is never destined to adorn the walls
of any museum, or his remains to repose
in any pickle other than his native brine."
Waldo Thompson
Swampscott: Historical Sketches of the Town
1885
ENGLAND SEA SERPENT - AN
ACCOUNT OF UNKNOWN
CREATURES SIGHTED BY MANY
RESPECTABLE PERSONS
BETWEEN 1638 AND THE
PRESENT DAY by J.P. O'Neill -
Paraview Press
In August of 1817, members of the
New England Linnaean Society found
themselves in the unique position of
conducting the first ever scientific
investigation of an unknown marine
creature, supposed to be a sea serpent,
which had appeared in the harbor at
Gloucester, Massachusetts.
This was not the first sighting of a
strange creature in the Gulf of Maine;
nor was it the last. However, that
August remains singular in that it was
the first time that men of scholarship
and means had an opportunity to
conduct a scientific study of a creature
thought to exist only in myth.
Eager to “collect evidence with regard
to the existence and appearance of any
such animal,” the members of the
investigative committee of the
Linnaean Society set about collecting
sworn statements from a variety of
credible witnesses. Others, less
inclined to scholarship, pursued it with
every available weapon. The creature
remained elusive.
As recorded in the published report of
the Linnaean Committee in 1817 the
witnesses’ accounts agreed that the
creature “was said to resemble a
serpent in its general form and motions,
to be of immense size, and to move
with wonderful rapidity; to appear on
the surface only in calm bright weather;
and to seem jointed or like a number of
buoys or casks following each other in a
line.”
Similar descriptions of a creature
bearing little resemblance to any known
animal had been reported as early as
1638 and would be repeated over and
over again for the next 150 years.
fitful, gigantic wanderer inhabiting the ocean; ...no one who
saw what I did would ever entertain the suggestion that it was
a school of porpoises, a grampus, or a horse-mackerel.
Because some have been deceived by these, or a floating spar
or a mass of seaweed, it does not follow that others have not
seen a genuine monster."
"...there remains a residuum of evidence which cannot justly
be ignored. My own firm belief is based both upon what my
eyes have seen and upon unimpeachable testimony of many
men, whose word upon any other subject would be taken
without question.”
Granville Putnam
Witness - Rockport, Massachusetts 1886
Princess at Swampscott in 1875
Humbugs
Pro & Con
Art & Literature
…we must not jump to conclusions. Science has given us sound reasons for
postponing judgment on matters beyond our experience…
If science teaches us anything, it teaches us to contemplate
the possibility of everything and the certainty of nothing.”
Tom Gilling - The Sooterkin
