The Plymouth Sea Serpent
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Not a bad spring day to be here on the beach in Plymouth, Massachusetts. No, not bad at all. And we're standing not too far from the Plymouth Rock Monument. Ah, yes, our nation's number one most underwhelming national landmark. We covered that story way back in episode 14. We sure did. I assume we're here not just to stroll the beach next to rocks with questionable history. No, we're not. We're here to keep an eye on the sea. Oh, what are we looking for? Ray, we've come to the shores of Plymouth.

to look for a giant sea serpent. Hey, I'm Jeff Belanger. And I'm Ray Ogier. Welcome to episode 392 of the New England Legends podcast. Thanks for joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England, one story at a time. Did you know that most of our story leads come from you? This one did. Thanks to Rebecca for emailing us through our website. So we'll go searching for the Plymouth Sea Serpent right after this word from our sponsor.

A Plymouth has a sea serpent? That's what they say. And in this case, one of the witnesses is a household name, as is the person who reported the sighting. No kidding. So the witness was none other than Daniel Webster. Ah, from the devil in Daniel Webster fame. That's the guy.

Quick rundown on Daniel Webster. He was born in 1782 in Salisbury, New Hampshire. He was an attorney of famed order. He served in the United States Congress for New Hampshire and later his adopted state of Massachusetts. He even got close to running for president under the Whig Party, but he came up short. He

He spent his later years in the town of Marshfield, which is just a few miles north of where we are here in Plymouth. The legend of Daniel Webster grew to the point where a lot of us read that children's book, The Devil and Daniel Webster. They say he was such a good lawyer that he out-argued the devil out of a man's soul.

But we've also learned that just about any time someone makes a deal with the devil for their soul, they somehow find a loophole to get out of the deal. Yeah, that is true. In one of my favorite Simpsons episodes, Homer trades his soul for a donut. I remember that one. Yeah. But then he figures out that if he doesn't finish his soul donut, then the deal isn't happening. But then in a fit of hunger, Homer ultimately eats his donut and loses his soul. Yeah.

But then his wife Marge comes to his defense, reminding the court of demons that Homer already pledged his soul to her. So it was never Homer's to wager. Homer keeps his soul and they all live happily ever after. That's such a perfect example of a loophole that gets a person out of a deal with the devil.

But anyway, we're not here to talk about devils or deals. We're here to talk about sea monsters. Right. And we've covered several sea monster stories before. Yeah. Like the Block Island in the South, Gloucester, Mass, Casco Bay in Maine. Yeah, we have. In the 19th century, there was no shortage of sea serpent stories.

They turned up over and over and over in the newspapers with similar descriptions. And considering some of these descriptions are of a giant serpent that's 200 feet long, do you think it could be the same animal? Oh, definitely. I mean, from here to Casco Bay by sea is just about 100 miles, and that's not that great of a distance for a 200-foot-long sea creature to swim.

Plus, it would be strange to assume that there's just one of them. Yeah, right. There could be a whole group of them, and the New England coast is their home, or at least was their home. Yeah, yeah. We don't hear about sea serpents much anymore. All right. So who was the other household name, the one who reported the sighting? That would be New England's acclaimed poet, essayist, and philosopher, Henry David Thoreau. Oh, no kidding. Yeah. Thoreau documented the sea serpent sighting in one of his journals. So let's head back to 1841 and search for a monster.

It's April of 1841 here in Plymouth, Massachusetts. A man named Frederick Douglass, who escaped slavery in Maryland three years ago, has recently begun a brilliant speaking career on the subject of abolitionism in Massachusetts. And Massachusetts is no stranger to brilliant orators either. Around the Plymouth area, one name stands out above the others. Daniel Webster. Ah, yes. Daniel Webster. Attorney, statesman, and a man who owns a country home in nearby Marshfield.

He's had the estate since 1832, but one thing most people don't know about Webster is that he has a love of fishing. That's true, and having an estate close to Plymouth Bay works out well for the angler. He's got a sailboat to take him around the harbor where he can visit friends and get to the best fishing spots. Well, if he's out on the water, I hope he's keeping his weather eye peeled for a sea serpent. A sea serpent? I know the folks up north in Gloucester have been talking about a sea serpent for decades. Yes.

But down here in Plymouth, too? So there's a local man who lives by the sea here in town. Each morning, with his breakfast, he looks out on the harbor with his spyglass. He's been doing it for years.

They say he sees everything. Everything, huh? That's what they say. So not too long ago, he said he saw a sea serpent. There he was, looking out at the sea with his spyglass when he spotted something. He said its body was as wide as an oak barrel. It had a head like a horse that rose at least six feet out of the water on its long neck. He said the giant serpent was chasing mackerel who ran ashore in fright, and many of the fish died on the beach. And locals believe him? They do. His reputation is beyond reproach.

Today, Daniel Webster and his friend Peterson are sailing across Plymouth Harbor toward the town of Manomet, the next town southeast of Plymouth. The plan is to meet up with some men in town for a day of fishing. And it's a great day, too. Not too cold, not too hot. A perfect spring day. A few hours of fishing pass. The group of men have had some luck, caught a few fish, but they're still in the middle of the day.

But as the afternoon sun starts to dip, Webster and Peterson decide they should get back in the sailboat and make the journey home before it gets dark. It's about a 10-mile sail back home, and the winds are good, so it shouldn't take too long to reach the docks in Duxbury. No, it's been a fine day to be by the ocean and on the ocean. Seas are calm, skies are clear.

Hmm. What? Well, look over there. Something's stirring in the water. Yeah, I see that. What do you think that is? Oh, man, do you see those humps in the water? I do. Danny Webster sees it, too. He's pointing it out to Peterson. Webster's just shaking his head. It passed directly across our bow, only six or seven rods off, and then disappeared. A few moments later, after having time to reflect, I said to Peterson...

For God's sakes, never say a word about this to anyone. For if it should be known that I should have seen the sea serpent, I should never hear the last of it. Wherever I went, I should have to tell the story to everyone I met. It's getting near sundown as Webster and Peterson pull into the docks at Duxbury. The two men still can't believe what they just witnessed on the water. Peterson promises to keep his mouth shut. But how do you keep quiet about seeing something like that extraordinary? Yeah, I'm not sure.

Each of the men confides to a person or two about their sighting, but also asks for discretion considering how prominent Daniel Webster is. Still, once more than two people know a secret, it's going to get out. So true. But I love that it's getting out. Webster and Peterson weren't anywhere near the first to spot this creature, and they won't be the last either. Before we head back to present day, let's give Daniel Webster the last word. There is nothing so powerful as truth, and often nothing so strange. ♪

So true, Daniel Webster. So true. So most of what we know about this story comes from the June 14th, 1857 journal of Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau had heard the tale from a Plymouth local named B.M. Watson. He called the source reliable and told of the description of the creature.

Now, when you add this story to some of the other sea serpent stories that we've covered, it actually doesn't sound strange at all. I totally agree. It's amazing how every description from Gloucester to Casco Bay sounds so familiar to this one. The serpent had a long body as thick as a barrel and a head like a horse when it rose out of the water, which begs the question, what happened to this animal? So the most prominent theory is that as the 19th century passed,

The shores and harbors of New England were fished to the point where the giant serpent didn't have as much food to eat, so it was forced to move on to wherever there was more fish. Pretty straightforward. But you'd think we would have captured one of these things by now, or caught one on camera or something. Yeah, I get that. But you need to remember that, you know, stories of giant squids circulated among sailors for centuries. It was considered a myth, a legend.

These sailors must be mistaken, a notion that offended every red-blooded sailor for sure. It wasn't until 2012 that a giant squid was filmed on camera for all of us to see. Wow, well that wasn't very long ago. No. So maybe there's still a chance one of these giant sea serpents will get caught on camera one of these days. There's always a chance. For the countless witnesses, their stories of the giant sea serpent are the truth, even if it sounds so strange. And strange as our bread and butter.

That takes us to After the Legend, where we fish a little deeper on this week's story, and sometimes we go off the deep end. We do. After the Legend is brought to you by our Patreon patrons. This is our crew aboard the good ship New England Legends. They help us financially with all the costs it takes to bring you two podcasts each week.

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And to see some pictures related to this week's story, click on the link in our episode description or go to our website and click on episode 392. One of the most traditional, because of Loch Ness Monster, one of the most traditional creatures in the history of legends. Oh, sure. And by the way, Champ, same description. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Head like a horse, serpent-like body, freshwater version of the same thing. Yeah. I don't know. That's not that unreasonable. There are...

that are in freshwater. There's snakes that are in saltwater. I just can't fathom the thought that there's snakes that big. I didn't even mean to do that. Snakes that are that big. I mean, come on. This is why I don't swim in lakes anymore. So you don't like fish? I don't like fish, but God forbid a snake rubs up against me. A 200-foot-long snake? A bigger snake, yeah. A body like a keg? No, thank you. No, that's absolutely frightening. Because, yeah, snakes...

It's sort of universal that nobody likes snakes. I mean, literally in the Bible. Indiana Jones? Right, literally in the Bible. Literally in the Bible, right? The serpent got blamed for everything, and God said, you've got to crawl on your belly the rest of days because you tempted the forbidden fruit. So yes, it's inherent that a lot of people are afraid of snakes, and one that big is just...

And maybe it's friendly, though. We don't even know that. I mean, I think researchers... Oh, maybe not researchers. People want to hunt for these things. Sure. And kill them so that they can...

Study them. Prove it's real. Well, yeah, but... I mean, you could just prove it from a picture or a conversation with the animal. Who knows? Why does our minds go right to killing one of these things? It's our nature. Yeah, Bigfoot. You know, let's kill a Bigfoot. Yeah. You're going out there with guns. Yeah, yeah. Well, not everybody, but... I've told you my Bigfoot story, right? I don't know. So we were filming an episode of the New England Legends TV series. Yeah. And it was out in October Mountain in Western Mass. And we...

We were doing a Bigfoot recreation. Recreations are... They're not meant to fool you. They're obviously a recreation. Sure. But it's a visual to look at while you hear the story. So it was my turn to wear the Bigfoot costume. And the way you film it is you get way far away from the camera and just sort of walk across a trail, right? Yeah. Big strides. Yeah. So I'm out there. I put the Bigfoot costume on. I'm, you know...

I'm far away from the camera. And I just went, oh, this is how I'm going to die. Some hunter's going to be out here, see me and go, no one's going to believe me. I'm bagging a Bigfoot. And that's how I'm going to die. Or Bigfoot's going to find you and make you his bride. You're pretty. Yeah, that was. How come I haven't run into you?

Yeah, hey. What are you doing out here? Wow, I thought I was alone. So anyway, I didn't die, not to ruin the story. Hey, Hollywood. I mean, Jaws, right? The Great White Shark. What a great horror movie. Where's your giant sea serpent movie? Like that's, I mean...

I don't know. I think I'm more afraid of snakes than sharks. Yeah, I mean, I don't like sharks either. But I can stay out of their turf. Well, you can unless they're really close to the shore, those odd times that people get attacked. Right. But yeah, you can. Well, you can, absolutely. Well, same with serpents and Bigfoot. You can stay out of the woods. I could. We just don't belong in some areas. I don't know why we explore or spend our leisure time swimming or...

And in the woods. We're on a mountaintop, Jeff. All our naturalists are rolling their eyes right now. I know. But you know what? It's the home to other creatures. We have our dwellings. They have theirs. You know what? Maybe we have to put ourselves in some form of danger to feel alive. Or some of us do. Oh, absolutely. Sure. The adrenaline rush and all that. If you don't leave the couch or the backyard...

Not a lot of danger there. You know what I mean? Sometimes you get to get out there and be like, that could be a great white. Yes, but the older I get, the more I gravitate towards the couch in the home. Right. Staying safe. Yeah. How many more years do I have? I got to make sure that they all count. What is it, the grudes? No, the...

the caveman. Oh, Cruz. Cruz. Yeah. Like stay here, stay safe. Stay in a pile. Yeah. I get it. You know, as you get an older dad, you just have more to worry about. But, um, yeah, like going to the beach and seeing some giant serpent, you know, strangling your kid. Um, I,

So there's so many stories. Like, I can't tell you how many stories there are from Gloucester to Maine to Block Island to Massachusetts, right? All through the 1800s. From the early 1800s, like from like 1820 to 1880, 1890. Okay. They come up again and again and again and again. So in Gloucester at one point in August, people would picnic there.

by the bay. They would just put a chair out and just watch for the serpent. There were newspaper accounts of sailors who were fishermen, right, that pulled out a rifle and said they took a shot at it. Thought they hit it, but I don't know, the thing swam off. So there's...

I think we got to accept that this probably was a real thing. Probably. It's just, you know. I mean, we've seen all sorts of weird animals. The platypus. Yeah. If we never saw a platypus, we wouldn't believe it. Right. Right? Yeah, yeah. So why is it so unfathomable to think that there's sea creatures out there? The giant squid is such a great example, right? Like, it was reported for centuries. Sure. Like, a squid as big as a ship. Like, no way. You're lying. It's a tall tail. And by the way, people who, you know, work the sea...

there's nothing more offensive than you telling them they don't know what they saw. Right. Like I've been at, on, on the sea for 40 years. I know every critter creature that, you know, from a barnacle to a whale to everything in between. How dare you? Right. I am the foremost expert on my business. Right. Right. And just as, just as you are on yours and I am on mine. Like, you know, if, if you, you know, your environment, you know, your work environment, you know, what belongs there and what, what's weird. And you go, this thing, why,

I've never seen a squid this big. It's huge. Right. Ah, you're mistaken. Them's fighting words, right? Sure, absolutely. And then finally it took till 2012 for like all centuries of sailors to be like, I told you so. Took some Japanese, you know, underwater cameras to find this thing and prove what I said centuries ago. Right. Must be validating. I hope somewhere they're in the afterlife going, ah, finally, finally proof.

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