---
title: "Sea serpents under oath: seven sworn cases from 1734 to 1877"
url: "https://usubjects.com/article/sea-serpents-under-oath-seven-sworn-cases-from-1734-to-1877-4602"
updated: "2026-11-05T16:24:00.678Z"
description: "Historical sworn testimonies from Royal Navy officers and sailors describing sea serpents across oceans from Greenland to the Strait of Malacca. Documents from 1734-1877 detailed in November 5, 2026 article."
sources: ["https://aliennews.co.il/en/articles/sea-serpents-sailors-sworn-reports-1734-1877"]
licence: "All rights reserved"
---

# Sea serpents under oath: seven sworn cases from 1734 to 1877

Published: 2026-11-05  
Source: [aliennews.co.il](https://aliennews.co.il/en/articles/sea-serpents-sailors-sworn-reports-1734-1877)

### Overview

A newly published historical review examines **seven reported sea-serpent encounters recorded between 1734 and 1877**, drawing parallels with the documentary structure of modern UAP investigations. The accounts involve naval officers, sailors, local residents and scientific societies, with evidence ranging from shipboard observations and sworn depositions to sketches, correspondence and, in one case, physical remains.

The material spans a wide geographic area, from Greenland and the North Atlantic to the South Atlantic and waters off Brazil. While none of the reports establishes the existence of an unknown marine animal, their surviving documentation illustrates how seriously some nineteenth-century observers treated unusual sightings—and how often later explanations remained disputed.

### Early Accounts: Greenland and Stronsay

One of the earliest cases occurred off Greenland in **July 1734**, when people aboard a Danish vessel reportedly saw a creature whose head rose above the ship’s main top. The animal was described as having broad flippers, a lower body resembling a serpent and a whale-like blow. When it dived, witnesses said it bent backward and raised its tail roughly a ship’s length from its body.

The account was published in 1741 by Hans Egede, the missionary known as the “Apostle of Greenland.” Although Egede expressed skepticism about sea monsters, later research concluded that the report originated with his son, Poul Egede, who was present during the sighting. That provenance has made the case more significant to historians, even though the original description remains open to interpretation.

In 1808, a far more tangible incident followed on Scotland’s **Stronsay Island**. After a storm on September 25, residents found a carcass estimated at approximately 55 feet long. Witnesses described a small head, an elongated neck, three pairs of limbs and a mane-like ridge along its back. The Wernerian Natural History Society in Edinburgh collected sworn statements and commissioned a drawing before classifying the animal as a previously unknown species.

The case later became controversial when anatomist Sir Everard Home examined surviving vertebrae in London and identified them as belonging to a giant shark. The Stronsay report is nevertheless distinctive because **bones were preserved**, providing the only physical evidence among the cases summarized in the source.

### American and Naval Sightings

In Gloucester, Massachusetts, in August 1817, dozens of residents reported seeing a long, snake-like animal in the town’s harbor. The Linnaean Society of New England organized an investigation, while local justice of the peace Lonson Nash took each witness’s statement separately. That procedure was intended to prevent witnesses from influencing one another, and one observer claimed to have fired at the animal from a distance of about 30 feet.

Although the investigating committee published an explanation, it was later shown to be incorrect, leaving the sighting unresolved. The Gloucester episode demonstrates both the value and limitations of historical testimony: independent statements can strengthen a case, but they cannot by themselves determine what witnesses saw.

A more prominent naval report came from **HMS Daedalus** on August 6, 1848, in the South Atlantic. Captain Peter M’Quhae and several officers described a dark, elongated animal passing close to the frigate, with its head and shoulders rising roughly four feet above the water. Using the ship’s rigging for comparison, they estimated that at least 60 feet of the animal was visible. The Admiralty requested an explanation, and anatomist Richard Owen proposed that the creature might have been a giant seal. M’Quhae rejected that interpretation, and the surviving correspondence records the disagreement.

### The Pauline and the Limits of the Record

The final case detailed in the supplied material concerns the barque **Pauline**, near Cape San Roque in northeastern Brazil, on July 8, 1875. Captain George Drevar and members of his crew reportedly saw a giant serpent coiled twice around a sperm whale and apparently dragging it beneath the surface. After the crew faced ridicule, Drevar and four sailors went before a Liverpool magistrate on July 10. The available excerpt ends at that point, so it does not provide the full testimony or the eventual assessment of the claim.

Taken together, the reports show why sea-serpent stories continue to attract historical and UAP researchers. **They contain recognizable evidentiary elements—logs, sworn statements, scientific reviews and official correspondence—without necessarily providing reliable identification.** Possible explanations include misidentified sharks, seals, whales, floating carcasses, optical effects and collective misperception. The surviving records do not settle the mystery, but they offer a valuable window into how unusual maritime observations were documented and debated across the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

## Provenance

This USUBJECTS page is a summary or digest of the linked original source. Any accompanying generated visual is an illustrative reconstruction, not evidence.