Sea Monsters go hand in hand with the folklore of Pirates and the sea. There are as many different monsters as there are stories from overgrown sharks to dolphins that were known to save shipwrecked sailors. Many of these monsters are impossible to categorize but let us look at some of the most commonly named ones.
The most common of the Sea Monsters is the Sea Serpent. The reptile is described as being miles long with a vertical movement to its body. As well it is described as having a horse’s main that goes down its back and is covered in scales along with multiple fins. These animals have been spotted all over the world by many different people. In 1848 the HMS Daedalus described seeing a large serpent off of the Cape of Good Hope. According to reports from the sailors it was 15 ft in diameter and swam with its head four feet out of the water.
Mermaids are not only a staple to fairytales but to maritime lore as well, however, mermaids do not have the same pleasant tendencies they do in fairytales. From the waist up they are beautiful maidens but from the waist down they have the body of a fish. They are often seen sitting on rocks combing their hair and admiring themselves. They sang very sweetly but their appearance signals the oncoming of a storm. This wasn’t by accident, it is said that they avidly sought human lives along with an enjoyment of luring young men to their deaths and to provoke misfortune. The young men that were lured weren’t just drowned, they were devoured. Mermaids had no soul; the only way that they could get one was to marry a mortal man. There were sightings of mermaids too, including a provincial governor who claimed to have married one and kept her in his bathtub for 4 days.
Perhaps the most infamous and dangerous monster was the Kraken. The myth of the Kraken comes from Scandinavia and describes the creature as being like a giant octopus, very close, if not the same as the monster portrayed in Pirates of the Caribbean 2. This monster could easily consume a whole fishing fleet. It would circle ships with its massive body and then drag them down into the ocean. The whirlpool that it created by doing this sufficiently captured anything that the Kraken might have missed. When it was at rest it looked like a large floating island, mariners who tried to land on it soon learned their mistake. However, very large schools of fish swam out before it, any fisherman brave enough to risk being eaten by the Kraken was rewarded by his catch. Just as with any good sea monster there were sightings for this monster too, one in the 1680’s off the coast of Norway and then again in 1775 in Scotland.
These monsters of the deep have captured our imaginations and at times our nightmares. Whether we believe in them or not they are as a part of the maritime lore as are the sailors and other creatures that charter the seas.
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