January 7, 2007
I turned on the television this morning, over there in the background near my desk, to check the news on the local NBC channel. The very first thing on the screen was an individual discussing a Sea Serpent sighting. I happened to be in the midst of writing an article about New England Sea Serpents.
I was floored, struck by, well, this bolt from out of nowhere. I quickly discovered the guy was a Reverend Peter B. Panagore, giving one of those daily messages the stations run, it seems, so their viewers can take a break from the news and go run for your morning cup of tea. But this one got my attention.
It was a “Daily Devotion for January 7, 2007,” with a twist. It was about a cryptozoology sighting, and I wanted to hear the storyteller’s point.
Turns out it was from the First Radio Parish Church of America, which happens to be based in Portland, Maine (where I live). Reverend Panagore had an interesting conclusion. It seemed like the appropriate thing to do to share it here for today.
++++++++
From the Working Waterfront news, August 2003.
“Sea Serpent” surprises Nova Scotia lobsterman.
It was a beautiful June day. Wallace Cartwright and his sternman were in Point Aconi Cove.
Then he saw it. It was 25 feetlong with a body the diameter of a five gallon bucket. Three humps on it’s back. It weighed four hundred pounds at least. Its head was a foot above the water, disproportionately small with the body looking almost like the head of a sea turtle. It went down and hid in the mud.
Cartwright hung around, then saw it a half a dozen times over 45 minutes by following it back out to deepwater — at three or four knots. He didn’t have a camera aboard.
The Curator of Zoology at the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History talked with him. The curator said that in his laboratory freezer there are several deepwater fish caught off Labrador that appear to be from a new species. The curator believes Cartwrght may have seen an oarfish, but in the absence of a specimen he can only speculate.
Cartwright says, I looked up oarfish on the internet, and I’m here to tell you it was definitely not an oarfish. An oarfish looks like a ribbon and this was tube shaped. Oarfish swim vertically and this was swimming horizontally.
My neighbors will tell you I have a reputation as credible man.
Reputations matters. They add credibility or incredibility to what we say.
The witnesses of the resurrection were credible men. On their word alone a faith was formed.
Let’s Pray: God, our reputations matter. Help us be honest in all our dealings and truthful in all our words. Amen.
Today’s Thought Is: A trusted reputation is a treasure.
++++++++
Wallace Cartwright’s encounter happened during the summer of 2003. He described it as noted above, was reluctant to tell people about what he saw, but finally agreed to be interviewed by CBC radio. He told of being very scared: “I was kind of leery of approaching it. God knows, the thing might have been able to jump out of the water, you know? And I’m sure it could have swallowed you whole.” For more information on Sea Serpents, please see The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Filed under Breaking News, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoology, Eyewitness Accounts, Sea Serpents