Creature Encounters

World War II lake monster ?

June 20, 2014 |  13 comments
Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 Jerzy Strzelecki I've always been fascinated by tales of cryptic lake or water monsters, though I've never actually seen one myself. But my step-father's father (an eccentric, yet sharp and to-the-point individual who ordinarily isn't given to making up fanciful tales, and whom I'll call Bill) once recalled a time during World War Two, when he was serving aboard a ship that may have been in the English Channel.

He noticed a commotion one evening on deck and when he went to investigate, many crewmen were carrying on. Those who happened to have cameras were eagerly snapping photos, though (conveniently) Bill didn't have one. What he claims to have seen was astonishing. A creature was traveling in the water in a perpendicular fashion, just slowly enough to frighten the crewmen into thinking that their vessel would collide with this beast. The creature, whose long back broke the water and looked something like a crocodile's, had its head held out of the water as it traveled. Its incredible size was said to be even longer than the vessel itself. Bill stared open mouthed. As he recounted, the vessel and the creature actually did come very close to colliding, but apparently the animal had a clear destination in mind. It simply kept on traveling without acknowledging the vessel or looking left or right-- luckily for those on board-- and it was not seen to submerge. Crew members followed it with their eyes as long as they were able until it finally disappeared from sight.

This did not sound like a crocodile to me, even a large one. When I pressed Bill for a better description, he stubbornly gathered his bearings and stated: "Well, it looked like a dinosaur. That's all there is to it. A dinosaur...I swear to it."

This was especially chilling to me.

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