Encounter Atlas
Sea serpents are huge, snake-like animals reported at sea, usually with a horse- or turtle-like head, a long neck and a row of humps behind. Norse sailors told of them, and the Swedish bishop Olaus Magnus drew one wrapping around a ship in 1555.
In August 1817 hundreds of people watched a serpent with a turtle-like head and a humped back swimming in Gloucester Harbor in Massachusetts. Boston's Linnaean Society took sworn statements. On 6 August 1848 Captain Peter M'Quhae and officers of HMS Daedalus reported a 60-foot serpent in the South Atlantic, sparking a debate in The Times. In 1905 two naturalists aboard the yacht Valhalla described a long neck and a large fin off Brazil.
Oarfish, which can top 25 feet, basking sharks, whales and lines of porpoises are the leading explanations.
What witnesses report
- A row of humps or coils on the surface
- A horse- or turtle-like head on a long neck
- A mane or crest behind the head
- Seen from ships and headlands
Famous cases
- 1817Gloucester Harbor sightings
Gloucester, Massachusetts - 1848HMS Daedalus sighting
South Atlantic Ocean - 1905Valhalla sighting
Off the coast of Brazil
Seen the Sea serpent?
Tell us what happened. Every report is read by a person before it goes on the map, and you can stay anonymous.
