The area around Cape Cod has had more sightings of strange sea creatures than almost anywhere on earth. Massachusetts Bay, Cape Cod Bay, and the waters south of the Cape seem to teem with these creatures, if all of the sightings throughout history are to be believed.

The crew of explorer Henry Hudson, while stopped at Cape Cod on August 4, 1609, recorded what is the first written contact with a “mermaid.” They had previously recorded an encounter with a mermaid near Russia in June of 1608. One might suspect that either the grog they were drinking or their imaginations caused these sightings as they are one of the few crews to have had more than one experience with a sea creature. The Pilgrims landed in the same area on Cape Cod only 11 years later and recorded no such encounters. Just perhaps the wild grapes which Hudson’s men had found had fermented!

The first recorded encounter by colonists occurred in 1639. Massachusetts colonists saw a sea serpent playing in the water in Nahant Bay while they were digging clams. Indians in the area told the colonists they had seen the serpent in earlier times as well. John Josselyn separately recorded a conversation with English seamen who had seen the monster the same year sunning itself on the rocks off Cape Ann.

From those sightings, it was 80 years until another sea monster surfaced. This time, the sighting was at Provincetown, and Benjamin Franklin’s uncle wrote about it in his diary:

“September 28, 1719. On the 17 Instant there appears in Cape-Cod harbour [Cape Cod was the name Provincetown was known by until it became a separate town in 1729] a strange creature, his head like a Lyons, with very large Teeth, Ears hanging down, a large Beard, a long Beard with curling hair on his head, his Body about 16 foot long, a round buttock, with a short Tayle of a yellowish colour, the Whale boats gave him chase, he was very fierce and gnashed his teeth with great rage when they attackt him, he was shot at 3 times and Wounded, when he rose out of the Water he always faced the boats in that angry manner, the Harpaniers struck at him, but in vaine, for after 5 hours chase, he took him to sea again. None of the people ever saw his like before.”

Supposedly, the sea monster looked very similar to the drawing of a monster on a Dutch map of the area, done in 1638. It was unlikely that he would have seen the Dutch map.

Sightings became more common in the 19th century. In August 1817, Gloucester had the most famous of the incidents. During that month, the monster played in Gloucester harbor and Massachusetts Bay and more than 200 witnesses saw it. It was generally described as a snake-like serpent, between 50 and 90 feet long, with a head the size of a horse and the body about three feet in diameter. One report from a ship’s carpenter named Matthew Gaffney mentioned that the serpent swam vertically through the water, like a caterpillar. (The cover image of this post is a drawing of the supposed 1817 serpent).

The following year, not too far from Stellwagen Bank, a packet boat bound to Maine from Boston saw a sea monster. Captain Shubael West and fifteen others saw a sea serpent engaged in a fight with a humpback whale. “The serpent threw up his tail from 25-30 feet in a perpendicular direction, striking the whale with it. … At the same time, he raised his head 15 or 20 feet in the air, as if taking a view of the surface of the sea. After being seen in this position a few minutes, the serpent disappeared.”

The sea monster, if it were the same one, moved around. In the 1830s, the “Sally,” a schooner off of Long Island, had a fight with a sea serpent. In 1833, the sea monster became such a nuisance that whaling crews were sent out from around Massachusetts Bay to get rid of it, but couldn’t locate the creature. In 1859 the British Banner reported another attack on a sailing vessel, with the description matching the Gloucester sightings, although it now had a horn on its head. An English warship had also noted that it saw a sea monster swim by, but there was no attack.

After the Civil War, the famous showman P. T. Barnum offered a reward of $1000 to anyone who would bring him one, dead or alive. He did this because fishermen had been hesitant to bring the creature in, fearing it would spoil their catch. No one took him up on his offer.

The Provincetown town crier, George Washington Ready, shocked the Cape in 1886 with the sighting of a sea serpent. This one was seen in Provincetown. It was at Herring Cove that Ready saw the sea monster first. It was spouting out water to heights of 50 feet or more. He hid behind some bushes as the monster passed close to shore.

It had a slow, undulating motion as it wagged its head, as big as a 200 gallon cask. It was about 300 feet long and about 12 feet in diameter. The body was covered with scales as large as the head of a fish barrel, and were colored alternately green, red, and blue. The open mouth disclosed four rows of teeth, which glistened like polished ivory, and were at least two feet long, while on the extreme end of the head or nose, extended a tusk or horn at least eight feet in length. The creature had six eyes as large as good sized dinner plates and they were placed at the end of moveable projections. With these, the creature could see ahead, behind, and sideways.

Ready also stated the creature smelled of sulphur. He thought people might doubt him, so he signed an affidavit “I, George Washington Ready, do testify that the foregoing statement is correct. It is a true description of the serpent as he appeared to me on that morning, and I was not unduly excited by liquor or otherwise. George W. Ready”

During the 19th century, Cape Codders sometimes talked about people who had problems with alcohol as having problems with the green-eyed monster. Ready never mentioned the creature’s eye color, but some might suspect – green? He didn’t say he hadn’t been drinking, only that he was not “unduly excited by it.”

In total, there were nearly 200 different sightings in the 19th century.

The 20th century had its share of sightings. In 1912, a mackerel fishing boat, the “Philomena,” caught a sea monster in its nets off the Gulf of Maine. Two other fishing vessels came to help in the two hour battle. They decided to cut loose the 80 foot monster, rather than drag it in, as they thought it was endanger the vessel’s safety.

Orleans had its own sea monster. During the Depression, the following article appeared:

“Orleans, Jan 17, 1936 – Somewhere in the briny deep that wash the Nauset strand, Orleans Coast Guards swear sea serpents with tongues shaped like fish tails, swivel jointed necks and 200 teeth mounted in cavernous jaws stalk their prey. Surfman Fred Moll found the remains of such a critter on the beach below the station yesterday. All that remains of the marine mystery is a grinning head with a few inches of what appears to be a snake-like body attached.”

For a week, the whole Cape was alive with rumors. It being winter, the story didn’t keep anyone out of the water. But – a week later, three men spoiled the suspense. Everett Eldredge Jr., Ed Taylor, and John Nickerson identified the skull as belonging to a dolphin. So much for a sea serpent!

Up to now, enchanted whales have not been mentioned. But – Cape lore is full of them. They range from Ichabod Paddock’s encounter with a whale named Crook Jaw, to Goodie Hallet who supposedly lived in a whale, known as the Whistling Whale. She hung lanterns on its tail to lure mariners onto the sandbars. And then, the finback known as Long Tom took a mermaid for a ride in Cape Cod Bay. These myths certainly could be identified as strange sea creatures.

No article on sea monsters is complete without mentioning author Scott Corbett’s sea captain who saw strange sea creatures. This captain took parties out sailing, and one day in the early 1900s he ran up against the typical brash summer visitor, a young fellow who knew more and had always seen bigger and better things than anyone else. This young man asked the captain what was the largest fish he had ever seen.

“Well, I don’t rightly know what it ‘twas,” said the captain, “but it was monstrous big, and had a tremendous mouth, and it blew water up in the air now and then.” “Why that was a whale,” the young man snickered scornfully, but the captain shook his head. “No, no – we was baiting with whales.”

We live in an area where strange sea creatures have been frequently observed. With no new “sightings” in more than 90 years, we’re certainly due. Those companies who have increased our homeowners’ insurance based on being due for another hurricane could probably create actuarial tables telling us we should be seeing a monster shortly. Keep your eyes open –

Researched and written by Duncan Oliver