Twice Told“Cape Ann Serpent on Lake Champlain”, Plattsburgh Republican, 24 July 1819
- Language
- English
- Reading
- transcribed from the page image
- Retrieved
- 17 October 2026
A letter to the printer of the Plattsburgh Republican, a weekly of Clinton County, New York, printed on Saturday 24 July 1819. It is the oldest report of a monster on Lake Champlain that Radford and Nickell and Zarzynski’s catalogue know of. The scan clips the last two or three letters of each line at the right edge of the column; clipped letters are supplied in square brackets. The heading above it is italic and also clipped at the end.
Cape Ann Serpent on Lake Cham[plain]
For the Republican.
Mr. PRINTER,
On Thursday last, the inhabi[tants] on the shore of Bulwagga Bay, we[re] alarmed by the appearance of a mon[ster], which from the description ma[y] be a relation of the Great Sea Serpent.
Capt. Crum, who witnessed t[he] sight, relates that about eight o’clo[ck] in the morning when putting out fro[m] shore in a scow, he discovered at [a] distance of not more than two hundr[ed] yards, an unusual undulation of th[e] surface of the water, which was rais[ed] by the appearance of a monst[er] rearing its head more than fifteen fe[et] and moving with the utmost veloci[ty] to the south, at the same time lash[ing] with its Tail two large Sturgeon and a Bill-fish which appeared to b[e] engaged in pursuit. After the conster[nation] occasioned by such a terrif[ic] spectacle had subsided, Capt. Crum took a particular survey of this singu[lar] animal, which he describes to b[e] about 187 feet long, its head flat wit[h] three teeth, two in the under and on[e] in the upper jaw, in shape similar t[o] the sea-horse, the color black, with a star in the forehead and a belt of re[d] around the neck, its body about the size of a hogshead with bunches on th[e …] each as large as a common potash bar[rel], the eyes large and the color of pealed onion. He continued to mov[e] with astonishing rapidity towards th[e] shore for about a minute, when sud[denly] he darted under water and ha[s] not since been seen, altho’ many fish[ing] boats have been on the look out.
Capt. Crum informs me that he ha[s] sent an express to Capt. Rich, of Bos[ton], communicating this intelligence, but is fearful that before his arrival this disturber of our waters may be chang[ed] to a pickerel. Mr. ******, the celebrated engraver of the Battle of Plattsburgh, is now at this place, pre[pared] to take a sketch of his terrific majesty, should he again make his ap[pearance].
I am, sir, with great respect, your ob’t serv’t.
HORSE MACKEREL.
Notes
- Transcription conventions: spelling as printed. The printer’s long dashes (after “sea-horse”, “neck”, “barrel” and “onion”) are given as commas, since this site prints no dashes. Hyphenated line breaks are joined.
- Uncertain readings: “bunches on th[e …]” (the line breaks off at the edge and the next line begins “each as large”); “potash bar[rel]” (the line ends “bar”, and the next begins “rel”); “fifteen fe[et]” has no “above the water” after it on the page. The text layer of the page (OCR) reads “kettle” for the vessel; the page image reads “barrel”.
- The writer is anonymous and signs as “Horse Mackerel”, a fish name. He says he writes at second hand (“Capt. Crum informs me”) and that Crum “relates” the sighting. The animal is “a relation of the Great Sea Serpent” and the heading names Cape Ann, a Massachusetts headland. We did not open a source for what had been reported there, so the article does not say.
- The letter ends with the fear that the animal “may be changed to a pickerel” before Captain Rich of Boston arrives, and says an engraver of the Battle of Plattsburgh is in town ready to sketch it. Radford and Nickell take the whole as a leg-pull (Lake Monster Mysteries, p. 34); that is their judgement, and the letter itself never says it is a joke.
- “Thursday last” in a paper dated Saturday 24 July 1819 is Thursday 22 July. Porter (Vermont Life, 1970, p. 47) gives 24 July as the date of the monster’s appearance, which is the date of the newspaper.