Sea serpent

The Hebrew Bible also has mythological descriptions of large sea creatures as part of creation under Yahweh's command, such as the Tanninim mentioned in Book of Genesis 1:21 and the "great serpent" of Amos 9:3.

Claudius Aelianus in his work On the Nature of Animals mentions a giant sea centipede, which has a tail that is similar to a crayfish and which moves using numerous feet on each side of its body.

[8][9]Norwegian Bishop Erik Pontoppidan (1698–1764) did not disbelieve the existence of sea serpents themselves, but doubted they would prey on ships and feed on humans,[10] being more cautious-minded in that respect than Archbishop Olaus (of Upsala).

Hans Egede,[a] a Dano-Norwegian clergyman who was an early explorer and surveyor of Greenland, gave an 18th-century description of a sea serpent witnessed by his party.

In his journal he wrote:[14][15] On the 6th of July, 1734, there appeared a very large and frightful sea monster, which raised itself so high out of the water that its head reached above our main-top (top of the mainmast).

[15]Egede also wrote on the same sea-monster sighting in his book, noting that the beast was spotted at the 64th degree of latitude, and was as thick[16] or "bulky as the Ship, and three or four times as long".

[20] In 1845, a 35 m (115 ft) long skeleton claimed as belonging to an extinct sea serpent was put on a show in the New York City by Albert C. Koch.

[21] On 6 August 1848 Captain McQuhae of HMS Daedalus and several of his officers and crew (en route to St Helena) saw a sea serpent which was subsequently reported (and debated) in The Times.

Captain McQuahoe also said that "[The creature] passed rapidly, but so close under our lee quarter, that had it been a man of my acquaintance I should have easily have recognized his features with the naked eye."

[24] In a 2023 article for Fate, Karl Brandt suggested well-known sea serpent sightings could be explained by harpooned sperm whales held fast to their hunters’ overturned rowboats.