The Victorian Sea Serpent Craze

The 19th Century witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of reported sea serpent sightings. Although these mythical creatures had been a part of many different cultural traditions for millennia, the rise of paleontology as a science alongside the development of print media created a renewed interest in sea serpents in Victorian era Britain and the United States. Discoveries of Ichthyosaurs and Plesiosaurs opened the possibly for the ancient legends to be proven true, while newspaper accounts of sightings provided thrilling entertainment in an age before the advent of television. Perhaps most importantly, sea serpents added a sense of mystery and wonder into a world that was being increasingly demystified by the rise of modern science. The Victorian era was also defined by a fascination with the mysterious, including ghosts, fairies and spiritualism, with sea serpents forming a craze that was a forerunner of the more modern lake monster phenomenon.
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[@PenaKULatta]

An old school sea captain lying about sea serpants for clout and getting caught in a web of lies would be a cool movie.

[@WaterShowsProd]

Or a rogue captain using a submersible boat of his creation to attack ships laiden with military cargo and using the sea serpent craze as a cover for his operations. That's the story of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea which begins with stories of sea serpent attacks, prompting an investigation.

[@anthonymorris615]

@@WaterShowsProd perhaps a team of meddling kids and their dog can solve the crimes and bring this "Nemo" fellow to justice. 🤔

[@WaterShowsProd]

@@anthonymorris615 If you'd pitched that idea to Hannah-Barbara, I'm sure they would have green-lit it. There was a cartoon based on Journey To The Centre of The Earth, so why not?

[@donkeykong6426]

@@WaterShowsProd also a movie

[@PhilippBrandAkatosh]

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[@taianonni]

As a kid, I once thought I had seen a large brown serpent in one of the lakes of the Adirondack mountains. There were these brown, round shapes that were bobbing, moving vertically through the water very close to the deck of the camp. Had it not been for the family of otters surfacing less than 50m down the shore, I might have still believed it to have been an actual crypto-creation due to low light and my youthful imagination

[@andrewstripay5987]

or that family of brave otters saved you from the cryptid.

[@sdhappyprince]

Missed your videos 😊 good to see you back 👍🏻

[@dr.polaris6423]

Thanks!

[@shelbylynn9]

I just found this channel and I’m head over heels in love with it. I really love how he covers cryptids AND badass real life animals!! Animal science is a love of mine, as is psychology, and it’s really cool to watch videos about cryptids and learn about how both of my favorite topics play into the phenomenon. I also love how much detail he goes into. I’ve watched several videos on cryptids before, and most channels just repeat the same few stale facts. He gets into it so deep, and I absolutely love it. For one thing, with this video in particular, he talked about the oarfish! Do you have any idea how many episodes I’ve seen about the history of sea monsters, and nobody has ever talked about the oarfish like this?! That’s undoubtedly the source of some of these sightings! Look at that thing!! He also does a really good job of finding and using art that I’ve never seen. I can’t imagine how much time he must spend on just finding art, let alone how much time he spends on these in depth facts and background knowledge. I also love his voice. Usually, when I find someone with a soothing voice like this, it becomes my new channel to fall asleep to. But I haven’t been able to fall asleep to this! I can’t miss a single one of his facts!! Maybe I’ll try again after I’ve watched every episode at least twice. Lol. I can’t wait to see the hyaenadont episode!! I was legit a little sad when I figured out I was watching a brand new episode, and the hyaenadont one isn’t out yet. I scrolled to the suggested videos so fast… lmao. If you see this Dr. Polaris, thank you so much for all of your hard work on these episodes! You are so very appreciated. I’ve been at home on bed rest with a bad back for almost a year now, and KZbin videos have kept me from going insane. Yours is by far the most detailed and carefully researched channel I’ve come across in all my time spent digging for these kinds of videos. Thanks again, and please keep up the good work ❤️

[@dr.polaris6423]

Thank you so much! Glad you enjoy my videos.

[@thursoberwick1948]

Cryptozooology videos tend to be polarised* between "look at these silly people" and "they don't want you to know this". There are cryptozoologists who are doing decent work in the field - Karl Shuker and Paxton are two I can think of, yet we tend to get tacky reporting etc. The people on the sceptical side are just as guilty of this. There is little awareness among some of them that there is an anthropological/cultural interest in these stories, as well as the possibility that there are real life bases for them. If a story is exaggerated it doesn't necessarily make it false. * No pun intended!

[@triceratops2653]

Excellent discussion, old chap

[@larachaplauske8818]

Your voice is so soothing. I often go to sleep listening to your videos. 🙂

[@dr.polaris6423]

That’s quite the compliment! Thank you.

[@MarcusAgrippa390]

I get happy whenever I see you post a new video. Thank you sir!

[@WildBillCox13]

7:38 Oarfish in all but size.

[@mariodegroote6756]

an amazing insight in the human mind and its workings, and the power of the stubbernes of the science. im glad i live now and am able to look at this al without fear:D thank you for the hard work dr polaris, respect!

[@DoodersDen]

Iove the idea of just a victorian era explorer just dumping a ton of time and effort towards the hunting down of what could be said was quite literally a bored and exhausted cartographer's doodles in a wild goose chase to find the next big discovery. This gusto towards nature has sadly seemed to less prevalent during the modern age, so I'm glad you've brought this time period to light once again!

[@thedragonsterritory2332]

Marvellous video! There are numerous reasonable explenations yet, on the contrary, we still know so little about our blue planet that our beautiful environment remains full of mysteries. Thus, Hic Sunt Dracones

[@youregonnaattackthem]

Here be dragons

[@PhilippBrandAkatosh]

they are called oarfish in real life :)

[@NOBLEFILMS1987]

Yes Whales, Sharks, and Sea Lions are All Dragons.

[@SawdEndymon]

Hyenodonts next?! *HELL YES!!!*

[@christosgiannopoulos828]

Oh man, I don't remember the last time this channel uploaded a cryptid video

[@thelaughinghyenas8465]

Thank you for the episode. I look forward to the hyenadon.

[@dadahyena]

Same here!

[@Squeam9750]

Imagine in a hypothetical world were these beasts exists. One has to wonder on how humans can coexist with these things. Would this impact our civilization rn?

[@thursoberwick1948]

@Boco Corwin It would have consequences to colonialism too. The European powers would not have have had their large sea empires. I think Polynesia would have become colonised, but it would have taken a lot longer and the likes of the Maori and Hawaiians would have developed in isolation. Air travel would have changed the game, but much later.

[@ravensthatflywiththenightm7319]

Something like Dishonored maybe.

[@wawaw1194]

Poison the sea

[@CaucAsianSasquatch]

Excellent

[@WildBillCox13]

A recent video post of a surfer with a juvenile giant squid (presumably stricken) clutching his board makes for interesting contemplation. Whale penis is the usual go to marine cryptid, but I suspect the Kraken comes from old salts scaring youngsters when hunting sperm whales. A dying sperm whale can cough up its guts, possibly filling the water around it with tentacles, arms, and pieces of squid mantle. Canny oldsters would categorize those assemblages as "look, lad! Th' kraken's come ta steal our whale! Haul on that line! Look smart or he'll snatch ya overboard like so many others before!"

[@jeffagain7516]

Thanks for another great vid, Doc P. ! I'm happy to see you mention the Oarfish as a candidate for the sea serpent legends. As soon as I read the report of Capt McQuhae (1848) and his inclusion of "something like the mane of a horse" it was the incredible Oarfish that lept to my mind. This fish is still relatively quite unknown to us regarding habits, diet, and overall activities and yet is so captivating in appearance that any and all observers of the beast are instantly amazed by it. It's no wonder that so many fantastical stories have been attributed to it, right up to current times. I think it's high time I started a YT search for more info on the Oarfish. I'm certain there must be some great info available by now. :)

[@yungjoemighty879]

The sad thing that always comes to my mind when hearing sea monster myths, is knowing that there were so many more giant marine animals around back when people were writing these stories. Our oceans today are bare and lifeless in comparison to a few hundred years ago

[@LupinLovebites]

The mane may have been the baleen. Without having another word for that, a mane off the "neck" of the creature seems a likely tale.

[@J242D]

Especially with the jaw typically being perceived as a head

[@ecurewitz]

Baleen or seaweed. People could have been seeing whales, seal or sharks, or just plain old wreckage and odd shaped waves

[@Devin_Stromgren]

People in the 19th century were intimately familiar with baleen. It's the primary material that was used for stiffening corsets. That said, you're not wrong that it could be mistaken for a mane, although I would expect a sea captain to know better.

[@jonstfrancis]

Possibly the ripples in the water were mistaken for hair, I mean if the viewers were expecting to see that based on earlier sightings of oar-fish. I once read an early description of hippos in the Nile and the author describes their horses' manes too. He just expected them to have them as they were river-horses? Observation is always subjective.

[@cyankirkpatrick5194]

Those Victorian's really knew how to embellish

[@Michelle-Eden]

Giant aquatic snake symbolism refers to the umbilicus. The Cosmic Tree, or world tree, refers to the umbilicus/placenta in combination.

[@saml7610]

I have a feeling it's more simple than that. Big snake cool, that's about it.

[@thursoberwick1948]

Large serpents and dragons appear in practically every culture. It could also be a manifestation of the Milky Way which snakes its way across the sky and seems to bind things together Except if you live in a modern city where the light pollution ensures you don't see it.

[@Michelle-Eden]

@@thursoberwick1948 Interesting. Asian dragons guard a pearl of great price. Pearls are found under water, in what the French call la mer (mother), and ships are always feminine too. Sea monsters have accreted lots of cultural baggage over the centuries, yet amniotic fluid is, symbolically, the primordial ocean. The stripe of the milky way is in the airy sky, which like the 'fire' of sparkling stars, is masculine.

[@the_chosen_one5642]

@@Michelle-Eden ships are masculine in portuguese plus "le mer" means the sea not mother.

[@UnderhillKoufax]

Well done.

[@kuitaranheatmorus9932]

This video was very awesome and I definitely loved learning something new from it Also hope y'all have a great day

[@pikkon899]

I remember reading a book about sea serpents and other mythical creatures when I was a kid. The reports were strange to my child mind but it was fascinating. I wish these animals were real just due to the strange descriptions, sizes and the artists renditions of the past. They look bizarre.

[@Ekergaard]

Quite unrelated, I have always liked that Olaus Magnus map includes Moskstraumen, also known from Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe, see by the coast of North Norway in the map.

[@georg.camerone56]

Love it!

[@alexlemonds2838]

Fun fact: sea serpents exist in Middle Earth. Look it up.

[@michaelbacon5278]

Great analysis

[@BritishCryptids]

An excellent overview of the subject. Good work!

[@gleann_cuilinn]

I love all these victorian stories about fantastical creatures. BTW I think McQuhae is pronounced “McFay”. (Quh is Scots for Wh and it was often pronounced like F.)

[@ryanvalicek7291]

*Victorian “aliens”*

[@dr.polaris6423]

Very true. Sea serpents were something of a forerunner to the UFO phenomenon that really took off in the 1950's.

[@Captain_Gargoyle]

Must have been an interesting time: Believing that science was actually proving the existence of sea monsters.

[@teddyboukagain9985]

Anything Sea Serpents sold so we’re left with all these great legends.

[@kevinquinonez838]

Sea serpents are real, they are called sea snakes

[@cosmo6122]

I love this channel

[@balintkis490]

I love oarfishes!!!

[@oiartsun]

I wonder if the accounts of a long serpent with multiple humps rising out of the water could be explained by a pod of dolphins, swimming inline

[@hamburgler9839]

I like how the bell island sea serpent and gloucester sea serpent are here.

[@Ultimate_Hater75]

Yup an example of Mythical Serpents is the Philippine Bakunawa. A flying serpent that causes the eclipse by devouring the moon. Natives would bang objects loudly to ward the serpent from completely consuming the moon. A lot of similar myths in Polynesian and Asian cultures.

[@DISTurbedwaffle918]

To be fair, the fossil record was far less complete back then, and the seas far less well-documented. The existence of large serpents was plausible, as we knew less.

[@curiodyssey3867]

Ooh I like this content

[@CwL-1984]

👍👍

[@naomiseraphina9718]

This is an interesting video, and I don't disagree with your assessment of some of the prevailing cultural attitudes during the Victorian period. It is still important, I believe, to maintain a certain humility when faced with our planet's vast oceans. Every time a scientist scoffs at the "impossibility" of any unknown creatures still awaiting discovery by the scientific community, I think of the giant squid, colossal squid, coelacanth, and other "impossible" or "extinct" creatures who had the last laugh, so to speak. A Victorian craze for sea serpents there may have been, but we have actual, huge, serpentine animals swimming up and down the west coast of North America which are sighted by many people every year. They have been encountered in rivers and bays and estuaries as well, and have even occasionally collided with boats. I am confident that at some point in the not-too-distant future, these animals too will be added to the list of creatures that were once derided as "fantasy" by smug academics despite having been well known by mariners and indigenous communities for centuries. As we all know: never turn your back on the ocean.

[@Therealw1]

What is the name of the music for the Midnight Sun Productions at the beginning of the video?

[@rhodrage]

I believe it's from Crash Bandicoot. Arctic Antics? I think.

[@donkeykong6426]

a serpent can also be a short necked seal of unknown species or different necked walrus with no need of tusks for it to be new

[@jasonsantos3037]

It's kind of fascinating about the sea serpents sure they're not real but imagine a sea snake because giant size now become the real sea serpent. 🌊🐍🐉

[@thedarkmasterthedarkmaster]

History has cycles

[@JV-km9xk]

What's the intro song called? Is this crash or what?

[@telfordexotics167]

Would someone in 1555 use the terms feet to describe length?

[@thursoberwick1948]

Yes. Although marine measurements could be different.

[@NOBLEFILMS1987]

Whales, Sharks, and Sea Lions are All Sea Serpents.

[@Zebred2001]

I'm sure they also furnished, at least in part, the inspiration for the world of H.P. Lovecraft.

[@griffstanker670]

still waiting for the next installment of Alter-Earth

[@rsp7029]

RAZOR TOOTHED HYAENADONTS WHEN IS THAT

[@MrTrenttness]

🔥🎸🔥

[@larachaplauske8818]

Lol, what they saw was usually a whale freeing his willy.

[@ODJJ-77.83]

3993

[@GRIGGINS1]

You know a Giant Sea Snake the size of a Green Anaconda or a large Python would not be that impossible an animal. And may very well exist.

[@thursoberwick1948]

Of course not. When you see the size of whales, sharks, giant squid, saltwater crocodiles etc, a serpent like creature of similar size is not far fetched.

[@GRIGGINS1]

@@thursoberwick1948 Indeed and when you add the fact that the largest snakes in the world hang out in water a lot. Not that far a leap for a fully ocean going large snake to develop.

[@the_chosen_one5642]

No evidence?

[@GRIGGINS1]

@@the_chosen_one5642 there was no evidence of Mountain Gorillas until there was. All scientists had was stories told by natives. Same with the Giant Squid. All they had was stories told by sailors. Until they had a body. And now we have stories from people over many centuries reporting giant Sea Snakes. Do you see the pattern yet.

[@the_chosen_one5642]

@@GRIGGINS1 A sea snake would have a worldwide habitat so it would be really weird how all the sightings are by europeans or influenced by them. A giant sea snake would also have impact on the ecosystem, which would also be very easy to see, a sea snake would also need to come to the surface to breath and would therefore be seen, also why do all other sea animals wash up on shore with the exception of the sea snake? Almost as if it is made up. Also there were previous evidence of Giant Squids.

[@nicksweeney5176]

Firrrrst...!!!

[@kateaveryavery1342]

Seventh?