Big, Hissing and Reptilian
Posted by: Nick Redfern on August 29th, 2012
“The creature was big, reptilian, with a black head, long tail and a big red tongue. It could hiss and cause men and women to run off, screaming. It came close to shore, terrifying the environs so that parties of men went out with guns and spears to kill it.”
What was it?
And here’s an equally intriguing story at the same site of a monster of the deep…
About Nick Redfern
Punk music fan, Tennents Super and Carlsberg Special Brew beer fan, horror film fan, chocolate fan, like to wear black clothes, like to stay up late. Work as a writer.
While I have no doubt oarfish grow large and if you ran into one, I’d see thinking it was a sea serpent…
However, if you actually read accounts of sea serpents, most of the accounts talk of the critter raising up out of the water, head and a neck (depending on your critter) and all kinds of other mischief. That does not fit with an oar fish.
The oarfish has become the 20th andd 21st century scapegoat for all sea serpent sightings and it doesn’t hold water…literally. People like it because it can fit the size parameters and it really is an odd looking thing. But again, an oar fish doesn’t undulate and it’s certainly not able to raise its head up out of the water to any degree and for any length of time to work as a sea serpent sighting. Also a lot of sightings do not have the characteristic back fin that oar fish sport.
Nope, ain’t buying it.
Thanks so much for the articles. I mostly grew up in Darien and my sister-in-law is from Duxbury, Mass. A double hit.
Going to forward the Darien sighting article to a number of friends for a good laugh.
The illustration is good enough to ID the creature as an Oarfish.
Thank you for sharing this one, I love to read the old reports when there were fewer pranksters at work. In this case it looks to me that the creature they saw was a stray Oarfish.
Oarfish? Those illustrations depicted are from the 18th centuary and have nothing whatsoever to do with the article.
The 1889 Boston Globe article was a 100% hoax.
btw, broblanco1 your oarfish illustration has also been identified as the penis of a whale.