The Great Sea Serpent Hunt of 1817 & 1818

By Pat Pflieger

A sea serpent haunts the waters off New England, and the story goes viral.

 

When a sea serpent was spotted in the waters off the coast of New England in 1817, New Englanders were enthralled. They pursued it; they shot at it; they wrote poems about it; they analyzed it; they joked about it; they used it in advertisements; and they reprinted every description they could find of strange creatures sighted in the waters in earlier years.

 

The Great Sea Serpent Hunt of 1817 & 1818 is a collection of over 100 pieces taken from contemporary newspapers, with commentary by a scholar of 19th-century American social history. It's a look at an early viral phenomenon. It's the story of the pursuit of a cryptozoological wonder with an unexpected ending.

 

Pat Pflieger earned a PhD in American Studies at the University of Minnesota and was a university professor for 30 years. Her research on 19th-century Americans and what they read appears at merrycozorg.

• Language: English
• Publisher: merrycoz books
• Release date: Feb 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201352523

Book preview

The Great Sea Serpent Hunt of 1817 & 1818

Being an Adventure in the Seas Off New England & Beyond,

In Over One Hundred Newspaper Pieces

Compiled & Edited by Pat Pflieger

Introduction

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When a sea serpent was spotted in the waters off the coast of New England in 1817, New Englanders were enthralled. They pursued it; they shot at it; they wrote poems about it; they analyzed it; they joked about it; they used it in advertisements; and they reprinted every description they could find of strange creatures sighted in the waters in earlier years.

After the first report in August 1817, news of the mysterious citizen of the deep rolled through New England like a wind-whipped tide. Early reports recalled earlier sightings, and a cryptozoologic phenomenon came to life. Stories were printed and reprinted, splashing out of the papers of New England and more southerly papers, which sometimes took a skeptical view.

Why the excitement? Today, we would say the story went viral; and to some extent this on-going saga of a legendary monster probably had some of the features of stories that absorb attention today: something out of the ordinary, entertaining, inconsequential. Some readers no doubt enjoyed the shiver of having a legendary creature spring into ordinary life. Certainly the skeptical were entertained by satires on the critter and its fans. Definitely newspaper editors appreciated the inch-eating text that could be copied into their papers—then, basically four-page advertising circulars sprinkled with articles and some poetry, and often reliant on other newspapers for content. And, recent history had been a bit jostling: the New Madrid earthquake (1811-1812) pointed up that earth beneath Americans wasn’t unmoveable; the War of 1812 (1812-1815) and the attempted destruction of Washington, DC, by the British (1814) hinted that the political climate wasn’t completely stable, either.

And it was scientific! Years earlier, American newspapers had reprinted Patrick Neill’s description of a gigantic sea serpent washed up on the coast of Scotland—a description taken from a paper read before a Scottish natural history society. The Linnæan Society wanted the details of current sightings. Surely this implied that a real creature really lurked off the very real coast of North America!

Descriptions quickly adopted various tropes. The sea serpent was big; no, bigger than that; no, even bigger than that. Its head was shaped like a horse’s head. It was as big around as a keg; it was as big around as a gallon keg; it was as big around as a barrel; it was as big around as a flour barrel; it was as big around as a 60- or 80-gallon cask. (And its head was as big as a four-gallon keg.) It looked like several barrels or casks or kegs roped together. It was dark brown.

And it was energetic. It gamboled in the ocean and sped up rivers and at least once was accompanied by posse of varied sea creatures. It fought with whales. It bunched along like a caterpillar and coiled beneath the surface of the water, lurking. It crawled ashore. It shook off musket fire. And it migrated south for the winter.

Reactions to the serpent were … human. Some shot at it. Fishermen were too terrified to risk being swamped by it. Poems were written about it. Its portrait was painted—and exhibited for money.

And, of course, it was pursued. A bounty of $2000 (almost $33,000 in 2020) was put on it in 1817. Much of 1818 appears to have been dedicated to its capture, with Captain Richard Rich and his crew doggedly chasing and finally harpooning the wily critter. Church bells rang the joyous news when the good captain and his men triumphed.

Why the bells fell silent is another part of the story.

A note about the transcriptions

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This collection of pieces about the Great Sea Serpent Hunt is taken from contemporary newspapers. Newspapers are fearfully ephemeral, and sometimes the transcription has of necessity been taken from a reprint of the original piece. Illustrations will disappoint, but are included. Some aspects of the articles may be unexpected for 21st-century readers. Editors were focused on printing the text and weren’t especially careful proofreaders; sometimes words appear to be left out of a phrase. Not all pieces got a headline.

Pieces appear in this book more or less in chronological order, and publishing information for each piece appears in square brackets at the end of the transcription. My comments are set off with borders. This book also includes a list of the pieces transcribed and a chronological list of sea monster sightings.

A note about spelling: Early 19th-century American spelling rules were different from those in the 21st century. Some words had extra letters; the word show often was spelled shew. I’ve retained the early spellings and have used "[sic]" only when it would appear to modern readers that I may have made a typographical error.

It was fun to research the great sea serpent hunt, and I hope you enjoy the book.

The sea serpent vs. Lorenz von Ferry, 1746

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In the latter end of August, in the year 1746, as I was on a voyage, on my return from Trundheim, on a very calm and hot day, having a mind to put in at Molde, it happened that when we had arrived with my yacht within a mile of the aforesaid Molde, being at a place called Jule-Naess, as I was reading in a book, I heard a kind of murmuring voice from amongst the men at the oars, who were eight in number, and observed that the man at the helm kept off from the land. Upon this I inquired what was the matter, and was informed that there was a sea-serpent before us. I then ordered the man at the helm to keep the land again, and to come up with this creature of which I had heard so many stories. Though the fellows were under some apprehension, they were obliged to obey my orders. In the meantime the sea-snake passed by us, and we were obliged to tack the vessel about in order to get nearer to it. As the snake swam faster than we could row, I took my gun which was loaded with small shot, and fired at it; on this he immediately plunged under water. We rowed to the place where it sank down (which in the calm might be easily observed) and lay upon our oars, thinking it would come up again to the surface; however it did not. Where the snake plunged down, the water appeared thick and red; perhaps the small shot might have wounded it, the distance being very little. The head of this sea-serpent, which it held more than two feet above the surface of the water, resembled that of a horse. It was of a greyish colour, and the mouth was quite black, and very large. It had black eyes, and a long white mane, which hung down from the neck to the surface of the water. Besides the head and neck, we saw seven or eight folds, or coils, of this snake, which were very thick, and as far as we could guess there was a fathom’s distance between each fold. (p. 123)

[A. C. Oudemans. The Great Sea-Serpent; And Historical and Critical Treatise (np: A. C. Oudemans, 1892; pp. 122-124; available at google books)]

Earlier monsters, 1793-1815

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Portland, August 3.

SEA MONSTER.

Capt. Crabtree, who lately arrived at Frenchman’s bay, and now in this town, gives the following extraordinary account of a sea serpent, the authenticity of which may be depended on:—

On the 20th of June last, being on my passage from the W. Indies, in the morning, having just made Mount Desert Island, distant nearly ten leagues, I suddenly got sight of a serpent of an enormous size, swimming on the surface of the ocean, its head elevated about six or eight feet out of water, rather prone forward. That part of the body which was out of water, I judged to be about the size of a barrel in circumference, but the head larger, having some resemblance of a horse’s. According to the most accurate computation which I made in my mind of his length, I think it could not be less than from 55 to 60 feet, and perhaps longer. That part of the body which was not elevated, but of which I had a distinct view several times, was larger than the part out of water. The body of a dark brown. I was within two hundred yards of it near an hour, during which time, as it discovered no inclination to molest us, myself and the whole crew observed it with the minutest attention; nor was its attentionless fixed on us. The eye was perfectly black, sharp and piercing. I was so near it as to observe clearly that there were no fins or external appendages to the body; but that is motion was by the writhing of the body, like other serpents. During the time it was with us, several flocks of birds flew near, which it eyed very narrowly. I observed in it the greatest agility and quickness of motion.

There is no doubt but this is one of two which have been seen in these parts. All accounts agree respecting their size and appearance. Two of them (perhaps the same) were once seen on the shore of the Cranberry islands, but immediately took to the water on being discovered. These are the first ever seen in our seas, that we have any account of, tho they have been seen on the coast of Norway.

[Sea Monster. The Salem Gazette (Salem, Massachusettes) 20 August 1793 (Tuesday); p. 4.]

During the last week was seen off Portsmouth harbour, a Sea SERPENT, which was supposed to be near one hundred feet in leng[t]h, as it shew [sic] itself out of water 40 feet; it was as big round [sic] as a barrel.

[The Oracle of the Day (Portsmouth, New Hampshire) 1 September 1796 (Thursday); p. 3.]

EXTRAORDINARY SNAKE,

In Lake Ontario.

—

Extract of a Letter from a young Gentleman residing near the black River, in the State of New-York, to his correspondent in Castleton—dated, "Watertown, June 30th 1805.

"Sir,

"Four men of respectability, who belong to this place, were returning from Kingston, last week, in a boat across Lake Ontario, who, when about half way home, espied a distant object lying off in the Lake; which they supposed to be a boat with her bottom up. They immediately steered towards it, with a design to make a prize of her; when, with the swiftness of an arrow, it darted towards them, and they discovered it to be a monster in the form of a SNAKE. They were dreadfully frightened, and pulled with all their might for the shore, which they soon gained, it be at no great distance. The Monster closely pursued them, till gaining shoul [sic] water, it played backward and forward before them two hours. This afforded them leisure to recover from their surprize, to approach and survey it. It contracted itself in a spiral form, which they judged to be nearly eighteen feet in diameter. From the center of the curl, the head projected across the folds, lying even with the circumference, almost as large as a hogshead; the eyes nearly the bigness of a pint bason; the mouth frightfully large, and aspect terrible. The length, as it appeared above the water, they judged to be 150 feet. The body appeared to be about the size of a barrel. After playing around, as stated above, he steered his course for a vessel, which had left Kingston at the same time with themselves, bound to Niagara, and was out of sight in a moment.

"I understand that the Indians have frequently seen the same. He once attempted to pick a man out of a schooner, who saved himself by jumping into the cabin. A number of boats