Sea Serpents of the Gulf

Nessie's Southern cousins

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Summer is upon us, and families are heading to the Gulf Coast to fish and swim. Enjoy the water, but watch out for rip tides, jellyfish, and—sea serpents? That’s right! If newspapers are to be believed, there are some strange creatures swimming around out there.

An early sea serpent sighting occurred during the Civil War when Union forces occupied Ship Island, Mississippi. Maj. H. P. Ritzius was part of the garrison and recalled how eight “monster fish” swam into the harbor during the summer of 1864.

Ritzius and a few other men gave chase in a boat, and managed to put eight harpoons into one of the creatures, but it dragged the boat ten miles out to sea before dying. A revenue cutter happened to be passing by at the time, and towed the prize back to the wharf. The “fish” measured 18 feet long, 15 feet wide, and six feet in diameter and weighed 1,800 lbs. Its mouth had no teeth but was four feet across and three feet deep. Ritzius reported that the meat had the consistency of unrefined cod liver oil, and was unfit to eat. A photograph of the animal was sent to the Smithsonian Institution, but scientists there were unable to identify it.1

The animal was generally brown in color but had a greenish back, which caused it to look black in the water. The underbelly was yellow. Summing up its odd appearance, the newspaper claimed, “It is a horrible slimy monster.”

In 1889, the Los Angeles Daily Herald reported Capt. James P. Hare of the Trinity Shoal Lightship off the mouth of the Mississippi River killed another behemoth. Captain Hare described it as “hideous a creature as ever the human eye rested upon… I found it impossible to name or classify this monster.”

Hare and his crew armed themselves, and approached the sea serpent in a small boat. The monster began thrashing wildly when Hare fired at close range, and then opened its mouth, revealing large tusk-like teeth, and charged. According to Hare, the creature “seized the side and gunwale of our boat and crushed it as easily as though it was made of glass.” Using the captain’s rifle, axes, hatchets, and harpoons, the crew finally killed the leviathan, and Hare cut off the head and took it back to the ship. Hare described the serpent as being “rusty-black on top, fading to a yellowish-white on the under part.” While he was not able to judge its overall length, he claimed that at least 40 to 50 feet of the animal was visible under the water. No mention was made of what happened to the severed head.2

Seven years later, the Ocala Evening Star covered an encounter the boat the Crescent City had with another Gulf monster. The boat was trolling a mullet on a shark hook off Carrabelle, Florida, when something grabbed it.

[You might enjoy: Prey of a Different Kind.]

The newspaper reported, “Everybody was panic strickened as the water began to foam at the end of the troll.” When the creature began stripping line, the boat gave chase for several miles before the crew was able to bring it to the surface. After the passengers and crew shot and killed the serpent, it took a hawser and capstan to bring it aboard. The eel-shaped animal was just over 42 feet long and 72 inches in circumference. Its spoonbill-shaped head had a large, shark-like mouth, with teeth set at a 45 degree angle to the rear. It also had a long, forked tongue, and fins up to 8 inches were on the tail. The animal was generally brown in color but had a greenish back, which caused it to look black in the water. The underbelly was yellow. Summing up its odd appearance, the newspaper claimed, “It is a horrible slimy monster.” The creature was taken back to Carrabelle and examined by many people, but it apparently was never identified.3

Perhaps the only sea serpent to be reported officially to the U.S. Navy was sighted on November 23, 1901, about 120 miles southwest of South Pass in Plaquemines Parish, one of the main entrances to the Mississippi River from the Gulf.

According to the Washington Times, Henry Neligan, the steamer Irada’s third officer, filed a report with the U.S. Navy’s Hydrographic Office in which he wrote, “[We] passed a large sea serpent appearing about 100 feet long. The head had a blunt square nose, and was ejecting water to the height of two or three feet from its nostrils. The animal or fish had three distinct sets of fins and a tail lying across, like a porpoise. On its back was a series of humps, like a camel.4 It was heading about east (true) and moving slowly.” It is not known if the navy followed up on Neligan’s report. 

Editor’s note: Modern research, such as the GulfSERPENT project, has caused scientists to believe that early accounts of sea serpents like these might in fact have been sightings of deep-sea dwelling oarfish, which are snake-like in appearance, measure up to 30 feet in length, and are occasionally pushed closer to the surface by strong currents and other natural events. Still, when it comes to sea serpents real or legendary, you can never be too careful. 

1 Ravenna, Ohio, Democratic Press, April 19, 1893

2 Los Angeles Daily Herald, November 20, 1889

3 Ocala (Florida) Evening Star, August 24, 1896

4 Washington Times, November 23, 1901