Los Angeles Herald

February 18, 1909

SEA SERPENT THAT ‘SPITS LIKE CANNON’ SEEN AT LONG BEACH

Monster is Forty Feet Long, with Head Like Barrel and Eyes Big as a Man’s Fist

[Special to The Herald.]

LONG BEACH, Feb. 17. – A sea serpent forty feet long, with a brown head as big around as a small barrel and eyes as large as a man’s fist, was the frightening object sighted eighteen miles off the coast yesterday by Guy
Griffith, James Harvey and three other fishermen in the launch Reta. The serpent is said to have moved its head from side to side as a snake does and had a big dorsal fin fifteen feet back of the head.

The fishermen say the same monster has been reported within the last few months near the Philippines and along the northern coast of this country.

They furthermore aver that a heavy sinker, which one of the five threw at the sea serpent as the boat was pulling away from the unsafe neighborhood, was caught in the creature’s mouth and spit back with such force as to make a deep dent in the fish box on deck.

“Never saw such a spitter,” said one of the men. “Just like a young cannon.” Long Beach is a “dry” [alcohol sales illegal] town.

Thanks to Jerry Clark.