Malcolm Smith

Forgotten Sea Serpents Malcolm Smith

These days the press is happy to carry reports of lake monsters, such as Nessie and Ogopogo. However, for more than a century prior to the Second World War, sea serpents were in vogue - accounts by sea captains or viewers on land of elongated creatures, with undulating humps, and heads raised up like periscopes on long necks. Not only that, but the reports would be printed and reprinted all over the world. Thus it was that the author, scanning old Australian newspapers for his book, "Australian Sea Serpents", found himself continually confronted with stories from the far corners of the world. Not only that, but it soon became apparent that a large number of them had been missed or ignored by earlier researchers. This, then, is a compendium of more than 70 of these forgotten accounts, which will be required reading for every serious student of the phenomenon who desires completeness. Some are vague, some are explicable, and some are probably hoaxes, but the vast majority are inexplicable reports by people who would be taken seriously if the subject were more mundane. Once you read them, you will need to ask: how often does something weird have to be reported before we accept that something weird is going on?