In 1817 the Linnæan Society of New England published “A Report relative to a Large Marine Animal, supposed to be a Serpent, seen near Cape Ann, Massachusetts, in August,” of that year. A good deal of care was taken to obtain evidence, and the deposition of eleven witnesses of fair and unblemished characters were certified on oath before the magistrates. The length was estimated at fifty to a hundred feet, and the head compared to that of a sea-turtle, a rattlesnake, and a serpent generally, but in this case there was no appearance of a mane.
Again, in the Boston Daily Advertiser for November 25th, 1840, there is a communication from the Hon. T. H. Perkins of that city, attesting his own personal observation of the marine serpent at Gloucester Harbour, near Cape Ann, in 1817. This communication took the form of a letter written to a friend in 1820.
Captain Perkins speaks of the animal’s motion being the vertical movement of the caterpillar, and not that of the common snake either on land or water, and this confirms the account of Mr. M‘Clean, the minister of a parish in the Hebrides, who saw in 1809 a serpentine monster about eighty feet in length. He distinctly states that it seemed to move by undulations up and down, which is not only contrary to all that is known of serpents, but from the structure of their vertebræ impossible. Hans Egede mentions the appearance of a marine snake off the coast of Greenland in 1734.
On the 15th of May, 1833, a party, consisting of Captain Sullivan, Lieutenant Maclachlan and Ensign Malcolm of the Rifle Brigade, Lieutenant Lyster of the Artillery, and Mr. Ince the ordnance store-keeper at Halifax, started from that town in a small yacht for Mahone Bay, on a fishing excursion. When about half-way they came upon a shoal of grampuses in an unusual state of excitement, and to the surprise of the party they perceived the head and neck of a snake, at least eighty feet in length, following them. An account of this occurrence was published in the Zoologist for 1847. The editor stated that he was indebted for it to Mr. W. H. Ince, who received it from his brother, [pg 186]Commander J. M. R. Ince, R.N. It was written by one of the eye-witnesses, Mr. Henry Ince, and signed as follows:—
| W. Sullivan, Captain Rifle Brigade, | June 21, 1831. |
| A. Maclachlan, Lieut. „ „ | August 5, 1824. |
| G. P. Malcolm, Ensign „ „ | August 13, 1830. |
| B. O’Neal Lyster, Lieut. Artillery, | June 7, 1816. |
| Henry Ince, Storekeeper at Halifax. |
The dates affixed to the names were those on which the gentlemen received their respective commissions.
Great interest was excited in 1848 by an account of a great sea-serpent seen in lat. 24° 44′ S., and long. 9° 20′ E., in the tropics, and not very far from the coast of Africa, by the officers and crew of her Majesty’s frigate Dædalus. It was not, as in other cases, in bright and fine weather, but on a dark and cloudy afternoon, and with a long ocean swell. Captain Peter M‘Quhæ, in his report to the Admiralty, published in the Times for the 13th of October, describes it with confidence as “an enormous serpent, with head and shoulders kept about four feet constantly above the surface of the sea;” and he adds: “As nearly as we could approximate by comparing it with the length of what our main topsail-yard would show in the water, there was at the very least sixty feet of the animal à fleur d’eau, no portion of which was to our perception used in propelling it through the water, either by vertical or horizontal undulation. It passed rapidly, but so close under our lee-quarter that had it been a man of my acquaintance I should have easily recognised his features with the naked eye; but it did not, either in approaching the ship or after it had passed our wake, deviate in the slightest degree from its course to the south-west, which it held on at the pace of from twelve to fifteen miles per hour, apparently on some determined purpose. The diameter of the serpent was about fifteen or sixteen inches behind the head, which was without doubt that of a snake; and it was never during the twenty minutes that it continued in sight of our glasses once below the surface of the water; its colour a dark brown with yellowish white about the throat. It had no fins, but something like the mane of a horse, or rather a bunch of sea-weed washed about its back.”
THE GREAT SEA-SERPENT WHEN FIRST SEEN FROM H.M.S. DÆDALUS.
(After a Drawing by Captain M‘Quhæ, sent to the Lords of the Admiralty, October, 1848.)
Drawings prepared from a sketch by Captain M‘Quhæ were published in the Illustrated London News of 28th October, 1848. Lieutenant Drummond, the officer of the watch at the time, also printed his own impression of the animal, which differs in some slight points from the Captain’s account, particularly in ascribing a more elongated form to the head, in the mention of a back-fin (whereas Captain M‘Quhæ expressly says no fins were seen), and the lower estimate of the length of the portion of the animal visible. Lieutenant Drummond’s words are:—“The appearance of its head, which with the back fin was the only portion of the animal visible, was long, pointed, and flattened at the top, perhaps ten feet in length; the upper jaw projecting considerably; the fin was perhaps twenty feet in the rear of the head, and visible occasionally. The Captain also asserted that he saw the tail, or another fin about the same distance behind it. The upper part of the head and shoulders appeared of a dark brown colour, and beneath the jaw a brownish white. It pursued a steady and undeviating course, keeping its head horizontal with the [pg 187]water, and in rather a raised position, disappearing occasionally beneath a wave for a very brief interval, and not apparently for the purposes of respiration. It was going at the rate of perhaps from twelve to fourteen miles an hour, and when nearest was perhaps 100 yards distant. In fact, it gave one quite the idea of a large snake or eel.” Lieutenant Drummond’s account is the more worthy of regard, as it was derived from his journal, and so gives the exact impressions of the hour, while Captain M‘Quhæ’s description was written from memory after his arrival in England.