lake and sea monsters - (malestrom)

7/29/2019 Lake and Sea Monsters - (Malestrom)

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MYSTERIES,LEGENDS, ANDUNEXPLAINED PHENOMENA

LAKE AND SEA MONSTERS


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MYSTERIES, LEGENDS, AND

UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENA

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MYSTERIES,LEGENDS, ANDUNEXPLAINED PHENOMENAMYSTERIES,

LEGENDS,AND

UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENA

LAKE AND SEA

MONSTERS

LINDA S. GODFREYConsulting Editor: Rosemary Ellen Guiley


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Lake and Sea MonSterS

Copyright 2008 by Inobase PublishingAll rights reserved. No part o this book may be reproduced or utilized in any orm or byany means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any in-ormation storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing rom the publisher.For inormation contact:

Chelsea HouseAn imprint o Inobase Publishing132 West 31st Street

New York NY 10001

Liby f Cgss Clgig-i-Publici dGodrey, Linda S.

Lake and sea monsters / Linda S. Godrey ; consulting editor, Rosemary Ellen Guiley. 1st ed.

p. cm. (Mysteries, legends, and unexplained phenomena)Includes bibliographical reerences and index.ISBN-13: 978-0-7910-9393-1 (alk. paper)ISBN-10: 0-7910-9393-X (alk. paper)1. Sea monstersJuvenile literature. 2. Animals, MythicalJuvenile literature.

I. Guiley, Rosemary. II. Title.QL89.2.S4G63 2008001.944dc22

2008006258

Chelsea House books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantitiesor businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our SpecialSales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755.

You can nd Chelsea House on the World Wide Web at http://www.chelseahouse.com

Text design by James Scotto-LavinoCover design by Ben Peterson

Printed in the United States o America

Bang EJB 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is printed on acid-ree paper.

All links and Web addresses were checked and veried to be correct at the time o

publication. Because o the dynamic nature o the Web, some addresses and links mayhave changed since publication and may no longer be valid.


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Foreword 6

Introduction 11

1 Swimming through Time: Birth o the Sea Monster 17

2 Water Animal Planet: Global Legends 27

3 Merolk and Other Scaly Humanoids 35

4 Saltwater Serpents 43

5 Kraken, Giant Squids, and Octopuses 55

6 Lake Lurkers 63

7 Nessie: Scotlands Sea Monster Superstar 75

8 Monsters that Were and Still May Be 85

9 Mistake or Fake: Natural Creatures and Hoaxes 93

Timeline 103

Glossary 107

Endnotes 111

Further Resources 117

Index 120

About the Author 126

About the Consulting Editor 127

Contents


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D

id you ever have an experience that turned your whole world

upside down? Maybe you saw a ghost or a UFO. Perhaps you hadan unusual, vivid dream that seemed real. Maybe you suddenly knew

that a certain event was going to happen in the uture. Or, perhaps you

saw a creature or a being that did not t the description o anything

known in the natural world. At rst you might have thought your

imagination was playing tricks on you. Then, perhaps, you wondered

about what you experienced and went looking or an explanation.

Every day and night people have experiences they cant explain.

For many people these events are lie changing. Their comort zoneo what they can accept as real is put to the test. It takes only one

such experience or people to question the reality o the mysterious

worlds that might exist beyond the one we live in. Perhaps you havent

encountered the unknown, but you have an intense curiosity about

it. Either way, by picking up this book, youve started an adventure

to explore and learn more, and youve come to the right place! The

book you hold has been written by a leading expert in the paranor-

malsomeone who understands unusual experiences and who knows

the answers to your questions.

As a seeker o knowledge, you have plenty o company. Mythol-

ogy, olklore, and records o the past show that human beings have

had paranormal experiences throughout history. Even prehistoric cave

paintings and gravesites indicate that early humans had concepts o

the supernatural and o an aterlie. Humans have always sought to

understand paranormal experiences and to put them into a rame oreerence that makes sense to us in our daily lives. Some o the greatest

Foreword


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minds in history have grappled with questions about the paranormal.

For example, Greek philosopher Plato pondered the nature o dreamsand how we travel during them. Isaac Newton was interested in the

esoteric study o alchemy, which has magical elements, and St. Thomas

Aquinas explored the nature o angels and spirits. Philosopher William

James joined organizations dedicated to psychical research; and even

the inventor o the light bulb, Thomas Alva Edison, wanted to build

a device that could talk to the dead. More recently, physicists such as

David Bohm, Stephen Hawking, William Tiller, and Michio Kaku

have developed ideas that may help explain how and why paranormalphenomena happen, and neuroscience researchers like Michael Pers-

inger have explored the nature o consciousness.

Exactly what is a paranormal experience or phenomenon? Para

is derived rom a Latin term or beyond. So paranormal means

beyond normal, or things that do not t what we experience through

our ve senses alone and which do not ollow the laws we observe in

nature and in science. Paranormal experiences and phenomena run the

gamut rom the awesome and marvelous, such as angels and miracles,

to the downright terriying, such as vampires and werewolves.

Paranormal experiences have been consistent throughout the ages,

but explanations o them have changed as societies, cultures, and tech-

nologies have changed. For example, our ancestors were much closer

to the invisible realms. In times when lie was simpler, they saw, elt,

and experienced other realities on a daily basis. When night ell, the

darkness was thick and quiet, and it was easier to see unusual things,such as ghosts. They had no electricity to keep the night lit up. They

had no media or constant communication and entertainment. Travel

was dicult. They had more time to notice subtle things that were

just beyond their ordinary senses. Few doubted their experiences.

They accepted the invisible realms as an extension o ordinary lie.

Today, we have many distractions. We are constantly busy, rom

the time we wake up until we go to bed. The world is ull o light

and noise 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We have television, theInternet, computer games, and cell phones to keep us busy, busy, busy.

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lake and sea monstersi

We are ruled by technology and science. Yet, we still have paranormal

experiences very similar to those o our ancestors. Because these oc-currences do not t neatly into science and technology, many people

think they are illusions, and there are plenty o skeptics always ready

to debunk the paranormal and reinorce that idea.

In roughly the past 100 years, though, some scientists have studied

the paranormal and attempted to nd scientic evidence or it. Psychic

phenomena have proven dicult to observe and measure according to

scientic standards. However, lack o scientic proo does not mean

paranormal experiences do not happen. Courageous scientists are stilllooking or bridges between science and the supernatural.

My personal experiences are behind my lielong study o the para-

normal. Like many children I had invisible playmates when I was very

young, and I saw strange lights in the yard and woods that I instinc-

tively knew were the nature spirits who lived there. Children seem

to be very open to paranormal phenomena, but their ability to have

these experiences oten ades away as they become more involved in

the outside world, or, perhaps, as adults tell them not to believe in whatthey experience, that its only in their imagination. Even when I was

very young, I was puzzled that other people would tell me with great

authority that I did not experience what I knew I did.

A major reason or my interest in the paranormal is precogni-

tive dreaming experienced by members o my amily. Precognition

means ore knowing, or knowing the uture. My mother had a lot

o psychic experiences, including dreams o uture events. As a teen

it seemed amazing to me that dreams could show us the uture. I was

determined to learn more about this and to have such dreams mysel.

I ound books that explained extrasensory perception, the knowing

o inormation beyond the ve senses. I learned about dreams and

experimented with them. I taught mysel to visit distant places in my

dreams and to notice details about them that I could later veriy in the

physical world. I learned how to send people telepathic messages in

dreams and how to receive messages in dreams. Every night becamean exciting adventure.


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Those interests led me to other areas o the paranormal. Pretty

soon I was engrossed in studying all kinds o topics. I learned dier-ent techniques or divination, including the Tarot. I learned how to

meditate. I took courses to develop my own psychic skills, and I gave

psychic readings to others. Everyone has at least some natural psychic

ability and can improve it with attention and practice.

Next I turned my attention to the skies, to uology, and what might

be out there in space. I studied the lore o angels and airies. I delved

into the dark shadowy realm o demons and monsters. I learned the

principles o real magic and spell casting. I undertook investigationso haunted places. I learned how to see auras and do energy healing. I

even participated in some ormal scientic laboratory experiments or

telepathy.

My studies led me to have many kinds o experiences that have

enriched my understanding o the paranormal. I cannot say that I can

prove anything in scientic terms. It may be some time yet beore

science and the paranormal stop firting with each other and really get

together. Meanwhile, we can still learn a great deal rom our personalexperiences. At the very least, our paranormal experiences contribute

to our inner wisdom. I encourage others to do the same as I do. Look

rst or natural explanations o strange phenomena. I natural expla-

nations cannot be ound or seem unlikely, consider paranormal expla-

nations. Many paranormal experiences all into a vague area, where

although natural causes might exist, we simply dont know what could

explain them. In that case I tell people to trust their intuition that they

had a paranormal experience. Sometimes the explanation makes itsel

known later on.

I have concluded rom my studies and experiences that invisible

dimensions are layered upon our world, and that many paranormal ex-

periences occur when there are openings between worlds. The door-

ways oten open at unexpected times. You take a trip, visit a haunted

place, or have a strange dreamand suddenly reality shits. You get

a glimpse behind the curtain that separates the ordinary rom theextraordinary.

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10 lake and sea monstersi

The books in this series will introduce you to these exciting and

mysterious subjects. Youll learn many things that will astonish you.Youll be given lots o tips or how to explore the paranormal on your

own. Paranormal investigation is a popular eld, and you dont have

to be a scientist or a ull-time researcher to explore it. There are many

things you can do in your ree time. The knowledge you gain rom

these books will help prepare you or any unusual and unexpected

experiences.

As you go deeper into your study o the paranormal, you may come

up with new ideas or explanations. Thats one o the appealing aspectso paranormal investigationthere is always room or bold ideas. So,

keep an open and curious mind, and think big. Mysterious worlds are

waiting or you!

Rosemary Ellen Guiley


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T

he bodies o human beings are made o 61.8 percent water, and

the planet Earth sloshes at its seams with nearly three-quarters oits surace covered by H20. Small wonder, then, that so many creatures

o lore and legend spring rom lakes, rivers, and seas. Sporting ns,

scales, and sometimes horns or ur, a riot o unidentiable aquatics

have poked their dripping heads above the waves throughout recorded

history to shock grizzled sailors and hardy sherolk alike. But survi-

vors o water monster encounters are usually let as puzzled as they are

terried. Where do these beasts come rom, and why are they so elu-

sive? Any schoolchild can describe what a sea monster looks like, yetno museum boasts a skeletonor even an irreutable photographo

a sea serpent or the Loch Ness Monster.

O course, not all stories o unknown water creatures involve over-

sized animals. Legends o mermaids and mermencreatures with

human tops and shy bottomsswim rampant through the olktales

o every country and are still occasionally reported in modern times.

Circa 1936, a Norwegian hunter at Cape Horn sighted a green-haired

mermaid.1 Many Native American traditions tell o rivers inhabitedby tiny humanoids or little people that live alongside mystical water

lynxes known asMishipeshu.2

Some sightings and even many ancient legends could possibly be

explained by either known marine animals or species that are as yet

undiscovered. Humanity has not yet documented all o creation; spe-

cies previously unknown to science are discovered every year. In 2006,

30 previously unknown species o sh were discovered on the island

o Borneo alone.3 Several new species o deep-diving beaked whales

Introduction


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have been discovered in the past two decades. The primary scientic

evidence or one o them, called Andrews Beaked Whale, is a serieso carcasses that have washed up onto beaches in or near Australia and

rare, stranded, live specimens.4

Beaked whales even share a ew characteristics with the standard

sea monster since some o them possess teeth inside a dened, nar-

row muzzle and lack the telltale bulk o larger whale species. And

since beaked whales are rarely seen near the surace, preerring to

gulp squid and other prey ound near the ocean bed, ew people are

amiliar enough with them to know a beaked whale i they see one.But beaked whales cannot possibly explain the ull variety o strange

creatures that have been seen, so what other mysterious beasts might

still be out there?

Oceanographers admit theyve barely begun to explore the vast

depths o the seas, and with present knowledge it is impossible to

say exactly what might lurk in the deepest regions, the byssp-

lgic z, 13,00020,000 eet below the surace,and hl z,

20,00036,200 eet deep,zones o the oceans. Are there strange, giantcreatures that live so ar o humanitys beaten path that they seem like

monsters when people encounter them? I so, it has probably always

been that way.

In his book,Monsters,author David D. Gilmore discusses the places

unidentied beasts are most oten said to inhabit: In every cultural

tradition, monsters are said to live in borderline places, inhabiting an

outside dimension that is apart rom, but parallel to and intersecting

the human community. They oten live in lairs deep underground, in

an unseen dimension as it were, or in watery places like marshes, ens,

or swamps.5

Few places on earth seem more like an unseen dimension than the

lightless ocean bed or the lowest reaches o a deep, murky lake.

And water monsters, like all cypis, or hidden animals, also beg

the added question o whether they exist as fesh-and-blood creatures or

belong to the shadowy realm o myth and imagination. Unintentional,alse monster sightings can happen easily. Almost everyone has had


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the experience o coming upon a gnarled rock or tree stump andor

one stunned momentbelieving it is something else entirely. Thatmistaken identication can be enhanced when the object is seen in or

on a body o water. The waves, ripples, and refections o sunlight that

occur naturally in water can play tricks on the sharpest o eyes. Add

in normal surace covers like foating rats o algae, pond lilies, and

other aquatic plants to uzz things up even more, and the chances o

mistaking a log or a monster grow.

Yet, thousands o people over the years have sworn they saw water

creatures they could not identiy: creatures too large or too weird tobelieve. Witnesses have observed these creatures as they swim, dive,

jump, raise their heads, open toothy jaws, ram boats, paddle, devour

prey, or even stare a chosen ew humans straight in the eye. Their

beastly actions prove they are not tree trunks or mere tricks o light

and shadow. Still, its dicult to imagine how creatures so large could

evade scientic scrutiny, especially with modern tools o exploration.

Investigators are oten tempted to look to the past to explain the

unexplainable. Many sea and lake monsters seem to have very closecousins known rom the ossil record. Despite their ocial extinct

status, prehistoric reptiles, sh, amphibians, and aquatic mammals

have all been suggested as explanations or everything rom the Loch

Ness Monster to mythic beasts. Perhaps, the argument goes, a ew

individuals managed to survive as lics in isolated, avorable spots,

and surace now and then to tease people with their presence.

That may seem unlikely, but it has actually occurred. The most a-

mous example o a relict is the resurrection o the coelacanth, a large,

snappy species o sh that was presumed to have died out 65 million

years ago. Fossils o coelacanths, relatives o the modern lungsh, are

abundant in layers rom the Devonian period where the rst amphib-

ians are ound. Coelacanths were believed to have survived only until

the end o the Cretaceous Period, when fying pterosaurs and a whole

slew o dinosaurs perished. But in 1938 a London museum curator

shocked the world when she discovered a live, 127-pound coelacanthin the catch brought up by a sea trawler at Cape Horn, Arica. Other


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specimens have since been taken in Indonesia, Madagascar, and other

points around Arica.Some protest that the coelacanths story is a rare example o a true

relict, and that it looks too much like a sh to explain giant monster

sightings. But there are other examples. The megamouth shark, rst

discovered in 1976 o Hawaii, can measure up to 18 eet long and eeds

by using its huge mouth as a lter to sit tiny sea creatures out o the wa-

ter. Again, however, its size is the only characteristic that people might

nd monster-like. Most prehistoric creatures cited as explanations or

sea monsters simply dont ll the bill in terms o physical appearanceand behavior. Also, climatic conditions were very dierent in prehis-

toric times, making it hard to imagine how an animal could survive over

so many eons o habitat change. And yet, the coelacanth did.

Others preer a supernatural rationale or behemoths o the deep,

believing that sea and lake monsters are not living creatures at all. The

idea that they are water spirits rather than water animals is an old one

and is widespread in the traditions o all peoples. Those who choose

this explanation today reason that the creatures seem to appear anddisappear suddenly, they are very dicult to lm or photograph, and

they provoke an almost universal, eerie eeling o dread in those who

see them. Many cultures have interpreted their appearances as omens

o disaster.

There are many conficting belies about these unidentied lake

and sea creatures. Whatmay saely be said about them is that stories

and reports o their appearances are universal, and that there are more

examples, theories, and tales regarding their existence than can pos-

sibly be covered in one book. Water monsters run the gamut rom

colossal squids to tiny merpeople (part sh and part human), rom

scientically accepted species to exotic beasts that are pure antasy.

And or all the mystery and terror they incite, people do love them . . .

rom a sae distance.

The 1954 lm Creature rom the Black Lagoon about a gilled, man-

like aquatic being is one o the most amous movies o all time. Theamphibious Japanese gargantuan, Godzilla, splashed onto the big


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screen that same year, and has since become an icon o monsterdom.

The Abyss(1989) was a science ction thriller that pitted sophisticatedhuman technology in a showdown with an alien, aquatic species. (And

yes, there are people who believe sea monsters are related to UFOs.)

The media have oered sillier takes on sea monsters, too; a genera-

tion o Americans grew up watching the cartoon antics oCecil the Sea-

sick Sea Serpentand the live-action Sigmund and the Sea Monstersby Sid

and Marty Krot, to mention just two classics. On top o countless

lm and TV water monsters, sea and lake beasties appear in myriad

comics, games, and books. Despite the act that most people will neveractually see such a monster, the modern world is awash in mythic sea

creatures in every genre o mass media.

To thoroughly explore humanitys ascination with Godzilla,

Nessie, and all the other wet wonders o the world, this book will

examine ancient legend and myth along with contemporary eyewit-

ness stories and the latest scientic discoveries. Although most en-

counters with sea and lake monsters will probably never be completely

explained, light may still be shed on them in the uture as the scienticcommunity learns more about the secrets o the sea. And whether the

monsters are myth or reality, they may serve a purpose as gigantic as

their bodies i they continue to inspire the worldwide quest or un-

known water creatures.


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When rost and re meet, the consequences may be dire. In the

ancient lands o Scandinavia, Loki the re god married Angr-

boda, the giant goddess o rost and ice. Loki was a shape-shiter, and

oten used his talents to trick the other gods. Over time his pranks

became more menacing and cruel. No wonder then, that the threechildren Angrboda bore him grew to be dangerous, giant monsters:

Fenrir, an oversized wol with super-strength;Jmug (or Jor-

mungandr), a huge, scaly sea serpent; and Hel, the hal-fesh, hal-rot-

ted queen o the dead.

The gods were so araid o the trios potential or evil that Odin,

eldest o all the gods and known or his mastery o wisdom and magic,

arranged to have them kidnapped and brought to his ortress, Asgard.

Jormungand, which means wol serpent, so worried Odin that heimmediately grabbed the creature and heaved it into the ocean. With

whales and other creatures o the sea or nourishment and nothing to

restrain him, Jormungand began to grow. His undulating body be-

came so long that he could encircle the entire globe and still bite his

own tail. Fearul sailors called him the Midgard serpent; Midgard was

the Norse word or the middle world, the land o men between the

abode o the gods and the regions o the dead. Now all o the Midgard

ocean served as Jormungands playground.

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Jormungand could be as tricky as his ather. He was able to take

the orm o a monstrous cat to ool the thunder god, Thor. Anothertime he was almost pulled into a shing boat by Thor, but Thors

companion, a giant named Hymir, cut the line at the last minute to

release him.

Jormungand still waits in the ocean depths, according to legend

written in the ancient Scandinavian verses called the Edda, or the

nal battle o the gods, Ragnarok. (Some Norse traditions believe

Ragnarok happened in the distant past.) At that time, the sea will spit

him back onto the land and he will ght Thor. Thor will hurl hishammer at Jormungands huge, green head and kill him, but beore

death overtakes him, Jormungand will vomit poison on Thor. Thor

will stagger exactly nine paces and then die, too. With the old gods

destroyed, a new heaven and earth will come orth.

The sagas o the Norse gods date back at least to the time o the

Vikings, between about 750 and 1050 ce. But earlier tales o sea beasts

can be discovered in other parts o the world.

LaBBu and LeviaThan

The people o Mesopotamia occupy an area o the Middle East oten

called the cradle o civilization. Chie among the legendary creatures

o their homeland was Lbbu, a sea monster whose snakelike body

stretched or 300 miles. Labbu would have been rightening enough

had he stayed in the water, but he also developed the terriying habito crawling onto land to snack on the local populace. It was said that

even the gods eared Labbu, whose stories date back to around 3000

bce, according to an ancient Sumerian inscription in The Sumerian

Epic o Creation and Paradise:

In heaven the gods ask in haste,

Who will go and kill Labbu?

He let his clouds rise up,And slew Labbu. 6


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swiig hugh ti: Bih f h s m 1 j

West o Iraq lies Syria, called Canaan in the Bible, and home to the

seagoing Phoenicians. One o its great cities was Ugarit, which lay on

the shores o the Mediterranean Sea. Ugarit was a bustling populationcenter and sophisticated metropolis between 17001200 bce, but it was

figure 1.1 An artists rendering of Jormungand, the ancient sea serpent off-spring of Scandinavian gods Loki and Angrboda. (Nathan Godfrey)


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not without its mythic terrors. Ugaritic texts and art portray a hellish

variety o monsters and divinities, including the sea godYmwho wasoten described as a serpent, although he sometimes took dierent

orms. One ancient bronze statue o Yam shows him as a slim man

encircled by a snake rom shoulder to ankle.7 Yam represented the

orces o nature to the Ugaritic people, earning his reputation as a de-

structive chaos-monster8 with every natural disaster that came upon

them. Many sources relate Labbu and Yam to a similar sea monster,

Lvih, described in the Hebrew Old Testament. Since all three

mythic creatures sprang rom the same small corner o the world, it

isnt surprising that their legends overlap. Leviathan is sometimes

thought o as a massive crocodile, but his description in Job 41 makes

him sound more like a traditional dragon:

Can you pull in the leviathan with a shhook or tie down his

tongue with a rope? . . .Can you ll his hide with harpoons or

his head with shing spears? . . . His back has rows o shieldstightly sealed together; each is so close to the next that no air

can pass between . . . His snorting throws out fashes o light;

his eyes are like the rays o dawn. Firebrands stream rom his

mouth; sparks o re shoot out. Smoke pours rom his nostrils

as rom a boiling pot over a re o reeds. His breath sets coals

ablaze, and fames dart rom his mouth . . . When he rises

up, the mighty are terried; they retreat beore his thrashing

. . . Behind him he leaves a glistening wake; one would think

the deep had white hair.

The Bible describes Leviathan more plainly as a serpent in Isaiah

27:1:

In that day, the Lord will punish with his sword, his erce,

great and powerul sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent; Le-viathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster o the sea.


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Leviathan made a splash outside the Bible as well, especially in

the mythology o Canaan. And the book o Enoch, a Hebrew textthat dates rom the second centurybce or earlier and that is consid-

ered sacred Scripture by the Ethiopian Church, mentions Leviathan

as a emale monster that lived in the abyss over the ountains o

waters.9

BeaSTS of Greece and The

incrediBLe of indiaThe ancient Greeks were not only expert sailors but lived surrounded

by water, and their monster myths reveal their bottomless ascination

with the ocean. Legends o strange sea creatures, written by Greek

poet Homer, date back to 700 bce. While the Greek king o the sea,

Poseidon, was usually shown as a man, his son,ti, was hal-man

and hal-sh, later called a merman. Triton was eared mainly due to a

conch shell he possessed that made a terriying screech and lashed thesea into towering waves whenever Triton blew on it.

The Greeks believed in kindler, gentler water spirits as well, such

as the lovelyis, water nymphs who appeared as attractive young

women. Even the naiads, however, were not above luring an unwary

man to their home in the depths.

Considerably nastier was the six-headed Scyll, a sea nymph-

turned-monster who lived in a narrow sea channel. Scylla ed upon

large marine mammals and any sailor unlucky enough to drit within

her reach. Just the sight o her might have rightened anyone to death;

her razor-like teeth grew in rows o three, and she thrashed about on

six dog-like sets o limbs. Her six heads sat upon long, snakelike necks

that wove and bobbed around one another, while a shlike tail waved

rom her hindquarters. Because o the tentacle-like necks, some have

wondered i Scyllas image was inspired by glimpses o a giant squid.

Whatever Scyllas origin, she was a earsome addition to any Greek seatravelers nightmare closet.


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Apep: From Ancient Egypt to TV Star

Legends o the deities o ancient Egypt are as old or older than any

on the planet and are lavishly packed with a hierarchy o gods

and demi-gods. One deity, however, was considered so evil that Egyptian

priests conducted an annual ritual to repel and banish it. Apep, known

to the Greeks as Apophis, ruled the oceans as a giant serpent, although

he could also appear as a mighty crocodile. Also known as Evil Lizard

and Encircler o the Earth, Apeps chie sin was his constant attempt to

stop the sun god, Ra, rom completing his journey through the sky every

day. Apep would wait until Ras ery barge had passed the horizon at

sundown and then attack rom the watery depths o the ocean. Apep

was blamed whenever a solar eclipse occurred and also took the heat or

violent storms and other natural disasters.

Priests considered containment o Apep so crucial that they wrote a

complete manual on the subject, The Books o Overthrowing Apep.

Part o the ritual involved chopping, burning, and spitting upon a waxegy o Apep, as verses were chanted to leave no question as to his

deeat. A sample o the anti-Apep rally rom ancient sources reads: Taste

thou death, O Apep, get thee back, retreat, O enemy o Ra, all down,

be repulsed, get back and retreat! I have driven thee back, and I have cut

thee in pieces.10

Many Egyptian illustrations o Apep show him hacked into many sec-

tions or posed in other stages o deeat. The ancient priests would have

been astonished to know that some 4,0005,000 years ater Apep wasrst mentioned in their manuscripts, he would achieve great ame on the

other side o the world.

The TV show Stargate SG-1 (19972007), about a United States mili-

tary team that used an ancient portal to visit other places and times, ea-

tured an alien named Apophis who was a lord o the tyrannical, powerul

Goauld race. Apophis, like other Goauld in the show, was based on the

Egyptian character bearing his name.11 As in Egyptian myth, Apophis and


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figure 1.2 Apep, an ancient Egyptian serpent-god that ruled the seas, isabout to be sacrificed. (Linda Godfrey)

(continues)


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India, home to one o the most ancient civilizations on earth,

also identies serpent-like creatures with the sea in its earliest lit-

erature.a Shsh (or Sesha), which means endless serpent,

was a massive snake with 100 heads. Considered k ing o the gs,

godlike creatures that were part snake and part human, Ananta

Shesha was strong enough to rip a mountain rom its base. And he

was said to have done just that in order to create an instrument ormaking ocean waves. Tales o Anantas epic deeds come rom the

Mahabarata, the Hindu scripture that by tradition was rst spoken

in 3137 bce,12 but was recorded around 200 bce. It is typical o an-

cient myths to have a long oral tradition beore being recorded on

papyrus or carved in stone.

Which caMe firST,The MonSTer or The MyTh?

Ater looking at these ancient examples, it is evident the concept o the

serpentine sea monster is both universal and timeless. The question

modern monster-seekers must ask is whether aquatic chaos demons

and mega-snakes are simply ancient myths or descriptions o real crea-

tures glimpsed in the long ago past.

British researcher Paul Harrison says in Sea Serpents and Lake Mon-sters o the British Isles, Undoubtedly, sea-aring olk did witness giant

Ra were enemies. In the myths, Apophis wasnt able to kill Ra, but in

Stargate SG-1, a U.S. team o experts managed to do what Apep never

could, deeating Ra and leaving Apophis ree to rampage throughout

the universe. The ancient priests o Egypt would have been horried.

(continued)


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creatures in the seas and oceans o the world and many were hitherto

unknown species. For example, those who encountered the whale orthe rst time could be orgiven or misinterpreting it as a nemesis o

evil, suracing rom the deep to wreak carnage and devastation upon

civilization as we know it.13

Or did some o the ancient seaarers glimpse species that, unlike

the whale, are still unknown to us? Legends oten contain a kernel o

truth. Its possible that early Greek, Phoenician, Egyptian, and Indian

sailors saw the same creatures that bafe monster witnesses today. I the

serpent-like creatures spotted around the globe are actually letoversrom prehistoric times, they would have appeared just as strange and

mysterious to humans o ancient times as they do to modern people.

And i its easy to understand how a whale could inspire tales o mythic

animals, its even simpler to imagine that a marine dinosaur might have

led onlookers to assume they were seeing some urious water god.

O course, the snake-beasts o the sea were ar more than mere

potential predators to the people who recorded their stories so care-

ully. The image o the great serpent in the ocean occurs so requently

across cultures that it may be what Swiss psychologist Carl Jung would

have called an chyp, or subconscious mental image common

to all o humanity. Jung believed that all humans carry within their

psyches certain symbols, and that we see these symbols refected back

at us when we look out into the world. It is almost as i we interpret the

natural world by our pre-programmed, archetypal sotware. Accord-

ing to this theory, something has conditioned humans to associatelarge serpents with bodies o water, and thereore the same creatures

seem to pop up wherever humanity wanders.

Researchers may never know all o the religious, historical, and

psychological reasons that Leviathan, Labbu, Yam, and Ananta Shesha

dominated early oceanic myth or where the rst sea serpent image actu-

ally came rom. But these creatures were very real to the ancients who

believed that ocean waves were churned by chaos demons. Perhaps they

knew something that modern civilization doesnt. That thought is enoughto keep present-day explorers on the lookout or Leviathans return.


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i2j

Wt aml Plt:Glbl Lgs

Sturdy brick buildings line downtown Manistee, a once-great

lumber town on the eastern shore o Lake Michigan. East o

Manistee and south o the Manistee River State Game Area lies little

Claybank Lake. Just o a dense national orest, the area is a paradise

o woods and water or all wildlie, known or unknown.A 1987 newspaper article in Traverse City, MichigansRecord Eagle

recounted an old lumberjacks tale o two shermen who had tried

their luck in Claybank Lake one day. As the sun was about to set, they

began packing their lines and lures and were ready to row to shore

when they spotted an animal swimming toward them. One o the men

owned a coonhound, and the pair gured the dog had somehow got-

ten loose on shore and plunged into the lake to nd his master. But as

the supposed coonhound paddled closer, the men realized they weremistaken. What they had taken or a coonhound had a dogs head,

but the body looked strangely man-like. The men panicked when the

creature began to climb into the boat.

Wielding oars, they clubbed the scary and bafing animal to pre-

vent it rom coming aboard. Eventually it gave up and slunk back into

the lake and the men were able to row back to shore. Michigan re-

porter Sheila Wissner later contacted one o the men, but he was still

too spooked to talk more about the animal.14

2


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Dog men are not traditionally thought o as lake monsters, but

native North Americans have a long tradition o urry water crea-

tures. The unktehi,15 thought to look like oversized oxen by mem-

bers o some Plains tribes, are water spirits that may cause people

to drown, canoes to tip, or catastrophic foods to threaten villages.

The unktehiare especially eared because o their avorite ood: thespirit or soul o a human being. They may only be deeated by chop-

ping o their tails.

A story in the December 2005 issue o National Geographic

magazine tells the Cherokee version o this monster, the unktehila.

It is described as more like a snake than a cow, resembling some o

the skeletons o prehistoric marine animals that the Cherokee had

discovered around parts o the Badlands or centuries. According to

the quoted storyteller, Kevin Locke, the skeletons were proo to his

figure 2.1

Artists interpretation of the encounter between two fishermen and adog man in Claybank Lake in Michigan. (B.M. Nunnelly)


30/128

W ai P : Gb lg 2 j

people that these water monsters o their ancient traditions actually

once lived there.16

Still another source holds that the unktehila (or uktena) looks like

a huge rattlesnake with horns.17 These river-dwellers breathed poi-

son on humans when disturbed, and the mere sight o one could

cause death.

North America is hardly the only place to continue the ancient

tradition o water monsters. The only thing more amazing than the

wide geographic spread o aquatic unknowns is the sheer variety o

orms that they take.

Pacific PaddLerS: honG KonG To JaPan

Not all sea monsters are ancient. The kaikwaior sea devil that slith-

ers around the waters o the Pacic island o Hong Kong was spotted

as recently as March 1969,18 according to author John Keel. A group o

university students reported seeing a big, black creature on a Hong

Kong beach one night that month. The monster made crying noisesas it popped up rom the sea only about 20 eet away rom them. The

students estimated its length at about 30 eet and added that it had a

big head with round, green eyes.

Japan, according to traditional belie, is inested with small water

monsters called kappa that can also go airborne, traveling on fying

cucumbers. A sort o vampire, the kappa lurks underwater awaiting

swimmers and travelers, then sucks their blood ater it drags them

under. Its appearance is grotesque, with long hair, the body o a tor-

toise, scaly limbs and an ape ace, according to Jan Knapperts Pacic

Mythology.19

The ape ace has a legendary explanation since, according to an-

other source, the kappa were once monkeys who served as messengers

or the god o the rivers.20 But probably their weirdest eature o all

is the bowl-shaped indentation on the top o the kappas skull. The

dent is used by the kappa to carry water. Its an unortunate eatureor the kappa, however, since spilling the water rom the indentation


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will cause the creature to lose its magical powers. This problem turns

doubly atal when combined with the kappas tendency to be very hon-orable and polite, which in Japan requires requent bowing. As soon as

it bows, o course, the kappas skull water sloshes out and the creature

is at anyones mercy.

Japan also contains more amiliar marine beasts. Dragons, usually

thought o as winged lizards by the Western world, are also consid-

ered water monsters in Japan and can live in any body o water. Like

the kappa, Japanese water dragons are chims, or creatures made

o parts rom many dierent types o animals. Covered with shlikescales, they can rake prey with claws like those o a large cat, and they

have heads like those o a horse or camel. Horns o various shapes

adorn their brows. They do have wings like dragons o other cultures.

But Japanese water dragons also possess the unusual ability to increase

or decrease in size. They appear in a variety o colors that are associ-

ated with positive virtues like love or courage, although white dragons

may signiy amine.21 There is also a dg kigthat is considered

ruler o all lakes, with the power to drain or rell lakes at will.

Polynesians, people living on a number o islands in the Pacic

that include Hawaii, Samoa, and the Marquesas, have traditionally

worshipped a god o the sea namedtg. Tangaroa was consid-

ered the creator o human beings. But Polynesian seas were lled with

other water deities and monsters such as rg Mi, a large whale

and the king o all other whales.

Hawaiians have the mooo, a shiny black lizard up to 30 eet longthat inhabits sh ponds. Although their presence in a pond will turn

any sh inedible, they are usually considered guardians or protector

spirits, and are spoken o in the earliest creation stories. However,

they are also shape-shiters, and can disguise themselves as beauti-

ul, alluring women in order to trick unwitting men into the water

or their dinner.

Australia possesses a ull roster o water creatures. The Aborigines

have long believed in a snakelike creature they called the devil-devil.They told E.S. Hall, a European settler who encountered an unknown


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W ai P : Gb lg 31 j

creature in Lake Bathurst in 1822, that the devil-devilwas a danger-

ous monster that preyed on children. Hall and a companion had beenwashing themselves in the lake and were just getting dressed when

the animal came gliding with the rapidity o a whaleboat toward

them.22 What they were able to observe was a long neck with a tiny

head adorned with black faps. Ater having a look at the men, it

plunged back into the water and departed.

This devil-devilis just one description o a more general Australian

term or aquatic monsters: the buyip. An early printed mention o a

bunyip in the Sydney Gazette in 1812 says the creature was seal-like.23(E.S. Hall had a second sighting o a bunyip that looked like a seal or

dog.) But other descriptions have ranged rom a sheepdog-like creature

with fippers to a cattle-sized, man-eating creature with sharp claws.

One 1848 aboriginal drawing o a bunyip does exist, and according

to author Ronan Coghlan, who wroteA Dictionary o Cryptozoology, it

strongly resembled the prehistoric ip. The diprotodon was a

msupil the size o a hippo that is believed to have died out around

40,000 years ago, but still inhabited Australia when the rst humans

arrived. It did have claws on its eet but was not a water animal.

Bunyip reports continued into the twentieth century, including a

1947 sighting o a river creature with remarkable whistling ability and

a bunyip with two heads spotted in New South Wales in the 1930s.24

Other names or the bunyip are moolgewanke, kajanprati, and dongus.25

african aquaTicSThe continent o Arica is known or its amazing wildlie: tigers, el-

ephants, giraes, and all the other animals that have become staples o

our zoos and circuses. But there are creatures, according to those who

have lived there, that have yet to be captured or displayed.

One o the most amous is Mokele mbembe, or river-stopping

monster. A German captain reported it in 1913 as a smooth, elephant-

sized creature with brownish gray skin, a very long neck, and onelong tooth.26 The indigenous people o Cameroon believed that the


33/128


creature would attack any canoes that came near it, and would kill but

not eat the occupants. It has also been reported in the Congo.An explorer and reptile expert named James Powell made a trip

to Gabon in 1976 to investigate the possibility o unknown reptiles.

He became riends with a shaman o the Fang people, who told him

o a creature called a nyamala that looked very much like a small

apatosaurus, an extinct, long-necked dinosaur. While it lived in riv-

ers, it was known to emerge rom time to time to eed on certain

jungle plants.

Powell made several other trips, including one with biologist andauthor Roy P. Mackal in 1980 to the Northern Congo. They did not

see the mokele mbembe or nd any direct evidence o it, but they did

conduct interviews o local eyewitnesses. Powell and Mackal showed

them pictures o a variety o animals, both currently living and extinct,

and the witnesses consistently chose representations o long-necked

dinosaurs as most closely resembling their water monster. They ur-

ther inormed the team that the creature ranged up to 30 eet in length

with a rounded body and long tail.The search or mokele mbembe has continued to the present day,

with many expeditions to Cameroon and around Lake Tele in the

Congo. Scientist and cultural anthropologist William Gibbons has

made several o them, and has written that because o a Japanese teams

1988 sighting o a large, hump-backed creature in Lake Tele, bobbing

along as i munching on water plants, he believes the creatures are real

and still hopes to see one.27

Gibbons also tells a convincing and astonishing story that he

learned rom the pygmies who live in the area o Lake Tele and rom

a missionary named Eugene P. Thomas. Around 1960 the members

o the Bangombe tribe managed to spear and kill a mokele mbembe

that had long disrupted their shing harvest. It was about the size

o a large elephant and possessed strong claws on all our eet as well

as a comb atop its head. Although it took some doing due to the

animals size, they eventually were able to butcher the creature andserve it as part o a victory party. However, the pygmies told Gibbons


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W ai P : Gb lg 33 j

that every person who partook o the beasts fesh died. Gibbons notes

that members o these tribes had very short lie spans to begin with,and that this incident may have been what started many superstitions

about the animal.28

Mishipeshu, the Horned Water Panther

Great cats are usually not thought o as especially good

swimmers, much less water dwellers. But one o the major

players in the creature lore o North Americas Ojibwe and Cree people

is Mishipeshu, the great water lynx or water panther. Its name has

been spelled in myriad ways due to its wide territory, and descriptions

can vary, but these tribes believed it to be the special guardian o the

ancient copper mines o Michigans Upper Peninsula. Its home was

Michipicoten Island, and taking any o the pure chunks o copper ore

rom that island was considered strictly taboo. One ot-repeated storyis o our Ojibwe who tried to steal copper rom Mishipeshu, only to

be ollowed home by the screaming water panther. The trip was atal

or all our thieves.29

The curse o Mishipeshu continued as Europeans discovered the

ortune in copper nuggets on the Upper Peninsula in the mid-1800s.

Ships carrying copper would capsize in sudden storms, such as the

one that sank the Algomain 1885 with 45 people aboard. The storms,

the Ojibwe believed, were stirred purposely by Mishipeshu. Ten ships

were sunk in the area o Isle Royale alone.

Mishipeshu is not alone in his quest to guard the sacred copper.

Mishi Ginabig, a serpent-like creature that bore antler-like horns and

measured the same length as the tallest pine trees, was reportedly

spotted in the Great Lakes area in the early 1800s. Both Mishipeshu

and Mishi Ginabig are enemies o the great Thunderbird, a spirit-be-

ing in the shape o a giant bird, which battles them to restore balance

between powers o the water and o the air.


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By the time Gibbons began making his own trips to Arica, the na-

tive peoples around Lake Tele had become too rightened o the mokelembembes supposed magical powers to reveal to any outsiders exactly

where the creature could be ound.

And yet, the lure o a possible living dinosaur has continued to

attract individual explorers and the media. Although no concrete evi-

dence o its existence has been ound, it inspired the 1985 movie Baby:

Secret o the Lost Legendabout living dinosaurs discovered in the Congo.

And in May 2006, a National Geographic Channel show called Dan-

gerous Encounterslmed an unsuccessul investigation o Lake Tele.Skeptics believe that those claiming to see mokele mbembe have

actually witnessed a crocodile, hippo, or rhinoceros partially camou-

faged by the eects o moving water. Believers insist the reports are

too widespread to ignore, and that the cave-lined rivers and dense or-

ests o Cameroon and the Congo would provide a perect habitat or a

relict population o undersized sauropods. The pygmies who compete

with it or sh have no doubt as to its existence. Perhaps their past

experience with eating the beasts fesh will prompt them to bring thenext dead mokele mbembe to one o the many eager scientists or the

nal proo that dinosaurs still walk among us.


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i35j

Mlk otSl hms

Its hard to say which is scarier to the human psyche: monsters so

radically dierent romHomo sapiensthat their alien appearance

alone makes them terriying, or monsters thatbut or a ew scales or

angscould be human.

Its easy to be repulsed by creatures that are clearly not people. Butadd a lovely ace to a sh tail and the monster becomes more complex.

Should it be eared or admired? Is it dangerous or riendly? I some-

thing that looks almost human may live submerged in water, might a

ull-fedged human also survive beneath the waves?

Actor Tom Hanks played out that antasy in the 1984 movie Splash.

Darryl Hannah starred as a mermaid who saved Hanks rom drown-

ing as a boy, and later took him back to her mesmerizingly beautiul

world under the sea. And this conclusion seemed a natural one sincethe mermaid was both human-like and attractive.

MiddLe eaSTern MerPerSonS

Perhaps that perception o being related to these creatures helps

explain humanitys long preoccupation with merpeople: mythic,

sh-tailed humans who live in some type o water. Archaeologists

have ound egies o the sh-god, os, in present-day Iraq

3


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that were sculpted by Babylonians more than 7,000 years ago.30

The story o Oannes is known due to a history o Babylon writ-ten in Greek by a Babylonian temple priest named Berossus around

200 bce. He described how the sh-god came rom the Red Sea to

teach men everything they needed to know or civilization: writing,

mathematics, and agriculture. Oannes did not resemble the modern

physical idea o mermaids or mermen, however. He possessed the

complete body o a sh, with the additions o a human head above

the shs head and human eet sticking out beneath the tail o the

shs body.31

Another early Middle Eastern god was dg(or Dagan). In the

Bible, it was Dagons temple that Samson brought down ater Delilah

helped the Philistines capture him. Conorming more closely to mod-

ern waterolk depictions than Oannes, Dagon was shown in ancient

art as a classic merman with the upper body o a man and the lower

part o a sh.32

fiSh-TaiLed eGyPTianS and GreeKS

The ancient Egyptians believed that male and emale merpeople origi-

nated in the Nile River. Besides shy tails, these scaled ones were also en-

dowed with muscular human legs and eet with webs between the toes.33

The original Greek merman, Triton, roiled the waves with his

magical conch shell, as discussed in the rst chapter o this book. But

there were later merpeople named ater him. The Tritons earned their

daily minnows by pulling the chariots o Poseidon and the goddess

Aphrodite. Some looked like Triton, although a ew o them boasted

two tails. Others appeared downright monstrous and acted accord-

ingly. One ancient description by second-century Greek traveler

Pausanius (quoted in the online resource Theoi Project: Guide to Greek

Mythology) paints a lurid picture o these creatures:

I saw another Triton among the curiosities at Rome, lessin size than the one at Tanagra. The Tritones have the

ollowing appearance. On their heads they grow hair like


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mf oh scy Hui 3 j

that o marsh rogs not only in colour, but also in the im-

possibility o separating one hair rom another. The resto their body is rough with ne scales just as is the shark.

Under their ears they have gills and a mans nose; but the

mouth is broader and the teeth are those o a beast. Their

eyes seem to me blue, and they have hands, ngers and

nails like the shells o the murex. Under the breast and

belly is a tail like a dolphins instead o eet.

Pausanias, Guide to Greece 9.20.434

Modern MerfoLK and deforMed huManS

The notion o aquatic humanoids persisted and mutated through the

centuries. Medieval seaaring Europeans sometimes claimed to spot

the bizarre monksh. This weird monster eatured a bald, human-

like head, scales that hung down in the shape o a monks robe, and

elongated fippers or arms. The sea monk was said to dunk boats andsailors alike into the drink, either by raising a storm or by direct at-

tack, and was much eared. And the monksh was not the only sea

creature with a religious angle. Sailors also sometimes claimed to see

the equally strange bishop-sh, which was topped o with a head

shaped like a Catholic bishops mitre (a tall, pointed hat).35

At some point, merolk lost their reputation as monsters and be-

came much more sympathetic characters. Danish author Hans Chris-

tian Anderson wrote his story o The Little Mermaid, who sacricesher lovely, immortal lie or the love o a human prince, in 1836 (today

it is known mainly or the animated Disney movie based on the tale).

And the Readers Digest bookStrange Stories, Amazing Factsincludes

two earlier legends o appealing merolk.36

The rst tale dates to 558 ad, when residents o Northern Ireland

heard a woman singing beneath the waves o Belast Lough. They sent

a crew out on the lake to catch her with a net, and learned that sheonce had been a human child who was plunged into the waters with

her amily during a catastrophic food. She was baptized and named


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Murgen, or born in the sea. The townsolk set up a water tank or

her home, and she was said to have done many miracles and was locallyworshipped as a saint.

The second legend recounted in that book took place in the Neth-

erlands, a nation inused and surrounded by the North Sea. The sea,

with all its tributaries and canals, provided a natural backdrop or wa-

ter creature legends in this small country. But consider the plight o

the merpeople: Once out o their native element o water, they have

no way to move about and may end up stranded. Thats just what hap-

pened in 1403, the story goes, when villagers discovered a beachedmermaid covered in sea-mosse.37 The mute maid was taken in by

kindly women who cleaned her up and took care o her or 15 years.

She was nally buried there in holy ground.

figure 3.1 Illustration of a merman. (Nathan Godfrey)


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mf oh scy Hui 3 j

One o the weirdest mermaid reports ever led was an item rom

a Pennsylvania newspaper, the Columbia Spy, which wrote on March7, 1863, that a traveler named Hernando Grijalva saw a creature he

described as hal-monkey, hal-sh o the coast o southern Calior-

nia in 1823. According to the article posted by Loren Coleman on

the Cryptomundo Web site, the creature easily dove and leapt around

the boat, and was able to foat nearby in a sitting position. It was

said to have a dogs head and eyes, arms like a man, breast and body

like a woman, with a long tail like a sh and divided at the end like a

swallows tail . . .38

The sea-ape was the same color as a porpoise, the article added,

and may have had scales on its tail. Grijalva and others observed the

animal or more than an hour, he said, and compared its size to that

o an otter. They were so impressed with its strange appearance that

Grijalva even wondered whether they had actually seen a vision o the

Blessed Virgin,39 despite the lack o the creatures resemblance to any

known depictions o the revered Christian gure.

I witnesses are to be believed, merolk still rolic in modern times.According to Ulrich Magin in a 1992 issue oStrange Magazine,40

a hal-woman, hal-sh creature was spotted o an island in the

South Atlantic in the early 1920s, and a green-haired mermaid was

discovered by a Norwegian hunter near Aricas Cape Horn in the

mid-1930s. Magin also notes a shlike emale with human legs he said

was captured near Yemen in 1973.

The main point o Magins article, though, is that many creatures

touted as mermaids and mermen were really only human beings

with birth deormities such as legs used together or unusual skin

conditions. As an example, he cites the October 1950 birth o an

Austrian child whom newspapers described as having head, arms

and breasts . . . o a woman, but it had the tail o a sh. The media

also called the child a siren. Sis were originally island bird-

maidens o Greek mythology that, over time, evolved into beautiul

sea nymphs known or luring seaarers o course, and the word also


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reers to a class o animals including manatees, dugongs, and sea

cows (see sidebar).Births o this nature are regularly reported in the papers, said

Magin, and I assume they are due to some genetic deciency. We

can easily understand how, in earlier centuries, they were explained as

the result o rape by a water spirit so the unortunate woman could in

some way rationalize the tragic event.41

Magin gives other examples, such as a so-called siren born in 1973

in Peru with legs joined by a membrane. The child did not survive

and was discovered two years later preserved in ormaldehyde at the

police station in the city o Arequipa.

Mnee r Mermid?

Attempts to nd a natural explanation or the sightings o mermaids

and mermen over the ages usually center around a group o

animals o the order Sirenia, named or the ancient Greek water nymphs.

But anyone looking at a blubbery manatee or its cousins, the dugong and

sea cow, might have a tough time imagining how these massive, gray sea

beasts could be mistaken or anything even remotely human. With their

tiny eyes, split upper lip, and stubby bristles, manatees average about

seven eet in length and weigh between 4501,000 pounds. Dugongs

can measure nine eet long, and sea cows, extinct Sirenians that once

occupied the waters o Bering Island in the ar reaches o the north,could reach 30 eet in length and weighed up to our tons!

Its true that Sirenians hold their young in their fippers to nurse them,

much like humans, and that the manatee is a sociable animal. But unlike

mermaids, they cannot actually live underwater; they must come up or

air every 15 minutes or so.

Manatees live in three main locations: along the Amazon and Orinoco

Rivers in South America, between the eastern coastal waters o the United


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mf oh scy Hui 41 j

LeaPin Lizard PeoPLe

There are other types o near-human quic cus besides al-

leged mermaids. In at least two U.S. states, Wisconsin and South Car-

olina, witnesses have reported a manlike being covered with scales,

closer in appearance to a lizard than a sh.

The South Carolina lizard-like biped appeared in a swamp area near

Bishopville in 1988, as reported by 17-year-old witness Christopher Da-

vis. The seven-oot creature with dark green scales and our-inch claws

hopped onto the teens car as Davis attempted to fee, and Davis was only

able to dislodge it with great diculty and extreme auto maneuvers.

States and the northern shores o Brazil, and along the western coast

o Arica. When some o Americas rst settlers arrived in Jamestown,

Virginia, they were surprised to see manatees in what they later named

Manatee Bay. One record rom 1739 stated A Sea-Cow was killed upon

Old Womans Valley beach, as it was lying asleep, by Warrall and Green-

tree.42 The animal was probably already dead or dying, as manatees live

in water and cannot move on land. This act also reutes a Mexican su-

perstition that male manatees may steal out o the coastal waters at night

and kidnap human emales.43

Its hard to see how creatures rom the Americas and Australia could

account or old tales o mermaids seen o European shores or ound on

beaches. (Its remotely possible, but unlikely due to habitat requirements,that a ew o the sea cows that once inhabited the area near Bering Island

may have strayed southward.) However, it is possible that sailors near

Arica or parts o the New World where these creatures are ound might

have glimpsed a dugong or manatee coming up or air a long way o

and somehow had the impression it was partly human. Perhaps even the

ancient Babylonians managed to spy a Sirenian animal somewhere and

took it or a sh-god named Oannes.


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Wisconsins lizard man crawled out o the Mississippi River in La-

Crosse on the states western border in 1993 or 94. It surprised a manand his son out hunting or a lost dog one evening along the riverbank.

The pair was able to back away as the creature glared at them with

slanted yellow eyes, and they estimated its height as taller than the

average man. It was covered with mud-colored scales.44 (The dog

was eventually ound unharmed.)

Both these examples appear to be amphibious rather than strictly

water creatures, and they are not the last o this type to be reported at

large on the planet. In March 2005 an amphibious man was seen pad-dling in the Caspian Sea not ar rom Iran, according to the Russian

newspaper Pravda (rst reported in the Iranian newspaper Zindagi).

The creature was a pale, whitish color45 with a protruding belly and

had what looked like dark green hair on its head. It was said to have

arms with webbed hands.46 Locals claimed to have seen it or several

years swimming near shing trawlers, rom approximately the same

time oshore oil production was increased in the area. It was also seen

chasing schools o sh. Despite the numerous sightings, no photos orother proo have been oered to date o Casper, the ghostly-colored

merman o the Caspian.


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Sltwt Spts

The powerul currents o the Gul Stream carry lie-giving warmth

through the oceanic waters south o Florida. And its breezy trade

winds have made the area a popular route or sailing vessels since man

rst gured out how to top a boat with billowing abric. But the well-

used route has claimed its share o casualties. The ancient coral rees

that surround the Florida Keys lie dotted with wrecks o ships large

and small that succumbed over the ages to the oceans perils: storms,

pirates, and perhaps one danger a bit less known than the rest.

An unusual sight startled three scientists, all members o the Brit-

ish Zoological Society, one early December day in 1905, as they sailed

in the yacht Valhalla somewhere south o Key West. The Valhalla,

named ater the mythic Norse hall o the gods, was a 17-ton cruise

vessel owned by an aristocratic astronomer, Lord Lindsey, Earl o

Craword. He and his riends E.G.B. Meade-Waldo and M.J. Nicollall witnessed a six-oot-long n in a dull green seaweed color knie

through the waters surace about 100 yards away. Lindsey described it

as somewhat crinkled at the edge, according to an account by James

B. Sweeney in his book, Sea Monsters.47

Lindsey probably almost dropped his binoculars when he saw what

came next. He wrote to the respected Zoological Society that, A

great head and neck rose out o the water in ront o the rill. The

neck appeared about the thickness o a mans body. It was rom seven

4


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to eight eet out o the water. The head and neck were all o about the

same thickness.Lindseys companion M.J. Nicoll said the creatures head was like

that o a turtle, that it had eyes, and that the head and neck swayed rom

side to side. Unortunately, the yacht was traveling at high speeds and

soon outdistanced the strange creature, ending the scientists scrutiny.

But a ew hours later, two crewmen on the Valhalla also glimpsed a

huge beast just below the surace o the water. They said they did not

know what it was, but it had no blowhole and was not a whale.

The Valhalla sighting was widely reported, particularly since thewitnesses were considered impeccable due to their scientic stand-

ing. But saltwater serpents had been in the news or many years by

that time, especially along North Americas eastern coastal waters.

One o the most amous was the Gloucester serpent, which was

sighted a bit arther north in the chillier waters o Massachusetts,

in 1817.

The huge and mysterious marine beast was seen so many times,

in act, that a local scientic committee was ormed to look into the

matter. The group o three men devoted themselves to taking detailed

statements rom witnesses such as two women and a number o sher-

men who all saw a large, unknown creature swim right into the harbor

just north o Gloucester at Cape Ann in August o that year. (A similar

creature had been sighted in Cape Ann as early as 1639.) Numerous

sightings ollowed in the days and weeks ater, including one simulta-

neous sighting by 20 people.The investigative group interviewed a Gloucester man named

Amos Story who swore that he saw a serpent-like animal in the middle

o the day in Gloucesters harbor, and was able to watch it or over an

hour as it darted about in the water. The turtle-like head poked about

one oot above the water, said Story.48 On this day, I did not see more

than ten or twelve eet o his body, he added.49

Passengers and crew on many ships passing in or out o the harbor

continued to see the monster until the end o August, when sightingscuriously stopped. The creature returned in October, however, or a


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ew nal glimpses. By that time several hundred people had claimed

sightings. Not all the reports agreed on the monsters size or appear-ance, but the general conclusion was that it had a smooth, snakelike

body and a horse-sized head shaped like that o a turtle. Most people

described the color as very dark brown, and many observed a row o

humps ollowing along behind the head. It was said to move its body

like a caterpillar, hunching and straightening vertically.

Estimates o its speed varied, since some people observed it swim-

ming rapidly and others saw it at rest. The committee was never able to

come to a decision on exactly what the creature wasand indeed theew strange conclusions they did reach brought them only embarrass-

ing, public scorn. For instance, they decided a three-oot blacksnake

discovered near the harbor beach must be a baby sea serpent, and

solemnly named the new species Scoliophis atlanticus. To their dismay,

a reptile specialist who correctly identied the specimen almost im-

mediately proved them wrong.

Further diculties were caused by the act that, possibly due to

dierences in weather, light, and distance, many o the witness re-

ports varied in their recollection o the creatures appearance. This

also caused people to ridicule the committees nal report, as skep-

tics argued that a real creature should have produced more consistent

reports. Most researchers today agree, however, that the committee

did perorm a valuable service in questioning so many witnesses and

recording their accounts.

checKinG ouT cheSSie

New Englands Chesapeake Bay is the site o yet another well-known

Atlantic sea creature, nicknamed Chssi. This particular creature

is an exciting example o monster lore, partly because Chessie inci-

dents need not be dredged up rom ancient documents. The greatest

bulk o sightings occurred in the 1980s, and Chessie has even starred

in a home video, the subject o which was grudgingly pronounced liveby a Smithsonian-sponsored group.


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Chesapeake Bay, a huge channel o water that Chessie calls home,

slices into Virginia rom the Atlantic Ocean near Virginia Beach, thencuts a wide swath north into Maryland. Known or its sheries, the

waters o the great bay could provide plentiul nourishment or a large

marine animal. Chessie may be one o the ew cryptids, or unknown

animal species, that can boast its own page on a states ocial De-

partment o Natural Resources Web site, with history, photos, and

possible explanations.50

According to Marylands Web site, the sightings go back to at

least 1936, when the crew o a military helicopter buzzing the BushRiver spotted an unrecognizable, reptilian creature slithering

through the water below. Other sightings occurred sporadically, but

in 1978, a man named Donald Kyker and some o his neighbors saw

not one but our serpents! Kyker, ormerly with the Central Intelli-

gence Agency, was considered a very credible witness.51 And in 1980,

a woman named Trudy Guthrie saw what might have been a mana-

tee, but which received enough publicity to spark a wave o Chessie

sightings.

Then, an amazing break occurred on May 31, 1982, when a ser-

pentine creature showed itsel to Maryland residents Robert and

Karen Frew. The Frews were able to shoot just under two minutes

o videotape o the enigmatic animal as it swam about 100 eet rom

shore. Members o a Chessie research group called the Enigma Proj-

ect arranged or the videotape to be examined by a panel o scientists

aliated with the Smithsonian Institute in August 1982. While nodenite conclusions were reached regarding Chessies true character-

istics, the group at least conceded that the lm showed an animate

or living object.

Further attempts to identiy the animal shown in the lm were

made by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics lab in Laurel, Mary-

land. Technicians made computer enhancements o the creature and

revealed an impressive, unmistakable, serpentine shape.52 Unortu-

nately, money or the project ran out beore urther progress could bemade, but the Enigma Project has continued its research.


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A Maryland journalist named Bill Burton has also taken up the

call to document Chessies existence and has accumulated 78 reports,according to Marylands DNR Web site, the most recent occurring

in 1995.53 And according to the sites Chessie act sheet, most o those

witnesses report that Chessie is 2030 eet long with an elongated neck

and a ootball-shaped head. Chessie is about the thickness o a tele-

phone pole, and ranges rom dull green to brown. A ew have reported

fippers and horns, and Chessie appears unconcerned about humans,

with no aggressive behavior observed. Chessie is usually seen on the

eastern side o Chesapeake Bay, at dawn or dusk in spring and sum-mer.54 And at least one enterprising company, Chessie Tours, L.L.C.,

oers Chessie cruises around the bay. There is reason to hope that

one o these tours might produce the next video o Chessie; in 1980,

25 witnesses rom our charter boats saw her.

Sea BeaSTS and SuBMarineS

While the U.S. Atlantic coast seems to be a true hotspot or serpent-like, oceangoing animals, modern observations o these creatures

are just as ar-fung around the globe as ancient sea serpent myths.

Some o the strangestand least knownsightings were made dur-

ing World War I (19141918) by crewmembers o German U-boats,

or early submarines. In act, one U-boat (or undersea boat) may

actually have impaled a giant, prehistoric-looking sea monster on

its prow!

According to author and oceanographer James B. Sweeney, Ger-

many had dispatched hundreds o U-boats o all dierent sizes around

the world.55 Because so many were sunk by Allied orces, ew o their

ships logs survived, which makes it all the more amazing that so many

still recorded seeing large, unidentiable marine monsters.

A German commander named Schultze made one such report.

Schultze wrote that his U-boat and two others were about 30 eet

beneath the surace when his vessel suddenly ran into some kind olarge object and started to sink, the bow orced downward. With


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some eort, the crew managed to surace. They immediately rushed

to the conning tower to have a look at what they had impacted. Totheir great shock, they discovered the object that had almost sent

them to the oceans bottom was a giant creature like none they had

ever seen.

It was not a whale, Sweeney quoted rom the commanders report.

It had a long neck, body like an elephant and a head resembling a very

large turtle. The beast was all o 50 eet in length.56 The creature was

so thoroughly impaled on the submarines prow that the commander

had to send men outside to chop it away piece by piece beore they

could get underway again.

Another event involving a similar beast proved even more amaz-

ing. Another submarine crew suraced to recharge its batteries, only

to discover that a massive marine animal was attempting to clamber

onto the U-boats deck! It was so heavy that it threatened to sink the

vessel, orcing the German crew to open re upon it. The beast nally

decided the ocean was a riendlier environment than the submarinedeck and slid back into the water. It had damaged the boat so badly,

figure 4.1 A German U-boat. During World War I, many U-boats reportedsightings of unidentified sea creatures. (Bettmann/Corbis)


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however, that the sub had to remain on the surace where it was easily

picked o by a British patrol two days later.Ater being captured, the German boats captain told the British

what had happened and described the creature as having a small head,

but with teeth that could be seen glistening in the moonlight.57

Sweeney recounts several other sightings, and also mentions a

communication proving that the German military suspected the

Allies were foating monster-shaped decoys in order to lure them

into traps. This shows that large marine beasts must have been

appearing with some regularity in the North Atlantic during thosewar years.

O course, the Atlantic is not the only ocean on the planet. The

Pacic, too, has had its share o seaaring monsters and, like the east

coast o the United States, claims its own sea serpent hot spots.

MonTerey BayS oLd Man of The Sea

and BoBoOne notable center o activity is Monterey Bay, o central Caliornia.

Historian Randall A. Reinstedt spent a lietime studying not only the

numerous shipwrecks o this coastline, but reports o unidentied

sea creatures as well. In his book, Shipwrecks and Sea Monsters o

Caliornias Central Coast, Reinstedt notes that although there are

plenty o known sea animals such as whales and many varieties o

great sh, two airly distinct creatures have been reported over andover again that are dicult to explain. One, a serpent-like animal,

is known as Montereys ol M f h S, and the other,

described as elephant-like, is called Bb the Sea Monster.58

Reinstedt makes a case that Monterey Bay is a likely place or

large marine creatures to show up, since it contains the Monterey

Submarine Canyon, a vast and deep chasm that stretches out into the

Pacic Ocean.

It was when the og rolled in, usually near the mouth o the SalinasRiver, that Bobo the Sea Monster would poke its massive, bullish head


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Identifying the Unidentifiable

Ancient myths paint unknown sea creatures as true monsters, or

beings that combine characteristics o dierent species and that

may possess supernatural powers. But the modern view o sea monsters

is usually that they are unknown, natural animals. But what kindo animal

are they? Reptile? Amphibian? Mammal? Some researchers have analyzed

as many eyewitness accounts as possible and created models that most

closely match all these descriptions.

The task itsel is monstrous, given the many stories reported over

the years by hundreds o people in all types o weather and light condi-

tions, rom varied distances and points o view. Creatures that resemble

giant whales, squid, or other known ocean dwellers demand separate

categories. And those that most closely t the publics mental image

o sea monsters have been described with many combinations o long

necks, humps, fippers, heads ranging rom turtle-like to horse-like,

lengths rom 20 to over 100 eet, and skin both scaled and smooth.Yet most classiers have managed to boil them down into some basic

subtypes.

In 1963 French zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans wrote a classic book,

In the Wake of the Sea Serpents, that attempted to place sightings rom

around the world into nine categories: long-necked, merhorse, many-

humped, super-otters, many-nned, super-eels, marine saurians, yel-

low-bellies, and athers-o-all-the-turtles.59 While it is now alleged that

Heuvelmans skewed data to t his own ideas in some cases, he is still

known as the ather o cryptozoology or his pioneering work on un-

known species.

Inspired partly by Heuvelmans work, scientists Dr. Paul H. LeBlond

o the University o British Columbias Institute o Oceanography and Dr.

John Sibert looked at reports o large, unknown creatures inhabiting the

waters o British Columbia and ound three subtypes that sound much

like sea monsters reported around the world. These were repeated in


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a 1980 book by biologist and author Roy P. Mackal, who cautionedthat the three categories may not represent separate species and in act

might simply show dierences between male and emale:

A creature with large eyes set laterally on a horse- or camel-shaped

head mounted at the end o a long neck. This animal is a ast

1

(continues)

figure 4.2 The three types of unidentified sea creatures described by Dr.Paul LeBlond. (Linda Godfrey)


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rom the water and let orth a trumpeting bellow rom its infatedtrunk. Witnesses who saw him either rom shore or rom a boat said

he had large, red eyes that glowed, small ns, and a snakelike body.

But Reinstedt appeared satised with the verdict o a local scientist

that Bobo was nothing more than a stray elephant seal, a massive ani-

mal that can weigh as much as two tons.

The Old Man o the Sea was a little harder to account or. De-

scriptions over the years stuck to a airly consistent pattern, said Re-

instedt. Most witnesses agreed it had a long, thin, snakelike body,

swimmer, has short, dark-brown ur and no mane. It is probably a

mammal and may be related to seals.

An animal similar to the rst type but with small eyes, sometimes

described with horns or mane. Both types are not only ast, but also

smooth swimmers, submerging vertically as i pulled under.

A long, serpentine animal, showing loops o its body above waterand swimming ast, with much thrashing. Its head is described as

sheeplike with small eyes, and it has a dorsal n running along part

o its back.60

Cryptozoologists Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe mentioned

LeBlond and Siberts list in their 2003 book on the classication o un-

known water animals, The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and

Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep. Coleman and Huyghe noted that

LeBlond later decided that the three categories listed above might be just

one creature, ater all: An unknown reptile with mammalian traits.61

But Coleman and Huyghe, ater undertaking a massive study o the

best-supported sightings worldwide, came up with a 14-part identication

2

3

(continued)


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and an evil-appearing human-like head. Its length was estimatedbetween about 50 and 150 eet long, and its color said to be dark

gray with lighter markings. It also had a mane o red hair, said wit-

nesses, and would oten rise eight eet or so out o the water to stare

at boaters with mournul expressions.59 Although Reinstedt thinks

some scientists may be correct in assuming the Old Man is actually

an oarsh, which has a red, modied dorsal n that could look like

hair, and which can grow to 50 eet in length, the creature itsel is

no less astonishing or its possible identication. As Reinstedt says,

system or unknown aquatics. It includes sea and lake monsters, as well

as many types (mystery salamander, giant beaver, and giant octopus) that

do not sound much like the long-necked sea monster. Their

lake and sea monsters - (malestrom)

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