Your True Tales
January 2006 – Page 6

Sea Monster
by Marie

My father's father, a somewhat eccentric individual (but not the type to tell tall tales or lie), once told me about the time he was a soldier in the Navy and was on a ship somewhere in the vicinity of the English Channel, or so I remember him saying (perhaps this happened in the 1930s or '40s?) – and he claims that his vessel almost ran clear into a creature that was passing directly in front of their ship. I always thought that this was a rather interesting story he told, because while he was referring to the animal as "something that looked like a dinosaur," which isn't very plausible to most people, he was so insistent that I think even today there is a ring of truth to it!

He described his monster as very long, either as long or longer than the ship they were riding in, and having a ridged or "bumpy" backside, as the backside of a crocodile might appear. He also noted that there was a head held out of the water at one end of the body, and a neck too (which he didn't see too much of), and he recalled that they passed so closely that there was almost a collision. I think that would have been disastrous... but he states that the animal, whatever it was, didn't look right or left, and didn't acknowledge his ship, even though a collision had seemed imminent.

The creature also did not submerge, and kept swimming along as though it had someplace to go until it was out of sight, and a few of the soldiers had eagerly begun snapping pictures (although my great-grandfather, conveniently, had no camera). In any case, I thought that this was an interesting story and wanted to share it; I'm interested in such things as "sea serpents" myself, but had never had to opportunity to see one!

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