I’m sure you’ve heard of the Loch Ness Monster, or “Nessie” as her friends call her. She is the elusive sea serpent that inhabits Scotland’s Loch Ness. But did you know Maine also has a mysterious monster swimming off of our shores too? In fact reports of suspicious sea serpent sightings have spanned hundreds of years here!
The first to share that something really big inhabits our waters was Edward Preble. Yes, the Edward Preble who went on to become a Commodore in the US Navy. In 1779 in the midst of the American Revolution, while serving as an ensign on the ship Protector, Preble spotted a suspicious serpent in Penobscot Bay. He bravely approached the creature in a longboat, when it rose its snakelike body 10 feet out of the water. Despite being startled, Preble shot at the beast, but missed as the monster vanished beneath the water. Not long after that in 1780, it was seen again. This time by Captain George Little in Broad Bay. He also chased after the beast and ordered his crew to fire at it, but once again the sea serpent dove before they could harm it. Little described the creature to be approximately 45 feet long, with a head nearly the size of a man, and rose 4 to 5 feet above the water before swimming away at an astonishing speed. His brother Luther Little added one chilling detail that George Little left out. He claimed that after chasing the monster for over a mile, and firing at it continuously, the creature dove then reappeared on Lowd’s Island before disappearing into the woods. A little over a decade later in 1793, Maine’s sea serpent surfaced off Mount Desert Island. This time Captain Crabtree described the animal as having a horse-like head, about the size of a barrel, and approximately 65 feet in length. Although curious about the captain’s ship, the monster was more interested in the birds flying overhead, before disappearing below the water.
Maine sailors in the nineteenth century also recorded their own fair share of sightings of this elusive creature, beginning in 1818 when it was spotted in Portland Harbor. Folks breathed a sigh of relief the following year in 1819 when the remains of an unidentified skeleton measuring 100 feet washed up on Mount Dessert Island. However, despite sending the bones to Boston to be analyzed, and subsequently lost, the creature was seen there again! It returned to the waters off Mount Desert Island in 1827 when Captain Thurlo spotted the monster while fishing for mackerel. Thurlo claimed he harpooned it, yet as with Preble, the creature managed to escape. Not to be deterred by the attempted harpooning, in 1836 the sea serpent returned to Mount Desert Island when Captain Black, aboard the schooner Fox, reported seeing the snakelike creature. In fact, it seems the suspicious serpent spent a lot of time in Maine during the 1800s, based on the numerous recorded sightings, including when two were spotted sun bathing on the shore at Cranberry Island before diving back into the water when they were disturbed.
In the twentieth century, the sightings continued, but were not as common. In 1905 while on the way to Wood Island Light, Major General H. C. Merriam and his sons watched as the sea serpent swam in circles around their boat. Five years later in 1910, the captain of the fishing steamer Bonita arrived in Portland with 100 barrels of fish and one amazing fish story. He claimed that an immense sea creature, 80 to 90 feet in length, came within 50 yards of his boat. He described it as being black with white spots, and visible for several minutes before disappearing beneath the water. Through the 1930s and 1940s the sea serpent frequently returned to Maine off the shores of Eastport. In 1958, Ole Mikkelson and his first mate were startled to see the large sea serpent swimming towards them while they fished off the coast of Cape Elizabeth. Initially they thought it was a submarine, before the seasoned fishermen realized it was a living creature. Prepared to cut his nets and flee, Mikkelson was relieved when after diving under the water for 3 or 4 minutes, the monster resurfaced 125 feet away. He described the creature as being the color of a cusk, with the tail of a mackerel, and well over 100 feet long. Similar to the time when it was spotted in 1793, it was distracted by its surroundings. While it swam near Mikkelson’s boat, it turned its head whenever the nearby the Portland Light Ship’s fog horn sounded.
Today suspicious sea serpent sightings in Maine are rare. According to cryptozoologist and director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Loren Coleman, the sea serpent, who he nicknamed “Cassie” after its frequent sightings in Casco Bay, ranges in size from 60-150 feet long, swims at an astonishingly fast speed, is as thick as a barrel, and comes in a variety of colors including dark green, mottled brown, or more commonly described as black with huge black spots. In a 2016 interview with News Center Maine, Coleman theorized the reason sightings are rare now is because “the sea serpents that are out there now know how to avoid those ships. The big noises, the big ships that are very dangerous, they are like highways and they avoid them.”
I, however, have my own theory as to why they were in Maine in the first place! Everyone knows Maine is a popular tourist destination. Even UFOs have made it a must see destination in their travels, as evident in our state being one of the top 5 places in the country for reported UFO sightings. What if this particular sea serpent isn’t unique to Maine at all? Perhaps it is just the Loch Ness Monster on vacation! You can’t say it is a coincidence that it has been seen repeatedly off the coast of Mount Desert Island, home to popular tourist destination Acadia National Park. Also its choice of Cape Elizabeth makes perfect sense with the most photographed lighthouse in Maine, Portland Head Light, there. Even quiet Eastport is a plausible destination. With those other locations getting more and more crowded with tourists, who can blame the sea serpent for wanting a little peace and quiet in Eastport? So please, if you happen to see Nessie, or Cassie depending on what you want to call it, please just give a quick wave and leave it alone. After all, with the state motto of “Vacationland,” everyone is welcomed here in Maine.
If you’d like to learn more about Maine’s sea serpent sightings, we recommend Midshipman Preble Chases Sea Serpent, The Great Sea Serpent of Casco Bay, Strange Maine: Sea Serpents in Maine, and Maine Sea Serpents and Lake Monsters.
