Who doesn’t believe in sea snakes? They oscillate in the water and in the minds of unbelieving observers from biblical times. Britain worships its elusive “Nessie,” the creator of a lucrative travel business. A similar monster briefly gained notoriety in 1996, when Norwegian newsreader TVG2 interviewed two fishermen who saw it pop up in the fjord just 100 metres from their trawler.
A strange “Finn creature” was spotted along the Coast of louisiana Bay in 1856, and in October and November 1983 many onlookers saw a humpback triple snake with a small head. But few sea snakes have captured the public imagination, like snakes on the Atlantic coast of North America.
The mystery of the sea monster erupted in earnest in the early 1800s, when numerous observations of sailors from New England and Canadian ports led to the persecution of a creature called the “Great Serpent of the Environment.” The antics of this creature were first published in the Boston newspaper article on May 14, 1818. Three days earlier, on a trip from Penobscot, Maine, to Hingham, Massachusetts, Joseph Woodward, the master of the schooner, became Adamant at 2 p.m. ‘The clock. . Red alert. in the afternoon, a crew member who noticed something on the surface of the water that he suspected was the wreckage.
In his affidavit, Woodward said he went there and, to his surprise and his team’s surprise, discovered it was a monstrous sea snake. As they approached, the snake spun a spiral and rushed over its nose at an astonishing speed. Firing the contents of his rifle at the head of the beast, he clearly heard the bullet and fired, hitting and bouncing, as if the bullet had hit the stone.
The snake didn’t bother. He shook his head, looked “terrible,” spun the spiral again, and with his mouth open jumped on people on the bridge. Woodward fired again. At the same time the snake plunged under the trunk, so that people could see its head from afar on one side of the trunk with a wide open mouth and the tip of the tail on the other.
The snake played around the boat for five hours so people could appreciate its size. Woodward estimated that she was at least twice as long as a schooner, about thirty feet. His body below his neck seemed to be about six feet in diameter, and his head was large compared to his body. His tail was shaped like a squid’s tail, and his dark body “resembled the joints of a shark ridge.” His gills were about ten feet from his head. He threw himself into a spiral and, clutching his body in several places, was able to move with great force.
Woodward’s affidavit is also corroborated by an application signed the same day in Plymouth by crew members Peter Holmes and John Mayo in the presence of Magistrate Jonham Lincoln.
On August 21 of the same year, several newspapers dedicated the place to Captain Richard Rich’s meeting with the snake the day before, recorded in his diary at noon on August 20, on the Squam River line. Rich described several failed attempts before hitting the sea snake with a harpoon. Despite the visible wound, the snake rushed forward and took a long rope with it before detaching the harpoon from its back. Captain Rich’s story is corroborated by a letter from Samuel Dexter from Gloucester, which describes the adventure through the eyes of his brother, a sailor on the ship Rich.
Then the serpent is shown on September 6, 1818 in a flaming head: “Sea snake – caught!” This time, fearless because of his previous failure, Captain Rich overpowered the creature and victoriously moved it to Boston Harbor. The Palladium reports: “Captain R. Rich, who caught him on Thursday at Squam Lighthouse, arrived with the animal on Friday. It’s only ten feet long and it’s seven feet long. His appearance is very different from where he lived and swam. . “
The report says the snake’s back is five or six feet from its head “from a solid scaly substance that a harpoon cannot penetrate.” He also mentions several “clusters” on the back. They are not detailed. Captain Rich told a reporter that he was convinced it was the same animal that had been seen and described many times. Although the newspaper hinted that the creature would be uncovered by a jury of doctors and naturalists in the coming days, there was no report.
Here’s a snake. But was it?
On August 15, 1830, The Kennebunk Gazette reported on the new appearance of the “famous sea snake.” He was seen by three men fishing a few miles from the shore. The two men were so shocked by his proximity to the boat that they got out. However, the third, Mr. Gooch, remained on deck and returned for a long time to the sight of the snake.
The report quoted Mr. Gooch as saying that the snake was sixty feet long and about six feet in circumference. He reported that his head was the size of a ten-gallon barrel with long flaps or hanging ears and radiant eyes the size of a bull sticking out of his head. Her skin was dark gray and covered with scales. The snake did not try to swim, but sank next to the boat. Gooch admitted that he could easily hit him with a belt, but decided not to. Attached to the article was an editor’s note suspecting that the sea snake was responsible for the destruction of Mr. Blaney de Lynn, “a story about the sad fate of which we recently published.”
Was the great sea snake a fact or a fantasy? Without radio, television and films to corroborate these and hundreds of similar stories, the first editors relied on written and oral reports. The very fact that some observers spent time and effort to share their experiences suggests a ray of truth, since the researchers of advertising at the time did not enjoy hearing their quotes live or showing their own face on TV screens. News preview.
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