Is This The Answer To The Sea Serpent Of Sailors’ Tales?

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 46, 26 January 1949, Page 4

Is This The Answer To The Sea Serpent Of Sailors’ Tales?

A new light is cast on the Sea Serpent by Mr F. S. Russell, Director of the Plymouth Marine Biological Station and Secretary of the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas. Mr Russell has recently stated that the Sea Serpent 'of travellers’ tales is a squid; a gigantic squid with tentacles, or arms, 60 feet long when extended, and fitted with suckers which enable it to do battle with the Sperm Whale, the most widely distributed of all the whales. Also known as the Cachalot, this is a large whale over 60 feet long with a mouth full of teeth up to eight inches long. On the bodies of some of the more bulky whales have been found scars inflicted by the giant squid; and we may try to imagine the struggles to the death between these two.

They are veritable Leviathans of the deep. But even larger Sperm Whales than those that have been washed ashore must exist; and Mr Russell believes that even larger squids must have from time to time appeared above the surface of the ocean to give the appearance of the coils of the Sea Serpent which more than one truthful mariner has witnessed —and most vividly described.