Water Monster · 1871
XX-1871ID case-6826e79465Added to map Oct 30, 2026
- Creature
- Water Monster
- When
- Dec 30, 1871to the day
- Where
- Place unknownno dependable place
- Reports
- 1 document1 independent
The account
J. Cobbin reports seeing an enormous sea serpent resembling a cobra with a bull's head and rainbow-colored scales on December 30th.
See the source ↓ one document so far, so there is no trail to follow yet
We map claims, not creatures: this is what the sources say, not proof. How a case is built
Details
- Creature
- Water Monster
- Where
- No dependable place
The account doesn't say where in words we can place, so it isn't drawn on the map; the map lists it under Cases with no resolvable place. Other Water Monster reports with no place (45) - When
- Dec 30, 1871
- Account
- Not first-hand (retold or reported by someone else)
- Backed by
- 1 independent source
- Added to map
- Oct 30, 2026
- Case id
- case-6826e79465
Place lookups use data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via Nominatim. All credits
Source trail (1)
Every link goes to where we found the account. The earliest we found is marked; it is the earliest found, not necessarily the original.
- Image 2 of The New Hampshire gazette (Portsmouth, N.H.), July 13, 1872
Newspaper · 1872-07-13
Earliest found, not necessarily the original.
Further reading
- The Great New England Sea Serpent, J. P. O'Neill (1999)
Account of the 1817 Gloucester sightings and later reports.
Borrow on Internet Archive - On the Track of Unknown Animals, Bernard Heuvelmans (1959)
The founding work of cryptozoology.
Borrow on Internet Archive - Cryptozoology A to Z, Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark (1999)
Encyclopedia of reported creatures.
Borrow on Internet Archive - Abominable Science!, Daniel Loxton and Donald Prothero (2013)
Skeptical history of the Yeti, Nessie and others.
Borrow on Internet Archive
Books we have not reproduced: borrow them free at archive.org. Listing a book is not an endorsement of its claims.