Record sea monster sightings, says city expert

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/Record-sea-monster-sightings-says.6300638.jp

Record sea monster sightings, says city expert
Published Date: 18 May 2010

The Royal Navy may hold records about possible sea monsters but it does not collect them centrally, it has revealed. And a Sheffield expert in unexplained phenomena says the Navy showed an interest in sea monsters in the 19th century.

Details of the Navy's policy on giant creatures of the deep emerged in response to a Freedom of Information request. A marine biologist inquired whether the Ministry of Defence held records about "abnormally large or dangerous sea monsters hundreds of metres under the sea" that had not been revealed.

Dr David Clarke, an expert in unexplained phenomena and lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University, said the National Archives in London, contain several historic Royal Navy files about strange sightings. These include an 1830 report sent to the Admiralty in London by the captain of the ship Rob Roy about a "great thundering big sea snake" measuring about 129ft long seen by his crew in the waters near the remote island of St Helena in the South Atlantic.

Another file records how Commander George Harrington, captain of the Castilian, saw "a monster of extraordinary length" rear its head out of the sea, again near St Helena, in 1857. Dr Clarke said: "At this time they were exploring areas of the world where they thought there may well have been such creatures living.

"I have looked at some of the ship's logs in the National Archives, and there are instructions about what people should record. Any unusual observations of any kind should be recorded in the ship's log."

He said the MoD would argue it was only funded for defence and not to investigate strange phenomena. "They should be recording those kind of things, but I don't think anybody is," he said.