The Surgeon's Photograph

A photograph of a long-necked head above Loch Ness appeared in the Daily Mail on 21 April 1934. In 1994 Christian Spurling said it showed a toy submarine topped with a serpent head.

On 20 April 1934 several British newspapers reported that Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London physician, said he had seen the Loch Ness monster while driving near the loch the day before. Those first stories mentioned no photograph. The Western Morning News quoted Wilson as describing a small head on a swan-like neck, standing three feet above the water.

The next day, 21 April, the Daily Mail announced that it had bought exclusive rights to a photograph credited to Wilson and printed it with an interview. Wilson said he was gazing across the water when the monster appeared, and he grabbed his camera and took four photographs. PBS NOVA says he sold it to the Daily Mail and gave his reason for the trip: bird photography near Inverness with a friend, after a drive up from London. NOVA adds that his standing as a doctor gave the photograph its weight, because few believed such a respected man would join a deception.

In 1994, according to the Museum of Hoaxes, Christian Spurling confessed, aged 90 and close to death, that he had played a part in a scheme to fake the photograph. He said it involved Marmaduke Wetherell and a Colonel Wilson. The Museum of Hoaxes reports that what floated in the water was a toy submarine fitted with a head made to look like a sea serpent.