THE PENSACOLA PASS PLESIOSAUR
One of the most notorious sea serpent reports in cryptozoology came to the attention of researchers in 1965. While there is no shortage of sea serpent sightings in Florida, the area around Pensacola had been quiet. Other than Thomas Helm’s 1943 possible cryptid pinniped sighting 100 miles away in St Andrew Bay in 1943, there is no record of sightings along that section of coast. So when the May 1965 issue of Fate magazine hit the newsstands, cryptozoology researchers were taken by surprise. Author Edward Brian McCleary claimed he was the sole survivor of a sea monster attack in 1962.
In the version McCleary recounted in Fate, he was 16 years old when another teen named Eric Ruyle invited him to go skin diving later that Saturday morning, 24 March 1962. McCleary agreed. Rounding out the group was 17-year-old Warren Salley, 14-year-old Larry Bill, and 14-year-old Brad Rice. McCleary admitted he was completely unfamiliar with the dive site – the wreck of the Massachusetts, a WWI battleship built in 1893 and scuttled by the Navy in 1921 to be used for target practice. Lying in 25-30ft (7.6-9m) of water, part of the ship is still exposed to this day. No longer of use to the Navy, it had become an artificial reef and the destination of the increasingly popular new hobby of skin diving.
The group’s destination was Fort Pickens State Park (now maintained by the National Park Service) at the western tip of Santa Rosa Island. An hour later, they were parked near the fishing pier and preparing to launch a 7ft (2m) Air Force life raft, equipped with a drift anchor and oars. McCleary noted they had climbed to the top of Fort Pickens and could see the wreck, two miles (3.2km) off the coast. He observed the water was cold as they launched the raft.
They took turns paddling. Salley was paddling when Bill noticed the wreck was now on the left, but when they’d started out, it had been on the right. In other
