News of the encounter hit the British newspaper The Times two months later, telling of the ship’s brush with a nearly 100-foot monster that possessed a maw “full of large jagged teeth … sufficiently capacious to admit of a tall man standing upright between them.” The beast was unlike anything the sailors had seen before. Helena off the African coast when the crew spotted what they described as a gigantic sea serpent. Peter M’Quhae was guiding the HMS Daedalus through the waters between the Cape of Good Hope and the island of St. Before that, giant squid were identified as sea monsters or viewed as a fanciful part of maritime lore, as in the case of a strange encounter shortly before scientists realized just what was swimming through the ocean deep.Īt about 5:00 in the afternoon on August 6, 1848, Capt. The creature-likely the inspiration for the legendary kraken-has been said to have terrorized sailors since antiquity, but its existence has been widely accepted for only about 150 years. Foremost among them is Architeuthis dux-the giant squid. Yet some elusive creatures have retained their monstrous reputation.
As our species has explored and settled the planet, the far-flung areas marked “Here Be Dragons” have been charted, and toothy terrors once thought to populate the globe have turned out to be imaginary or merely unfamiliar animals.
There are few monsters left in the world.
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