Pentland Firth sea serpent

⇈ List of sea serpent sightings in the Atlantic Ocean (1914-1945) ⇈

Pentland Firth sea serpent A drawing of the Pentland Firth sea serpent prepared by Bell's wife, under his supervision. The dimensions have been criticised. Date 5 August 1919 Location Pentland Firth, Hoy, Scotland, United Kingdom (Atlantic Ocean) Principal eyewitnesses J. Mackintosh Bell Classification Longneck (Heuvelmans system)

The Pentland Firth sea serpent, also called the Hoy sea serpent, was a sea serpent reported off the Scottish island of Hoy, in the Orkneys, by lawyer John Mackintosh Bell. Bell claimed to have seen the animal in August 1919, and later forwarded accounts of the sighting to the Natural History Museum and to Rupert Gould, who published it in The Case For the Sea-Serpent (1930). According to Bell, local fishermen had seen the animal on several previous occasions, and similar sea serpents have indeed long been reported from the Orkneys.

The animal involved has been classified by cryptozoologists as a longneck, and the sighting is regarded as one of the definitive observations of this type of sea serpent. The sighting is significant in that, if Bell's account was honest and accurate, the animal seems certain to have been a long-necked seal.

Background

Mrs Bell's drawing of the sea serpent's head and neck in profile. Peter Costello notes the bird-like appearance.

The alleged eyewitness, John Mackintosh Bell of Roundstonefoot in Moffat, was a lawyer who had been admitted to the Bar in 1894. He married Frances Wright in 1926, and died on 31 May 1950, at the age of 79. Bell claimed to have observed the sea serpent in Pentland Firth, the strait of seawater separating the British mainland from the Orkneys, where several sightings of longnecks have been claimed. Sea serpents similar to that reported by Bell were reportedly obsverved at Orphir (1830s), Inganess Bay (1905), Shapinsay (1905), the Skerries of Work (1910), Nethermill (1936), Fair Isle (1937), and the Pentland Skerries (1937), within Pentland Firth itself. The Firth is also noted as a habitat for grey (Halichoerus grypus) and harbour seals (Phoca vitulina).

Sighting

Bell made mention of the incident to The Orcadian, and, in 1929, he sent an account of the sighting, alongside a pencil sketch of the animal, to William Thomas Calman (1871 – 1952), Keeper of Zoology at what is now the Natural History Museum. Rupert Gould, an investigator of sea serpents and later the Loch Ness monster, also learned of the sighting during the 1920s, and contacted Bell requesting more details. Cryptozoologists' knowledge of the sighting is based mainly on the account he sent to Gould, which was published, slightly abridged, in The Case For the Sea-Serpent (1930).

Bell claimed that he had observed the sea serpent on or around 5 August 1919, during a fishing holiday he took on Hoy following his demobilisation at the end of the First World War. On the first day of his holiday, he had put to sea into the northern Pentland Firth, northwest of Tor Ness, with some local fishermen he had befriended, who told him that they often saw the creature. Bell wrote that, at around 9:30 AM, he saw the sea serpent emerge from the water near the boat.

“

The very first day I was there, I think it was about 5 August, I went afloat with a crew of four at about 9.30 a.m. for the purpose of firstly lifting lobster creels and then for cod fishing. On making our way to the creels, which had been set in a line between Brims Ness and Tor Ness, my friends said "We wonder if we will see that sea monster which we often see, and perhaps you will be able to tell us what it is." We got to the creels, hauled some, and were moving slowly with the motor to another, when my friends said very quietly "There he is." I looked, and sure enough about 25—30 yards from the boat a long neck as thick as an elephant's fore leg, all rough-looking like an elephant's hide, was sticking up. On top of this was the head which was much smaller in proportion, but of same colour. The head was like that of a dog, coming sharp to the nose. The eye was black and small, and the whiskers were black. The neck, I should say, stuck about 5-6 ft., possibly more, out of the water. The animal was very shy, and kept pushing its head up then pulling it down, but never going quite out of sight. The body I could not then see. Then it dis­appeared, and I said "If it comes again I'll take a snapshot of it." Sure enough it did come and I took as I thought a snap of it, but on looking at the camera shutter, I found it had not closed owing to its being swollen, so I did not get a photo. I then said "I'll shoot it" (with my .303 rifle) but the skipper would not hear of it in case I wounded it, and it might attack us. It disappeared, and as was its custom swam close alongside the boat about 10 feet down. We all saw it plainly, my friends remarking that they had seen it many times swimming just the same way after it had shown itself on the surface. My friends told me that they had seen it the year before just about the same place. It was a common occurrence, so they said. That year (1919) was the last of several years in which they saw it annually. It did not show itself again for two or three years, and then it was only seen once. As to its body, it was, seen below the water, dark brown, getting slightly lighter as it got to the outer edge, then at the edge appeared to be almost grey. It had two paddles or fins on its sides and two at its stern. My friends thought it would weigh 2 or 3 tons, some thinking 4 to 6. Not only my friends, but others, lobster fishing, got many chances of seeing it... I may say that since 1919 all cod and other deep-sea coarse fish have left the Pentland Firth. I think the reason is that such monsters frequent the rocky caves, which are always covered by deep water. My friends think the animal may have been killed by a passing steamer, but I think it is possibly a native of warmer seas, and that if we get a really hot summer it will be seen again.

”

After receiving Bell's account of the sighting, Gould wrote back requesting more accurate estimates of the animal's dimensions, which Bell provided.

“

... Dimensions. Neck, so far as seen, say 6—7 feet. Body never seen when neck straight up, but just covered by the water. You could detect the paddles causing the water to ripple. When under water, swimming, the body, I think, to the end of the tail flappers would be about 12 ft. long - and, if the neck were stretched to say 8ft., the neck and body 18—20 ft. long. The skipper of the boat remarked that sometimes the top of the head, when seen from a boat vertically, was a bright red. Neck thickness say 1 foot diameter : Head very like a black retriever — say 6" long by 4" broad. Whiskers black and short. Circumference of body say 10-11 feet, but this I am not sure of, as I never saw all round it, but it would be 4-5 ft. across the back...

”

Examination

The Pentland Firth sighting is regarded as a good account of a possible long-necked seal (Megalotaria longicollis), as drawn by Monique Watteau for In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents (1968).

Consulted in 1929, William Calman told Bell that "no animal at all agreeing with your sketches is at present known to science," and lamented his failure to photograph the animal, but did not discount the possibility that he had observed an undescribed animal. The correspondence inspired him to open a file on sea monsters, and Bell's statement is still present in the Natural History Museum's archives.

The Pentland Firth sea serpent's close resemblance to a seal, albeit one with a much longer neck than any known species, has been acknowledged by cryptozoologists including Bernard Heuvelmans, who placed it in the longneck category. Heuvelmans believed that such sea serpents were indeed long-necked seals or sea lions (Megalotaria longicollis), a theory first proposed by A. C. Oudemans during the 19^th Century. As Bell's sea serpent was relatively small, not larger than the largest known elephant seals (Mirounga sp.), Heuvelmans suggested that it may have been quite a young specimen. Several cryptozoologists have cited the Pentland Firth sea serpent as one of the most significant longneck sightings. Robert Cornes sees Bell's account as "arguably the most convincing for the existence of a seal with a long neck," and Karl Shuker regards it as the only sighting preventing him from entirely dismissing the concept of a long-necked seal, an idea of which he is critical. Michael Woodley, although somewhat suspicious of Bell's claim that his camera malfunctioned, considers the sighting to be "one of the most clear, detailed, and convincing [longneck] accounts obtained to date".

Dale A. Drinnon is critical of the dimensions as represented in the sketch. According to him, the neck is depicted as longer and more slender than Bell's written account indicates, and Drinnon's modified sketch makes the head only as long as the hind limbs. Drinnon argues that the animal was a "thickneck," a large unknown sea lion about the size of a walrus.