Print of a sea serpent...

Item # 709887

September 27, 1851

SATURDAY EVENING POST, Philadelphia, Sept. 27, 1851 The front page features a print of: "The Sea Serpent" with descriptive text.
Four pages, large size, several folds, a piece from a column on the back leaf has been cut away. Folder size noted is for the issue folded in half.

background: The sighting occurred on December 31, 1848, when the crew of the HMS Plumper, a Royal Navy steam sloop, observed a mysterious creature off the coast of Oporto, Portugal. According to the report and subsequent sketch published in the Illustrated London News, the "serpent" was described as having a long, dark body with a sharp, pointed head held approximately 6 to 8 feet above the water, followed by a series of jagged, mane-like protrusions along its back. Unlike the famous HMS Daedalus sighting just months prior, where the creature moved with great speed, the Plumper entity was recorded moving at a sluggish 2 knots, allowing witnesses enough time to note its "shaggy" appearance and lack of visible fins. While the crew remained convinced they had seen a biological anomaly, modern naturalists frequently point to the Sei whale or a large basking shark as the most likely culprit, suggesting the "serpentine" neck was actually a protruding jaw or dorsal fin viewed through the distorting lens of ocean swells and Victorian-era "sea serpent fever."