On Saturday
night’s Morton Through Midnight show the regular cryptozoology feature Morton’s
Mystery Creatures focused on a mystery sea serpent spotted in Orkney
Just over a
hundred years ago, one fine day in August, nineteen hundred and ten, three men
were out hunting ducks off the coast of Orkney when they encountered something
far larger than wildfowl.
The
companions, a fellow by the name of Hutchinson, his father and a cousin, headed
out towards the Skerry of Work located in Meil Bay. The day was perfect:
bright, clear and tranquil as they sailed quietly out toward the Skerries.
Suddenly the tranquility was broken by a school of whales leaping clear out of
the water, making a great commotion and traveling at great speed as if in fear
for their lives. This sudden surge of cetaceans, seemingly heading straight at
the boat in a blind panic, just managed to avoid the fragile craft, much to the
relief of its occupants.
But what was
the reason for the whales’ panicked flight? The men first thought they were
looking at an enormous stalk of kelp rising high above the water. However in
place of a tangle of seaweed there was a head! They then realised that what they
were seeing was actually a long snake-like neck topped by a horse-like head.
Now there
appears to be two schools of thought on what to do in such a situation. The
first is that displayed by Hutchinson; he thought the best thing to do was to
aim his gun; after all what could be finer than the head of a sea serpent
mounted on your wall.
While our
souvenir hunter was all for taking a potshot with his fowling piece, his father
disagreed. He belonged to the second school of thought that can be summed up as
- just run away as fast as possible, on no account shoot it. Nothing to do with
the rarity and wonder of sea serpents, rather the fact that shooting an animal
that has just scared away a school of whales could leave you confronted by one
very annoyed sea serpent.
Common sense
prevailed, no shots were fired, no one was harmed and thus we have a
description of the creature.
The visible
parts of the animal were dark brown with the impression of lighter bands
running across the neck which might have just been wet streaks. All agreed that
the head was some 18ft above the sea’s surface, darker in colour and likened to
that of a horse or camel. Particularly odd was the neck, appearing to be too
slender for the size of the head; the top part resembled a snake that gradually
thickened until it was the width of a man.
The men
watched the animal for around five minutes before it sank slowly back into the
water, making not the slightest splash and leaving no bubbles as it disappeared
below the waves.
So what did
frighten the whales that August day? The first impression would seem to
indicate a half-kelp half-triffid beast. However, from the fuller description
it was almost certainly a member of the animal kingdom. It would appear that
our duck hunters had seen an example of what Bernard Heuvelmans, the great
cryptozoologist, would describe as a merhorse. Interestingly, this wasn’t the
only encounter Hutchinson was to have with a sea monster. But that’s for
another day.
If you want
to read more about this sea serpent and others in Orkney you can find them all
in my book Mystery Animals of the Northern Isles, which is available in both
paperback from Amazon
You can
listen to this show on the following link Morton through Midnight it is 1 hour 26 minutes 10 seconds into the
show.
