Sea Serpents, Myth or Reality?
Undiscovered Ocean Creatures
It is not beyond comprehension that in some remote regions of the world’s oceans, sea serpents may actually exist. In fact, just in the two centuries, there have been a multitude of unexplained eyewitness accounts to support the existence of sea serpents. The oceans cover around seventy-one percent of the world’s total land surface and, yet, only approximately ten percent has been explored by mankind.
Nineteenth-Century Sea Serpent Sightings
According to an article written in 1895 by Alfred Story and published in Volume 10 of The Strand Magazine, the crew of the H.M.S. Daedulus sailing out of Great Britain witnessed a very unusual sighting in the North Sea on October 11, 1848. They reported that around five in the afternoon on a dark and cloudy day that a creature approximately 4 feet wide and at least 60 feet in length was barreling towards their vessel. They calculated that this creature was moving between twelve and fifteen miles per hour and it was dark-brown and slightly yellow around its throat.
As best they could tell, it resembled an enormous snake and, while it had no fins, it did have a mane like a horse or possibly a lot of seaweed around the upper part of its body. This creature remained in plain sight for about twenty minutes and then descended below the surface. An American ship traveling near the Daedulus around the same time also reported the appearance of a similar creature lending credence to the original sighting. There were many educated and reputable military officers on board these vessels and it seems highly unlikely that all of them would participate in such a strange report unless it was absolutely true.
Several decades later, Captain W.H. Nelson of the American vessel Sacremento also reported a similar creature in the same vicinity as the earlier sightings and he likened to the ancient Ichthyosaurus supposedly extinct for millions of years.
Twentieth-Century Sea Serpent Sightings
In an article published by Hearst Magazines in 1934, the true story of Baron von Forstner's (commander of a German U-boat in World War I) strange sighting in the North Sea was recounted. Forstner torpedoed a British freighter on July 15, 1915 and as it sank it was quickly sucked deep into the ocean and the surface beneath seemed to explode as a huge geyser of water shot up in front of him. He recounted that from within this geyser “fifty feet into the air, shot something that looked like a giant crocodile with legs and webbed feet...it wriggled and twisted as if in pain, fell back into the water, and disappeared.” He also reported that the animal appeared to be around 60 feet in length and was only above water for fifteen seconds or so and he did not have time to photograph the beast but all of his men on board the U-boat (Unterseeboot) witnessed and attested to the same sighting.
Real Life Sea Monsters
While there has been no shortage of strange sightings in the North Sea and in every major ocean in the world, there is still considerable doubt as to the validity of even the most convincing tales. Scientists generally agree that while there are certainly a large number of undiscovered ocean creatures, the ‘sightings’ of giant sea serpents over the years has been greatly exaggerated either intentionally or unintentionally almost without exception. Nevertheless, there still remains a distinct possibility that somewhere in the depths of the North Sea lurks a strange species of snake-like oceanic creatures as yet undiscovered by man. There are large and monstrous creatures in the ocean such as the giant squid, the great white shark, and several species of whales that can growto two-hundred feet in length. A sea snake of comparable length is not beyond the realm of comprehension though, as of yet, there is not enough evidence to prove its existence.
Creature From the Deep, February 7, 2005
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