled by time and chance.
The stomach contents deepened the mystery. Inside, researchers found a young shark’s tooth, small fish vertebrae, gravel, unknown scales, and additional bone fragments—evidence of a creature that swallowed its prey whole, much like a python. They named it Xenocephal, though the label explained little. To some observers, it resembled modern descriptions of sea serpents.
Campbell excavated 1,964 bones and 1,325 vertebrae from the site.
Days later, on January 18, 1939, another report surfaced—this time from the Wood End Coast Guard Station near Provincetown, Massachusetts. A 20-foot skeleton had washed ashore. Its vertebrae measured eight inches in diameter, and four protrusions suggested limbs or flippers. The skull bore no teeth. Gulls had already stripped the remaining flesh.
The station’s commanding officer rejected conventional explanations. “It couldn’t have been a whale or a blackfish,” he stated. “The head must have been something like a crocodile’s.”
Old-timers in Provincetown recalled an earlier encounter—the famed sighting of 1886. But the legend stretched back even further.
In 1817, witnesses around Gloucester Harbor in Cape Ann described a creature unlike anything known to science. It bore a head like a horse or large dog, attached to a long, jointed body that moved with serpentine grace. Observers estimated its length at 40 feet or more. It glided near the surface, sometimes leaving a wake that stretched for half a mile.
On August 23 of that year, the creature appeared off Kettle Island, where it followed and fed upon a vast school of alewives. Two sharks trailed behind it, scavenging its leftovers. Days later, Captain Beach claimed his crew had killed a smaller specimen near Thatcher Island. The creature measured less than four feet long and only three inches thick—hardly the leviathan described before, yet unsettling nonetheless.
Sightings continued. In 1818, the serpent haunted Cape Ann once more.
That June, Shubael West, master of the packet Delia, reported a confrontation between the creature and a humpback whale. West swore an oath before a Justice of the Peace, affirming the truth of what he had witnessed.
By August, Boston offered a staggering $10,000 reward for the serpent’s capture. Armed expeditions set out—men equipped with harpoons, rifles, grappling hooks, and nets. They returned empty-handed.
Still, the serpent refused to vanish.
In 1820, Captain Allyn of the Frances Henrietta spotted it off Long Island. He described a moss-covered head like a gray rock, an alligator-like back, and a white-tipped tail. Water spouted from three openings behind its head. He watched it for 45 minutes as it moved steadily toward Sandy Hook.
Misidentifications blurred the line between myth and reality. In one instance, a fisherman harpooned a 12-foot shark he believed to be the serpent. Inside, he found a grotesque collection: a porpoise’s head, a sheep’s leg still covered in wool, and a fully feathered hen. The remains became spectacle—its jaws displayed in a shop, its oil sold, its story embellished.
Yet credible witnesses persisted. In 1824, skipper Philip Lefavour reported another sighting near Marblehead. In 1830, a man named Gooch described a creature with a head the size of a ten-gallon cask and eyes as large as an ox’s. Reports surfaced from Cape Cod, Nahant, and even Boothbay Harbor, Maine.
Then, in 1836, the legend leapt inland. Crew members aboard the steamer Mogul, traveling the Mississippi River, reported seeing the serpent near the cliffs of Selma.
Through the decades, accounts shared eerie similarities. Witnesses described a long, coiling body that cut through the water with unnatural speed. Its head resembled that of a horse or dog. It hunted fish, ignored ships, and vanished before proof could follow.
Skeptics offered explanations. Some pointed to basking sharks, whose decomposing bodies can assume monstrous shapes. Even Dr. Remington Kellogg argued that such remains often leave only a spine and fragments of skull, creating the illusion of something far more sinister. Yet he based his conclusion solely on photographs, never examining the remains themselves.
So the question endures.
Did an unknown species linger along the North Atlantic, slipping between fishing routes and fading into deeper waters when pursued? Or did generations of witnesses, separated by time and distance, unknowingly contribute to a single, enduring myth?
The sea keeps its secrets well. And sometimes, it returns just enough to ensure we never stop wondering.
In August 1819, a sailor aboard the boat Friendship described what he saw on a trip to Boston. The following is an account printed in The Evening Post:
“August 11, 1819, I Robert Munsey, of Dover, mariner on board the boat Friendship, of 28 tons, on her passage from Portsmouth to Boston, testify and declare that on Sunday morning last between 7 and 8 o’clock a.m. weather clear and calm, Mr. Varney was on deck, said he saw something ahead which he supposed was the sea-serpent. I looked and observed him moving slowly on the water, by the bows of the boat, at about the distance of 100 or 120 yards, aiming towards Newburyport; we then being in sight of the light on Squam.
All hands on board saw him at that time, with this head out of water, say one foot and half; his length appeared to be about 70 or 80 feet; and the bunches on his back appeared like black tar barrels. We could only see the head and bunches on his back appeared like black tar barrels, which were two or three feet apart. His tail was not out of the water. At this time we saw him, say ten minutes. He went under, and within an hour afterwards he came up again, aiming towards Halibut Point, about the same distance he was the first time from us, and moving rather slowly at about the same rate when we first we saw him.
He appeared as before, head out of water; bunches clearly seen and I would say he was 70 or 80 feet long, though we could not see his tail. He left a considerable wake in the water, and when he moved fast, the was say 150 feet long. The appearance of him was like bunches of barrels strung together, and they moved straight forward together, following his head which was not out of sight for 8 or 10 minutes; and when he disappeared, he settled down at once.
The third time we saw him was pretty soon afterwards, further off at sea, and then did not attend to him much, as I was busy on board. I was before this always doubtful about the existence of such a thing as they had described as a sea serpent in the newspapers, but I am not perfectly satisfied that it was not a whale, or porpoise, or any other thing I ever saw before, and that it must be the strange creature that is called a sea serpent.”