Sea Serpents of the South Sound Elude but Entertain

Reports of sea serpents appeared regularly in local 1800s-era newspapers. These accounts from Pierce County place mysterious creatures off the southern tip of the Key Peninsula.

A Sea Serpent off Devil’s Head

Mr. Editor:

I hasten to communicate to you the important and interesting fact that the world-renowned sea serpent has at last condescended to pay a visit to the waters of our beautiful inland sea, and from the great delight he was evidently enjoying, it is but fair to presume he will visit us annually.

For the gratification of the hundreds of thousands of anxious people in the world who have seen in the papers so many unsatisfactory accounts of his mighty snakeship, I will endeavor to give a correct and truthful description of him, praying all who may read it, to give the relation their full, firm, and entire belief.

Early in the morning of yesterday, Dec. 2, a party of us left Johnson’s Point, so called, where we had camped the night before, on our way from Olympia to pass “down the Sound.” We had just fairly got started, some 200 yards, perhaps, from the shore, when I, who was steering the boat, noticed a sudden and unusual commotion in the water in the direction of the Devil’s Head — a high bluff bank so called, and directly in our track. Pretty soon, the flurry was over, and the waters subsided into a calm. For a moment, I supposed that there was a shoal of “Killers” gamboling, which, being a common occurrence, I took no further notice of.

Looking again in the same direction, however, I saw intervals of some 10 feet, apparently four round, dark-looking spots, somewhat resembling buoys, upon the water. This awakened some curiosity in my mind, and I gazed upon the phenomenon intensely, but when I saw, as I did a moment after, an object of startling appearance rise gradually from the water to a height of 15 feet, seeming to connect with the dark spots on the surface. My amazement was complete, and I immediately directed the attention of those who were with me in the boat, Messrs. Ramsay, Turnbull, Clough, and Shanutt, to the singular-looking object and asked them their opinion of it.

They immediately ceased rowing and looked in the direction indicated by me anxiously and earnestly for some minutes, when the truth as to its real nature seemed to break upon our minds simultaneously, and we all exclaimed at once, “It’s the sea serpent, it’s the sea serpent!”

Ah, then it would have done you good and made the “cockles of your heart beat with joy” to see how four white ash oars were made to bend and spring under the vigorous strokes of as many athletic young men, creating a miniature waterfall under the bow of our sweet little craft. In 15 minutes, we had accomplished a distance that ordinarily takes 45, and had reached the spot as near as we could judge where we had seen his royal Snakeship.

If we were surprised before, when seeing him from a distance, we now were perfectly amazed, and so badly frightened withal, that there was not one in the party who did not send up an involuntary and sincere prayer to heaven for a safe delivery from the neighborhood of so hideous and dangerous-looking a customer. Curiosity however, was stronger within our breasts than fear and consequently we took no measures to get an offing but determined, on the contrary, to hold out where we were, and if possible get a good view of the animal from head to tail and thereby determine his length, size, color, and general appearance, that we might contrast him, as a whole, with the descriptions we had from time to time seen in the journals of the day, for the last 20 years.

Our laudable curiosity was destined to be completely gratified, for the monster, after coming to the surface, straightened himself out at full length, gradually raised his flattened serpent- looking head some 15 feet in the air, and opened his mouth, which was sufficiently large to take in yearling heifer, took a cool look all around, and at last fixed his small piercing eyes full upon us, in a manner that seemed to say, “Who and what are you, that you dare approach so near, or disturb the element which owns me, and me alone, as its monarch?”

I am aware that there are thousands of incredulous persons in the world who utterly disbelieve the tales that are told of this mighty Ocean Snake, and will dare even to deny the truth of this relation, and accuse the writer of having a distempered imagination or disposition to practice upon the credulity of the silly, and the inexperience of the young. To such I would say that my imagination is neither distempered nor ardent and that I have no disposition whatever to impose a falsehood upon the simple and credulous.

Yours Respectfully, Robt. Littlejohn

Originally published in the Puget Sound Carrier, Dec. 7, 1855. Reproduced courtesy of the Washington State Library, Office of the Secretary of State.

Nearly half a century after the Devil’s Head sighting, another sea serpent encounter occurred nearby, this time involving the short-lived capture of the creature near Moskito Island (now Pitt Island).

Party of Scientists Shipwrecked Off Moskito Island Collecting Specimens of Giant Barnacles, Sponges, Sea Cucumbers, and Other Things For The Ferry Museum

Ferry Museum has a large and varied assortment of material added to the list of attractions, but not until after a campaign lasting three days, and a shipwreck that lost the entire collection of the first day’s work.

An extreme low tide on the straits between the west end of McNeil’s Island and Meridian, off Moskito Island, County Commissioner C.H. Dow has told of wonderful, large barnacles, as big as a quart bowl, the beasts having a mouth and jaws on them like the beak of the dinosaurs of the reptilian age.

Other strange and wonderful monsters were said to abound in those waters, and a party was fixed up to go after them. Admiral Jacobs, of Puyallup, owner of the fine steam yacht Strea, took out his boat, with Professor Harlan I. Smith, of the New York Museum of Natural History; Professor Gilstrap, curator of the Ferry Museum; Commissioner Dow, Frank R. Baker, and Mrs. Dow, Mrs. Baker, and Mrs. Jacobs.

The barnacles were all that had been promised, and a big collection of them is now in place at the museum, where their vicious snapping and terrific-looking beaks are a terror to beholders. There is also a fine assortment of sea cucumbers, sea eggs, star fish, seaweed, shells of various kinds, some sponges, and other specimens of much interest.

The catch of the season, however, was lost by the capsizing of the boat: the sea serpent, one of the most terrible and striking-looking of the kind ever caught.

The animal, with a lot of other stuff, was in a yawl boat in tow of the steamer when the struggles of the beast upset the boat, losing the entire collection in the Sound.

The sea serpent was of a brilliant green color, so dazzling that it appeared as though the light shone through him. His body was wide and thin, with two immense fins immediately back of the head, giving him a ferocious appearance when seen from the front.

His tail was set vertical, with three saw-like teeth, and with one fin immediately forward of the tail on the back.

On his brilliant green sides were iridescent spots of red, yellow, white and black that appeared to come and go as he splashed about in the water, which was lashed into foam as he sped about in the shallows where he was finally caught.

Originally published in the Tacoma Evening News, June 30, 1899. Reproduced courtesy of the Washington State Library, Office of the Secretary of State.