The Gloucester sea serpent
On 14 August 1817 ship carpenter Matthew Gaffney fired at a serpent-like animal in Gloucester Harbor, Massachusetts. His sworn account was printed by the Linnaean Society of New England.
On 14 August 1817, between four and five in the afternoon, Matthew Gaffney, a Gloucester ship carpenter, saw a strange animal resembling a serpent in Gloucester Harbor. His deposition, printed in the Linnaean Society of New England's 1817 report, says he was in a boat within thirty feet of it. He described a head as large as a four-gallon keg, a body as large as a barrel, and at least forty feet of length in view. The top of the head was dark, and the underside of the head and belly looked nearly white. He fired at the head with a good gun and careful aim, and believed he hit. According to Gaffney, the animal turned toward the boat, sank straight down like a rock, passed under it and surfaced about a hundred yards away. He added that he had seen the same animal on other days, and described its motion as vertical, like a caterpillar.
Epes Ellery, a Gloucester ship master, deposed that on the same day he watched from a rise some thirty feet above the sea, about one hundred and fifty fathoms from the animal, through a spy-glass. He saw the upper part of its head and about forty feet of its body. He saw joints roughly the size of a two-gallon keg, and the flat-topped head had a mouth like a serpent's, which he saw open.
American Heritage adds that Gaffney put his distance at thirty feet, while a witness in a second boat put it nearer thirty yards. It places a ship's sighting on 20 August and a few later reports from Long Island Sound.
"I, M a TT H E w G a F FN E Y, of Gloucester, in the County of Essex, Ship carpenter, depose and say : That on the fourteenth day of August, A D. 1817, between the hours of four and five o’clock in the afternoon, I saw a strange marine animal, resembling a serpent, in the harbour in said Gloucester. I was in a boat, and was within thirty feet of him. His hea ! appeared full as large as a four-gallon keg ; his body as large as a barrel, and his length that I saw, I should judge forty feet, at least. The top of his head was of a dark colour, and the under part of his head ap¬ peared nearly white, as did also several feet of his belly, that I saw. I supposed and do believe that the whole of his belly was nearly white. I fired at him, when he was the nearest to me. I had a good gun, and took good aim. I aimed at his head, and tlunk I must have hit him. He turned towards us immediately after I had fired, and I thought he was coming at us ; but he sunk down and went directly under our boat, and made his ap¬ pearance at about one hundred yards from where he sunk. He did not turn down like a fish, but app ared to settle directly down, like a rock. My gun carries a ball of eighteen to the pound; and I suppose there is no person in town, more accus¬ tomed to shooting, than I am. I have seen the same animal at several other times, but never had so good a view of him, as on this day His motion was vertical, like the caterpillar."
- The Sea Serpent of Gloucester, Massachusetts, History of Massachusetts blog
- When New England Saw the Serpent, American Heritage
- Report of a committee of the Linnaean Society of New England, relative to a large marine animal, supposed to be a serpent, seen near Cape Ann, Massachusetts, in August 1817 (deposition of Solomon Allen), Linnaean Society of New England (Boston: Cummings and Hilliard, 1817), via Internet Archive