Did you know that sea serpent sightings around Gloucester became front-page news in 1817 and 1818? On August 17, 1818, the Boston Commercial Gazette reported the following, under the title “The Leviathan of the Deep”:
The famous Sea Serpent, was seen on the 16th near Squam Light House, by many persons, some of whom were within twenty feet of him. He is now described as being ‘perfectly harmless, and might easily be caught.’ . . . The knowing ones in Boston have been computing the average amount which will be derived from an exhibition of the Sea Serpent. One hundred thousand dollars is the sum decided on!
The serpent was said to be more than 130 feet long and to pass through the water “with the rapidity of a meteor through the heavens.” On September 5 the Newport Mercury ran the exciting headline “The Sea Serpent—Taken!” The serpent had been captured by several people near the lighthouse, according to the story, after it had dragged their boat for two miles. The newspaper The Watch Tower soon reported the disappointing news that the appearance of the serpent was “very different from when it was alive and swimming.” The creature caught was a mere 10 feet long, with a head “of a hard scaly substance, which a harpoon cannot penetrate.” The undersized monster apparently never earned its captors the vast sums of money they had hoped for.
While going back through my photos from the storm, I discovered that the sea serpent is back, and I had unwittingly captured him on film. Anyone want to pay me one hundred thousand dollars for this rare photo?
E.J. Lefavour
www.khanstudiointernational.com
Good Morning Gloucester 
great picture and very fascinating. Will be on the lookoot.
Thanks
Sue
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Thanks. I’d love to know what it really was that they caught. Some believe that it was a sea lion. Many eyewitness accounts describe it as having the head of a dog, and sea lions average 10′ in length and swim very fast, so that could well be what it was. And if there were a number of them chasing each other, it could give the illusion of being a sea serpent.
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E.J.
Great post.
Wayne Soini a friend jyust wrote a book about the Gloucester Sea Serpent.
The book can be bought at the Cape Ann Museum or at the Antique Store, owned by David Cox pn Main Street.
In addition Roseanne Cody from Gloucester contributed with post cards from her collection, and I also have some of my photos in the book.
Manuel
Other GMG Links
https://goodmorninggloucester.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/gloucesters-sea-serpent-author-book-signing-at-cape-ann-museum-dec-18th/
https://goodmorninggloucester.wordpress.com/2010/10/31/a-sea-serpent-song-that-needs-music/
https://goodmorninggloucester.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/gloucesters-sea-serpent-comes-alive-with-author-wayne-soini/
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Thanks Manny. Your photos in the book, what were they of – not sea serpents? Was Wayne able to determine what the sea serpent really was, or was there actually a sea serpent for real? I’ll have to get the book. BTW, thanks for the connect with Jackie at seARTS.
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E.J.
No photos of sea Serpents, just aprox 10 photos of where they sighted the sea serpent; of course in modern day, I am not that old.
Everyone will have to read the book to get the answer to your question. Check your downtown book stores.
Manny
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Awesome! Sitting on the rocks at Stage Fort Park waiting for it’s return.
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So that’s were you are these days. I haven’t seen you in ages. Come by and visit one day – I have a check for you. 🙂
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I Will drop by this week. Please donate that check to the RNA Colony. i CAN’T ACCEPT ANY CASH AT THIS TIME. 🙂
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i believe that such monsters could exist……………………….but how do we know this picture is not a fake?
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This photo is actually of a long piece of seaweed that looked like a sea serpent to me. There were old legends of a sea serpent around Gloucester, but this definitely is not one.
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Several know-it-alls have come to the conclusion that the Gloucester Sea Serpent was an oarfish. If you google “oarfish images” you can check out some recent oarfish that have washed ashore. One in California is being held up so that the undulating (sea serpent looked like a row of kegs undulating) nature of the oarfish.
Me, I’ll stick to a one of a kind sea serpent who hung out with the dragons that hang out at the edge of maps, “here there be dragons”.
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I looked at them. I could definitely imagine someone calling that a sea serpent if they encountered one.
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Donna saw one on dry land today!!! We are doomed!!!
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I looked at her photo – I didn’t see it. I think my imagination might be waning 😦
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OMG, if you can’t see it we all must be pod people by now but wait shouldn’t I have a Stepford wife by now? (Just thinking out loud here.)
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