Wayne Soini

Gloucester's Sea Serpent (Ma) Wayne Soini

In 1817, two women first sighted Gloucester's sea serpent swimming into the harbor near Norman's Woe. Their ultimately anonymous and unpublished reports touched off a riptide of excitement among the men around the harbor. An intended climax, to capture or to kill the serpent, misfired when Matt Gaffney, Gloucester's top gun, fired a direct shot at the creature. The creature dove and resurfaced no worse for the wear. Without a specimen, when the creature swam away, all that was left to Gloucester was to report and to publish what they had seen. Local historian Wayne Soini tracks Justice of the Peace Lonson Nash's careful investigation--the world's first and still the best scientific study of this marine animal--and judges the credibility of numerous reported sightings.