Fantastic Historical Accounts of Sea Monsters, Mermaids, and Dead Specimens

It seems like sea serpents and various monsters of the deep have been spotted for centuries. Reports of such things go way back, and in addition to sightings, there were even news stories at the time that described sea monsters and mermaids being subdued and killed as well. Here we will go back through the ages to look at early accounts of sea monster sightings, and some that go even further. 

Reports of sea monsters go pretty far back into history. One such report is recorded in the thirty-eight volume Natural History, which was published around 77 AD by the Roman author Pliny the Elder. In addition to chronicling Roman culture and the cultures of faraway lands, there are also some odd accounts buried away within its pages. In one such account, Pliny recorded that in the ancient town of Carteia, which was once located near the Strait of Gibraltar in Spain, there was a problem with someone stealing fish from the pickling tubs fishermen were processing their catches in. The fishermen took measures to prevent this, but the thefts continued unabated. They then decided to use guard dogs, and this is where things would get weird.

Apparently one day the dogs started going nuts, and when the fishermen ran to see what was happening rather than a human thief they spotted quite the unusual sight. There coiled around a fish tub was a giant octopus-like monster covered in dried brine and exhaling a hideous and rank stench. The dogs would not go near the thing, so the fishermen approached only for the creature to whip around its tentacles and lash out at them. They were only able subdue the beast after employing the use of long, three-pronged spears, with which they killed it. A report of the aftermath reads:

“The 'head' of this creature alone was said to be equivalent in size to a cask of fifteen aphorae (equivalent to 135 gallons of fluid), and could hardly be encircled by a man with both arms. The tentacles were upwards of thirty feet long, covered with knots -- "like those upon a club" -- and the suckers were said to be as large as an urn with equally large teeth (which implies a squid, as they have a tooth in each sucker). The body was carefully preserved as a curiosity, and weighed seven hundred pounds. Pliny noted that the author of this account stated that other squids and octopai of an equal size were known to occasionally wash ashore, and that these animals did not live beyond two years.”

What in the world was this thing? The Bahamian island known as Isabela is also home to a rather curious historical oddity. It seems that during his journey to the New World, Christopher Columbus himself killed a mysterious serpent here. Columbus's diary entry for October 21, 1492 described how the explorer killed and later skinned a 5 foot long creature described as a "serpent," that he had seen in a lake on the island.  The next day, a similar serpent was reportedly killed in another lake on the island by Martin Alonso Pinzon, who was captain of one of the ships under Columbus's command.

Sadly, both specimens were never properly preserved so it is impossible to know just what kind of animals were killed. Further complicating matters is the rather loose definition of the word "serpent" in the vernacular of the era. In Columbus's day, the term "serpent" could be applied not only to large snakes, but to practically anything large and reptilian. Crocodilians, lizards, and even mythical dragons were all equally known to be referred to as serpents. This muddies the waters a bit when searching for an answer to the mysterious diary entry because Columbus could have killed an actual serpent by our understanding of the word, which is to say a giant snake, or it could have been a large type of lizard, a crocodile or alligator, or who knows what else. Considering that the entry offers frustratingly few details, it is impossible to say.

An expedition led by Florida State Museum's assistant curator, Bill Keegan, in 1987 uncovered the remains of an alligator in the ruins of a village on Isleta believed to have been visited by Columbus. It was suggested that the serpent described by Columbus may have been an alligator, which were previously unknown to have ever inhabited the Bahamas and so making it a rather interesting find in its own right. If alligators existed at one time n the Bahamas, it could mean that they were merely imported from elsewhere, but could also represent an unknown population of the animal's historical range or even a new species. However, the presence of alligator bones in a village that Columbus just happened to have visited is far from concrete evidence to link the alligator remains to the diary entry, and so what exactly was killed on that day long ago remains a mystery.

Columbus would later go on to log yet another mysterious sighting in the Caribbean when in September 1494, while sailing along the east coast of the Dominican Republic, he and his crew apparently sighted what was described as a gigantic turtle the size of a whale, with a long tail and fins on its sides. The enormous creature was keeping its head out of the water. Is there any truth to these historical accounts?

Another case takes us to 1639, when a large serpentine beast was said to have been seen gliding through the waters off the coast of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, with witness accounts of the Beast of Cape Ann recording that the animal was not only seen swimming out at sea, but soon also approaching land, where it was said to have slithered onto the shore and coiled itself like a snake. The creature would allegedly be seen by hundreds of people and was all over the news at the time, with headlines like “A Monstrous Sea Serpent, The largest ever seen in America,” and other similarly spectacular titles. The creature was typically described as being an enormous serpent around 100 feet in length, which carried its head about 8 feet above the surface. Was any off this real or was it just ab hoax or a slow news day?

Moving up in years to 1830 we have a report of an actual mermaid that was supposedly killed on the island of Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. An account of the incident reads:

“Some seventy years ago, people were cutting seaweed at Sgeir na Duchadh, Grimnis, Benbecula. Before putting on her stockings, one of the women went to the lower end of the reef to wash her feet. While doing so she heard a splash in the calm sea, and looking up she saw a creature in the form of a woman in miniature, some few feet away. Alarmed, the woman called to her friends, and all the people present rushed to the place. The creature made somersaults and turned about in various directions. Some men waded into the water to seize her, but she moved beyond their reach. Some boys threw stones at her, one of which struck her in the back. A few days afterwards, this strange creature was found dead at Cuile, Nunton, nearly two miles away.

“The upper portion of the creature was about the size of a well-fed child of three or four years of age, with an abnormally developed breast. The hair was long, dark, and glossy, while the skin was white, soft, and tender. The lower part of the body was like a salmon, but without scales. Crowds of people, some from long distances, came to see this strange animal, and all were unanimous in the opinion that they had gazed on the mermaid at last. Mr Duncan Shaw, factor for Clanranald, baron-bailie and sheriff of the district, ordered a coffin and shroud to be made for the mermaid. This was done, and the body was buried in the presence of many people, a short distance above the shore where it was found. There are persons still living who saw and touched this curious creature, and who give graphic descriptions of its appearance.”

It is unclear what happened to the body, or if any of this even happened at all. In 1852, a letter stated to be from a Captain Jason Seabury of the ship “Monongahela” outlined a very peculiar encounter at sea. In the letter Captain Seabury stated that on the morning of January 13, 1852, the man on look out reported 'white water', a sign of sea-life activity. Thinking that it might be a sperm whale, the Captain took a closer look through his telescope but could not determine if it was a whale or a pod of porpoises. He then saw a patch of black skin, and at that moment the man on the lookout tower proclaimed that whatever it was was no whale, as it was too large. Seabury ordered his men to be prepared to launch, then waited to see if the creature would surface again. They would not be disappointed.

After around an hour of carefully watching the waves, the Captain could see a body that moved slowly with a motion 'like the waving of a rope when shaken and held in the hand.'Silently the crew watched in amazement as more of the body surfaced, exposing its enormous length, and then the tail began to “vibrate,” agitating the water, and the head of the strange beast rose and lifted above the surface. Captain Seabury, realizing they were looking at a legendary sea-serpent, ordered his men to the boats, which they grudgingly did, afraid of pursuing the mystery beast. The chase was on, and continued until the creature slowed down and eventually came to a stop. At this point they managed to harpoon it, but it put up such a fierce fight that two additional harpoons were sunk into it. All of this was being done as bad weather threatened them, but they continued with their task. The monster continued its fight, diving deep down into the water, but the lines held onto it until the lines suddenly went slack.

Just when they thought they had lost it, one of the crewmen shouted that the beast had surfaced and appeared to be in its thrashing death throes before lying still. The crew warily pulled the creature in, and they were finally able to get a closer look at it. It was apparently 103 feet 7 inches long, 19 feet 1 inch around the neck, 24 feet 6 inches around the 'shoulders', and 49 feet and 4 inches around at the fullest part of the body. The head was long and flat with ridges, and the tongue "had its end like the head of a heart.” The tail ran almost down to a point, terminating instead in a flat, firm cartilage. The serpent's back was black, fading to brown on the sides, then yellow; along two-thirds of its belly was a white streak. In addition, there were random dark spots scattered all across its skin. Upon examining the head closer it was found the jaws contained 94 teeth, very sharp and with an exposed section as large as a man's thumb above the gum line. The teeth pointed backward into the mouth. In addition, the serpent had two spiracles -- breathing holes on top of its head much as whales' possess -- so the beast had to surface to breath. The serpent also had four 'swimming paws' which were like lumps of hard loose flesh. The joints in the serpent's back were very loose, and it seemed as if it could move each vertebrae separately from the others, allowing for smooth motion when it swam. The creature was dismantled, with its head preserved and its heart and one of its eyes preserved in large jars of liquor. Nobody knows what happened to these pieces of evidence after that, and it is certainly a wild ride. 

On January 18, 1875, the Pauline was sailing roughly twenty miles off Cape São Roque, on the northeastern side of Brazil, when, at around 11:00 a.m., something bizarre happened that the crew would never forget. Captain George Drevar would write a report on what happened as follows:

“The weather fine and clear, the wind and sea moderate. Observed some black spots on the water, and a whitish pillar, about thirty-five feet high, above them At the first glance I took all to be breakers, as the sea was splashing up fountain-like about them, and the pillar, a pinnacle rock bleached with the sun; but the pillar fell with a splash, and a similar one rose. They rose and fell alternately in quick succession, and good glasses showed me it was a monster sea-serpent coiled twice round a large sperm whale.

The head and tail parts, each about thirty feet long, were acting as levers, twisting itself and victim around with great velocity. They sank out of sight about every two minutes, coming to the surface still revolving, and the struggles of the whale and two other whales that were near, frantic with excitement, made the sea in this vicinity like a boiling cauldron; and a loud and confused noise was distinctly heard.

This strange occurrence lasted some fifteen minutes, and finished with the tail portion of the whale being elevated straight in the air, then waving backwards and forwards, and lashing the water furiously in the last death-struggle, when the whole body disappeared from our view, going down head-foremost towards the bottom, where, no doubt, it was gorged at the serpent’s leisure; and that monster of monsters may have been many months in a state of coma, digesting the huge mouthful.

Then two of the largest sperm whales that I have ever seen moved slowly thence towards the vessel, their bodies more than usually elevated out of the water, and not spouting or making the least noise, but seeming quite paralyzed with fear; indeed, a cold shiver went through my own frame on beholding the last agonizing struggle of the poor whale that had seemed as helpless in the coils of the vicious monster as a small bird in the talons of a hawk. Allowing for two coils round the whale, I think the serpent was about one hundred and sixty or one hundred and seventy feet long, and seven or eight in girth. It was in color much like a conger eel, and the head, from the mouth being always open, appeared the largest part of the body. I think Cape San Roque is a landmark for whales leaving the south for the North Atlantic.”

Amazingly, Driver would see something similarly strange not long after, of which he would write:

“I wrote thus far, little thinking I would ever see the serpent again; but at 7 A.M., July 13th, in the same latitude, and some eighty miles east of San Roque, I was astonished to see the same or a similar monster. It was throwing its head and about forty feet of its body in a horizontal position out of the water as it passed onwards by the stern of our vessel. I began musing why we were so much favored with such a strange visitor, and concluded that the band of white paint, two feet wide above the copper, might have looked like a fellow-serpent to it, and, no doubt, attracted its attention.

While thus thinking, I was startled by the cry of 'There it is again,' and a short distance to leeward, elevated some sixty feet in the air, was the great leviathan, grimly looking towards the vessel. As I was not sure it was only our free board it was viewing, we had all our axes ready, and were fully determined, should the brute embrace the Pauline, to chop away for its backbone with all our might, and the wretch might have found for once in its life that it had caught a Tartar. This statement is strictly true, and the occurrence was witnessed by my officers, half the crew, and myself; and we are ready, at any time, to testify on oath that it is so, and that we are not in the least mistaken. A vessel, about three years ago, was dragged over by some sea-monster in the Indian Ocean.”

In 1883, a man known only as “Mr. Hoad” was taking a stroll along a rural place called Brungle Creek, in New South Wales, Australia, when right after a flood he stumbled cross something very bizarre, indeed. According to the witness, he found there on the shore a weird creature measuring around 30 feet in length, with a lobster-like curved tail and in the place of where a head should be merely what looked like an elephant’s trunk. At the time, newspaper reports were making it out to be the body of a creature from Australian lore called a “Bunyip,” and the author Charles Fort would say of the discovery in his book Lo!:

Remains of a strange animal, teleported to this earth from Mars or the moon -- very likely, or not so likely -- found on a bank of a stream in Australia. See the Adelaide Observer, Sept. 15, 1883 -- that Mr. Hoad, of Adelaide, had found on a bank of Brungle Creek, a headless trunk of a pig-like animal, with an appendage that curved inward, like the tail of a lobster.

Another descriptions reads:

“The body was a headless trunk of a strange animal covered with short, strong hair and an overall pig-like appearance. The terminal appendage curls inward, and resembles the tail of a huge lobster. There was damage on the corpse where it was felt the head and feet should be, and it was assumed these had been eaten away by animals. The flesh in these damaged spots was described as looking like dried ling fish, and the body overall was in a similar state of preservation and shows no sign of decay.”

Making matters even more confusing is that there are also reports that another man by the name of Henry Wilkinson, who also reportedly came across the “headless trunk of a strange animal,” with a pig-like appearance and a “terminal appendage that curls inward, and resembles the tail of a huge lobster,” also along the shore of Brungle Creek. What is sometimes called “Hoad’s Monster” was claimed by the newspapers to be sent to the Sydney Museum for further scientific analysis, but there is no further word on it after that, and no known physical evidence remaining. This was likely just a sensationalized newspaper account with nothing behind it, and making it even murkier is that subsequent retellings of the story over the years have added details such as hair covering the body or flippers, but we will probably never know for sure.

Another report from the 19th century comes from the crew of the British steamer the Emu, which made a stop at the south Pacific atoll known as Suwarrow Island on their way to Sydney, Australia. While they were there, natives excitedly told them of a type of large and mysterious creature they had seen off the coast, which they called the “Devil Fish,” and they even claimed that one had washed ashore. They were led to the carcass and saw that it was 60-feet long, covered with brownish hair, and had the head of a horse, with two formidable tusks jutting from its lower jaw. It was massive, weighing about 70 tons, so they were unable to move it, but the Emu crew secured as many of the remains as they could, including the beast’s skull. It is unknown what became of these remains, but the most common explanation was that they had misidentified a beaked whale. What did they really find out there at that island? Who knows?

As we can see, reports of strange things in the sea go way back, and some of these are even more spectacular in that there was actual physical evidence gained, making it frustrating that these alleged specimens have disappeared into the mists of time to fall into the cracks of history. Indeed, all of these reports have sort of been forgotten to time, and it is good to every once in a while dig them back up and look at them with fresh eyes.