The 1850s Disappearance of the Whaleship Monongahela -- Did They Really Encounter a Sea Monster?
This write-up is about the real world disappearance of the whaleship Monongahela and the story of her alleged encounter with a Sea Monster.
In it I summarize three “modern” (i.e. 20th century) accounts of the encounter, and then summarize the original 1852 account.
1977 Usborne The World of the Unknown: Monsters Account
I first encountered the story of the Monongahela in a children’s book entitled The World of the Unknown: Monsters. It was one of my favorite books to take out from the school library.
Monsters contained a section entitled Monongahela’s monster that described how in 1852 the whaleships Monongahela and Rebecca Sims encountered a sea serpent in the Pacific. Captain Seabury of the Monongahela (thinking the creature was a whale) launched three longboats to hunt it.
As they neared the creature, it became clear that it was not a whale. Seabury threw a harpoon into the creature. It died quickly, but not before it’s thrashing sunk two of the longboats.
The captain of the Rebecca Sims described the creature in the ship’s log as a “brownish-grey reptile at least 45 meters long” with “dozens of sharp and curving teeth”.
The creature was too large for either ship so the head was cut off and stored in a pickling vat abort the Monongahela.
Monsters then says that the two ships started back towards their home port of New Bedford, Massachusetts. The Rebecca Sims returned, but the Monongahela was lost with it’s crew and the monster’s head.
The only hint of the Monongahela’s fate was some wreckage found off the coast of Alaska.
I remember as a child describing this tale to my mother, who replied that the sea serpent’s much larger companion (mate? sibling? parent?) destroyed the Monongahela in revenge (I think she was just humoring me).
1958 Fate Magazine Account
The December 1958 edition of Fate Magazine had an article entitled The Monongahela and the Sea Serpent.
The article (which I found rather confusing) refers to a story in the Seaport Log (presumably a newspaper) that recounts the “remembrances of Capt. H.E. Rabbe.” The Fate article says “a letter giving all the details of the adventure is in the possession of a relative of Captain Seabury, master of the ill-fated Monongahela.”
The Fate article says that the monster was sighted during the morning watch “in latitude of the doldrums in mid-Pacific” (doldrums means “near the equator”).
Even though it clearly wasn’t a whale, three boats were sent after the creature with Captain Seabury taking the steerer’s place in one of them.
The article goes into some confusing whaler’s or sailor’s jargon, from which I gather Captain Seabury threw a harpoon with a line affixed to it into the creature. The creature swung it’s head around, upsetting two of the boats.
The creature then dove down with the harpoon line to a depth of 1000 fathoms (i.e. over a mile). The creature appeared to stop at this depth.
The ship picked up the sailors and fastened the harpoon line aboard the Monongahela.
The next morning, the harpoon line was found to be slack. Very cautiously (so as not to pull out the harpoon), the ship’s capstan was used to reel in the creature.
The creature suddenly surfaced while the harpoon line was only half-way reeled in. It was dead.
“Around its mouth floated large chunks of flesh which the captain believed were pieces of its lungs.”
The creature was pulled alongside the Monongahela at which point it’s immense size became apparent: it was 110 feet long – longer than the ship.
The body was circular with its circumference at the middle at about 50 feet (tapered towards the head and tail). Nothing was said about the existence or absence of fins. The head was shaped like an alligator’s head and about 10 feet long. In its jaws they counted 94 teeth (each about three inches long and hooked backwards like a snake).
The creature was a dark brownish gray color with a white stripe running down its length.
Captain Seabury had the head removed and pickled (along with the eyes), “packed the bones carefully away,” and had one of his sailors draw a picture of the creature.
Captain Seabury gave an account to a homebound ship, but the Monongahela was never heard from again.
The article said that the Monongahela’s nameboard was found some years later in the Aleutian Islands, and is now at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
Fate goes on the say that an account of the sea serpent was published in the February 23rd, 1852 edition of the New Bedford Morning Mercury newspaper.
The Fate article finishes by saying that in some versions of this story that the Rebecca Sims captained by Samuel B. Gavitt was in the company of the Monongahela when this happened; and that the incident happened on January 13th, 1852 (according to the Seaport Log).
1971 The Lookout Magazine Account
The May 1971 edition of The Lookout magazine had an article entitled Sea Devil On The Starboard Bow! which recounts several sea monster stories.
It’s much clearer than the Fate article (although I suspect the Fate article may be a source for this article).
Lookout describes how in 1852, “the Rebecca Sims and Monongahela were in the doldrums of the mid-Pacific” when the crew of the Monongahela thought they saw a sleeping whale on the surface.
Three boats were launched towards the “whale” with Captain Seabury in command of one of them.
When the creature was harpooned, instead of trying to flee it attacked the boats, capsizing two of them. The creature then sank to a depth of 1000 fathoms.
The following morning, the dead creature was hauled to the surface. It’s appearance struck fear and awe into the crew.
It’s body was 110 feet long and 50 feet around at its thickest. It’s head was 10 feet long and resembled a crocodile. It’s teeth were three inches long and hooked backwards.
It’s skin was muddy brown with a white stripe along the back.
Captain Seabury had a crew member draw the creature.
The crew cut up the creature for the melting pot, but the head was kept and pickled to preserve it.
(I’m guessing that “melting pot” means rendering the blubber?)
Before the two ships parted ways, Captain Seabury handed over some letters about the encounter to the captain of the Rebecca Sims to deliver to the Monongahela’s owners.
The Monongahela was subsequently lost at sea. The ship’s nameboard washed ashore in the Aleutian Islands but the preserved head was never found.
Only Captain Seabury’s letters told of this encounter.
This account is similar to the Fate account, but it adds (1) the transfer of letters to the Rebecca Sims and (2) is stronger on the presence and participation of the Rebecca Sims.
1852 Original New York Tribune Account
The original account of the Monongahela was published in the New York Tribune in early 1852. Below I’ve linked to a contemporary copy of that article reprinted in the Hampshire Telegraph and Naval Chronicle (Portsmouth, Hampshire, England).
The article entitled Capture of the Sea Serpent actually represents itself as a letter from Charles Seabury, Master, Whale-ship Monongahela, of New Bedford to “your widely diffused journal” (presumably the New York Tribune).
I found the article difficult to understand, but I’ll try to summarize it.
The incident begins on January 13th but no year is given (presumably it’s meant to be the year the article was published – i.e. in 1852). The location is given as latitude 3’10 south, longitude 131’50 west.
It describes spotting “white water” and then sometime later “black skin” disappearing below the surface. The sailor who spotted the creature said it was too long to be a whale.
They continued to search for some hours, and when they spotted the creature again Captain Seabury’s eyes “rested upon the strangest creature (he) had ever seen in the ocean.”
The creature was still on the surface but “sobbing” up and down as sperm whales do (I imagine this means slowly bobbing up and down in the water as the creature breathes?).
Seabury said he knew it wasn’t a whale, and that “the body had a motion like the waving of a rope held in the hand.”
Eventually the creature raised its head out of the water.
“It is a sea serpent!” Seabury exclaimed.
Seabury then tries to persuade his men to hunt the creature, “telling them there were but few who believed in the existence of the sea serpent.” He added that without evidence, they would be ridiculed back home when they told of the creature.
Seabury then said, “I do not order one of you to go in the boats, but who will volunteer?”
The Monongahela pursued the creature for quite some time, apparently having difficulty as the creature swam against the wind. Eventually, boats were lowered with Seabury taking the lead.
The boat steerer James Whittemore’s harpoons “were buried to the socket in the repulsive body before us.” Seabury says “there was no visible motion of his snakeship.”
The creature then lurched it’s head towards the boat, filling the crew with terror and causing three of them to leap out. Seabury stabbed his lance into the creature’s eye.
I was knocked over and felt a deep churning of the water around me. I rose to the surface and caught a glimpse of the writhing body, and was again struck and carried down. I partly lost my consciousness under water, but recovered it.
He continues,
when I rose again in the bloody foam, the snake had disappeared …
All were picked up and back in boats after a few minutes.
The snake had taken my line, the third mate’s, and was taking the second mate’s, when I ordered the mate to bend on and give his line to the ship.
I think this last sentence means that the creature was hooked on the harpoons and they wished to anchor the lines to their ship.
At first the line went out rapidly, then decreased gradually. The creature came to rest at a depth of about one mile. Seabury speculated that the creature “was at home” at this depth.
Hours later the line went slack, so Seabury ordered it attached to the ship’s windlass. When the creature surfaced, Seabury
lowered three boats, and we lanced the body repeatedly without eliciting any sign of life.
The body was surrounded by pieces of what Seabury “took to be pieces of lungs.”
Apparently the creature wasn’t dead yet. Seabury describes the noises and convulsions it made as it died.
Once dead, they took the creature’s body alongside the Monongahela. As it was too large to take with them, Seabury decided to keep the creature’s skin, head, and bones.
The article continues:
In the first place I requested a Scotchman, who could draw tolerably, to take a sketch of him as he lay, and the mate to measure him. It was now quite smooth, and we could work to advantage. As I am preparing a minute description of the serpent, I will merely give you a few general points. It was a male; the length, 103 feet 7 inches; 19 feet 1 inch around the neck; 24 feet 6 inches around the shoulders; and the largest part of the body, which appeared somewhat distended, 49 feet 11 inches. The head was long and flat, with ridges; the bones of the lower jaw separate; the tongue had its end like the head of a heart. The tail ran nearly to a point, on the end of which was a flat, firm cartilage. The back was black, turning brown on the sides, then yellow, and on the centre of the belly a narrow white streak two-thirds of its length; there were also scattered over the body dark spots. On examining the skin we found, to our surprise, that the body was covered with blubber like that on the whale, but it was only four inches thick. The oil was clear as water, and burned nearly as fast as spirits of turpentine.
Seabury describes preserving the head in salt and saving all of the bones.
Inside of the serpent they found pieces of squid and a large black fish. One of the serpents lungs was three feet longer than the other.
The jaws had 94 teeth, very sharp and pointing backwards, “as large as one’s thumb.”
It had two spout holes (so must have been air breathing). It also had four “swimming paws” that were “like hard loose flesh.”
The heart and one of the eyes were also preserved in liquor.
The article ends with Seabury transferring this letter to another ship, the brig Gipsy (i.e. not the Rebecca Sims) with a Captain Sturges with instructions to deliver it to the post office.
Seabury’s account ends with:
As soon as I get in I shall be able to furnish you a more detailed account.
Note, the Hampshire Telegraph article contains a epilogue apparently added by the editor saying:
This narrative is evidently a sheer invention of a Yankee penny-a-liner …
I.e. the editor appears to be calling B.S. on this story based on the reported position of the encounter in the middle of the Pacific and the presence of the Gipsy
… on the 6th of February, out eight days from Ponce, Porto Rico
I.e. Puerto Rico is much more than “eight days” from the middle of the Pacific (at least by 1852 modes of transportation).
The Fate of the Monongahela
The Monongahela was a real historical whaleship. It shows up plenty of times under Shipping Intelligence articles in the California Digital Newspaper Collection from the relevant time period.
The April 18th, 1853 Shipping Intelligence article of the Daily Alta California places the Monongahela in Hong Kong in February of that year.
A January 13th, 1854 Daily Alta California article mentions the “supposed” loss of Seabury and the Monongahela:
… though it is supposed the ship Monongahela, Capt. Seabury, of New Bedford, is lost, as she was 80 miles within the Straits when the ice was seen by the Copia to close in and block up the Straits, rendering it impossible for a ship to work through.
A March 9th, 1854 Daily National Gazette article describes Monongahela last being seen in 1853 enclosed in ice:
The Monongahela, Capt. Seabury, was also seen the very last part of the season enclosed in the ice, and great fears are entertained for her safety, and the lives of her crew.
The New Bedford Whaling Museum has in its possession the Monongahela’s quarterboard:
This quarterboard was one of the few items salvaged from the wreck of the Monongahela in the Aleutian Islands while under the command of Jason Seabury in 1853.
The Whaling History website has the fate of the Monongahela as:
Lost near Atka Is, Alaska, Fall 1853.
If these accounts are correct, then the ship was alive and well some time after it’s alleged encounter. Likely it sank while trapped in ice near Atka Island, Alaska in 1853.
The Rebecca Sims
The Rebecca Sims was a real historical whaleship. It shows up plenty of times under Shipping Intelligence articles in the California Digital Newspaper Collection from the relevant time period.
A July 15th, 1854 San Joaquin Republican article describes a whale that had attacked a ship named Ann Alexander which some months later was killed by the Rebecca Sims.
The Rebecca Sims fate was to become part of the Stone Fleet. During the American Civil war, she was purposefully sunk as an obstacle to the South’s shipping.
The Gipsy
I can’t find anything to prove there ever was a brig named Gipsy with a Captain Sturges.
I tried searching old Shipping Intelligence articles for “Gipsy” and “Sturges” but didn’t find anything. Of course, that doesn’t mean it didn’t exist.
Analysis
This is a beautiful story but alas, I don’t believe it.
I think this story is an early example of fake news (i.e. the 1852 article). This story then attained immortality when the Monongahela disappeared in the fall of 1853. So people can believe, maybe it did have the head of a sea monster?
A February 24th 1849 article in the The Daily Constitutionalist and Republic asks the question:
does the Sea Serpent exist?
There appear to be other articles from the time shortly before the 1852 Monongahela article about claimed sightings of large unknown sea creatures.
Could these articles have inspired a hoaxer to write the letter from Charles Seabury, Master, Whale-ship Monongahela, of New Bedford? And could these articles also have primed the public to be ready to accept such a hoax?
Also, according to the Whaling History website, the Monongahela was captained by a Jason Seabury, not the Charles Seabury who signed the 1852 article.
The Maritime Heritage Project entry for Captain Jason Seabury also identifies him as the Monongahela captain, and also provides a copy of the sea monster story.
However, the inventory of the Seabury family papers mentions both Jason and Charles at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. They were apparently related and both had captained ships.
Questions
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How/when/why was the Rebecca Sims added to this story?
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If this was a hoax, who created it and what was their motivation?
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Did the Monongahela really encounter a sea serpent?
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Regarding Charles or Jason Seabury – does this indicate a hoax or does it indicate that contemporary records are wrong?
Links
Contemporary copy of original “New York Tribune” article entitled Capture of the Sea Serpent, March 13th, 1852, Hampshire Telegraph and Naval Chronicle, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61368850/capture-of-the-sea-serpent/
Capture of the Sea Serpent, April 5th, 1852, Sacramento Daily Union article:
Usborne The World of the Unknown: Monsters book:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0860201465/
This blog describes Usborne The World of the Unknown: Monsters book:
http://tetzoo.com/blog/2019/4/22/usbornes-all-about-monsters
The Lookout Magazine Vol. 62 No.4 May 1971
http://seamenschurch-archives.org/sci/archive/files/5499a932f391108e88bac8048a2a0347.pdf
April 18th, 1853 Daily Alta California article placing the Monongahela in Hong Kong:
January 13th, 1854 Daily Alta California article mentioning “supposed” loss of Seabury and the Monongahela:
March 9th, 1854 Daily National Gazette article describing Monongahela last seen in 1853 enclosed in ice:
Whaling History entry for the Monongahela:
https://whalinghistory.org/?s=AS0460
California Digital Newspaper Collection:
July 15th, 1854 San Joaquin Republican article describing a whale killed by the Rebecca Sims:
Wikipedia entry on Rebecca Sims:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Rebecca_Sims_(1801)
History Central article on the Rebecca Sims:
https://www.historycentral.com/navy/MISC/rebeccasims.html
Whaling History entry for the Rebecca Sims:
https://whalinghistory.org/?s=AS0574
February 24th 1849 The Daily Constitutionalist and Republic article asking if sea serpents really exist:
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/69868331/the-sea-serpent-1849-part-1/
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/69868463/the-sea-serpent-1849-part-2/
Whaling History entry for Captain Jason Seabury:
https://whalinghistory.org/?s=AM4296
The Maritime Heritage Project entry for Captain Jason Seabury: