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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12 lake and sea monstersi
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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Iuci 13 j
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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14 lake and sea monstersi
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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Iuci 15 j
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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Swmmg tg Tm:Bt t S Mst
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.
1
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1 lake and sea monstersi
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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20 lake and sea monstersi
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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swiig hugh ti: Bih f h s m 21 j
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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22 lake and sea monstersi
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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swiig hugh ti: Bih f h s m 23 j
figure 1.2 Apep, an ancient Egyptian serpent-god that ruled the seas, isabout to be sacrificed. (Linda Godfrey)
(continues)
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24 lake and sea monstersi
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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swiig hugh ti: Bih f h s m 25 j
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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2 lake and sea monstersi
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)
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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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30 lake and sea monstersi
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
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32 lake and sea monstersi
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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34 lake and sea monstersi
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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36 lake and sea monstersi
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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3 lake and sea monstersi
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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40 lake and sea monstersi
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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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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42 lake and sea monstersi
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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i43j
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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44 lake and sea monstersi
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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46 lake and sea monstersi
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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sw sp 4 j
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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4 lake and sea monstersi
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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sw sp 4 j
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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50 lake and sea monstersi
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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sw sp 51 j
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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52 lake and sea monstersi
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