COLUMBIAN CENTINEL, Boston, Aug. 20, 1817

• Gloucester sea serpent sightings
• Off Cape Ann - Massachusetts

Page 2 has nearly half a column taken up with a detailed & descriptive article headed: "A Sea Serpent".
Four pages, never bound nor trimmed (preferred), various foxing and mild wear at margins & folds.

Background: The August 1817 sighting off Cape Ann in Gloucester Harbor stands out as an extraordinarily rare milestone in American folklore because it remains one of the most meticulously documented and official sea serpent investigations in history. Over several weeks, hundreds of credible eyewitnesses—including experienced sea captains, naval officers, and local justices of the peace—observed a massive, dark, serpent-like creature estimated at 50 to 100 feet in length, moving in distinct vertical undulations with a head elevated like a horse above the water. What elevated this event beyond typical maritime legend was the unprecedented involvement of the Linnaean Society of New England, which dispatched researchers to gather sworn, notarized affidavits from witnesses, transforming local rumor into a formal scientific spectacle. The frenzy reached its peak when a deformed, humped three-foot snake found on a nearby beach was triumphantly, yet mistakenly, classified by scientists as the juvenile offspring of the monster (Scoliophis atlanticus), creating a uniquely embarrassing scientific blunder that forever cemented the 1817 Cape Ann encounter as America's most famous and unusual marine mystery.