Cornwall is known as the 'Land of Legend' and, until fairly recently, the Great Cornish Sea-Serpent was regarded as part of that legend; a romantic rumour, a mythological beast, a figment of the Celtic imagination, along with piskies, mermaids and spriggans. However, a hundred years ago, a long-necked monster was caught by fishermen in Gerrans Bay. Fifty years later, a Mr. Reece and a Mr. Gilbert, trawling three miles south of Falmouth netted an amazing creature. It was twenty feet long, with an eight foot tail, a 'beaked' head, scaly legs, and a broad back covered with 'matted brown hair'. Marine Biologists of the day were unable to identify the beast.

One sunny evening in September 1975, Morgawr was spotted off Pendennis Point. Mrs Scott, of Falmouth, and her friend Mr. Riley, saw a hideous, hump-backed creature, with 'stumpy-horns', and bristles down the back of its long neck. The huge animal dived for a few seconds, then resurfaced with a conger eel in its jaws. Mrs. Scott says that she will never forget 'the face on that thing', as long as she lives.

Shortly after the Scott/Riley sighting, Morgawr was encountered by several mackerel fishermen, and blamed for bad luck, bad weather and bad catches.

In January 1976 a strange (and, so far unidentified) carcase was discovered on Durgan Beach, Helford River, by Mrs. Payne of Falmouth. For a while it was thought that the monster was dead, until the 'Falmouth Packet' newspaper published two photographs of Morgawr, taken in February by a lady who called herself 'Mary F'. They showed a long necked, hump backed creature, at least eighteen feet long, swimming in the water off Trefusis Point, near Flushing. 'Mary F's', monster was described as 'black or very dark brown', with a snake-like head and 'humps on the back which moved in a funny way'.

After publishing those historic photographs, the 'Packet' received a flood of letters from people who claimed to have seen Morgawr. Estimates of the creature's length varied from twelve to forty five feet. At the beginning of May, two London bankers, on a fishing holiday, saw a pair of monsters in the mouth of the Helford River. Now it seems as if Falmouth Bay could contain a whole family of Sea Serpents!

MORGAWR'S MILE

The mouth of the Helford River appears to be the area most favoured by the sea-serpents; the majority of sightings being from the stretch of coastline between Rosemullion Head and Toll Point. This is now known as 'Morgawr's Mile'.

Duncan Viner, a dental technician from Truro, saw Morgawr, in January 1976, swimming 'a few hundred yards off Rosemullion Head'. At first, he thought it was a whale, as only a dark hump was visible; but as he watched, it started to rise in the water and a long neck appeared. Mr. Viner estimated the length of the monster to be between thirty and forty feet.

Miss Amelia Johnson, on Holiday from London, was taking a walk in the Rosemullion area when she saw a 'strange form suddenly emerge from the water in Falmouth Bay'. She describes 'a sort of prehistoric dinosaur thing with a neck the length of a lamp-post'.Gerald Bennett of Seworgan, saw a creature swimming in the Helford, one afternoon. The part of it above the water was 'about twelve feet in length, with an elongated neck'.On Good Friday, 1976, a fifteen year old schoolboy from Helston spotted a 'weird animal with two humps and a long neck like a snake', moving up the river between Toll Point and the Gew. The monster was 'slimy, black and about twenty five feet long'. He took a photograph of the animal which was later shown on BBC television in the Spotlight programme.There have been many other sightings along 'Morgawr's Mile', the hottest length of coast for would be monster spotters.

THE MONSTER HUNTERS

Towards the end of March 1976, a 'professor of metaphysics', from Albuquerque, New-Mexico, USA, arrived in Falmouth with a plan to capture the monster. Professor Michael McCormick, a fire-eater and travelling showman, intended to trap Morgawr and to exhibit the beast in his 'Matchbox Circus'. But by the beginning of May, the 'professor' had left Cornwall ... without his sea-serpent. As it happens, May turned out to be a busy month for Morgawr. World-famous monster hunter, Tim Dinsdale, decided to investigate the Great Falmouth sea serpent. Mr Dinsdale is best known for his tireless efforts, over a number of years, in pursuit of the Loch Ness Monster. He has written several fascinating books on the subject of 'Nessie'. Another writer showing an interest in Morgawr is Peter Costello, (author of 'In search of Lake Monsters'), who regards the 'Mary F'. photographs as an 'important contribution to unraveling the mystery of the Great Sea-Serpent'.

Folklorist, Tony Shaw, (co-author of 'The Folklore of Cornwall'), is another keen investigator. He has collected and recorded interviews with most of the people who claim to have seen Morgawr, and is working on a book about the Cornish Sea-Dragon. Mr. Shaw, at first regarded the monster as, simply a 'modern day myth', but is now convinced that there is a huge unidentified creature living in Falmouth Bay.

One of the strangest characters involved in the hunt for Morgawr is Tony 'Doc' Shiels, a professional wizard and well known 'psychic'. The Doc believes he can make telepathic contact with sea-serpents and invoke the creature by magical means. Doc's monster hunting exploits have been featured in newspapers and on radio and television.Another magical personality, involved in the hunt, is Psyche, a beautiful young witch from Inverness, who, in the company of several members of her coven, swam naked in the waters of Falmouth Bay, in order to attract the monster to the surface. Since Psyche's initial dip, several nude witches have attempted to raise the sea-dragon by swimming around 'Morgawr's Mile'.

WHAT IS IT?

There are various theories which have been put forward to explain or identify the creature known as Morgawr.The most attractive and exciting notion is that the animal could, possibly be a plesiosaur ... a reptile which is supposed to have been extinct for over seventy million years! The 'Mary F', pictures certainly show something very large, with a long neck, small head, a large, hump-backed body, and flippers riding high in the water ... all of which fits in with most zoological descriptions of the plesiosaur. It is also true that these aquatic dinosaurs could adapt to life in both fresh and salt water. However, it is unlikely that a cold blooded reptile could survive the temperature of Falmouth Bay.It has been suggested that Morgawr may be an invertebrate, a giant mollusc or worm. But it would be difficult for a creature without a skeleton to support such a huge body. Nevertheless, very large invertebrates, such as the Giant Squid, do exist in deep water, although they show themselves on the surface very rarely.

The most logical theory, it seems, is that the monster is a type of long-necked seal, a warm-blooded mammal. This is the explanation favoured by such experts as Peter Costello and Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans. It is possible that a so far undiscovered and very large species of seal could exist in Falmouth Bay (not to mention Loch Ness!). Seals are fairly common around the Cornish coast, and recently a black one was seen in the River Fal.A very strange theory has been put forward by Doc Shiels. He suggests that Morgawr could be a 'parapsychical entity', a non-organic 'thing' existing in 'several more than three dimensions', capable of changing its size and shape at will, or even seeming to appear as something else entirely. Doc relates sea and lake monster phenomena to sightings of flying-saucers, dragons, and 'little green men'; all of which he describes as the 'props of a cosmic joker'. Doc's theories are, to a certain extent, supported by a well-known writer on the subject of monsters, F.W.Halliday (author of 'The Great Orm of Loch Ness' and 'The Dragon and the Disc'.

It is unlikely that Morgawr will be properly identified until a good, clear colour photograph or a cine film is taken of the creature. Any cameraman who is lucky enough to obtain such a picture will, undoubtedly, have something of great scientific and monetary value.

'A GUIDE FOR SERPENT SNAPPERS'.

Anyone with a camera has a chance of capturing Morgawr on film. Modern, automatic, cassette-loading cameras make good photography easy; removing, as they do, all worries about exposure, shutter speed, focus and so on. However, for a really good still picture of the monster, I would recommend a single-lens reflex camera with a good telephoto lens.

Amateur movie-makers would also be well advised to try and shoot the beast. A length of cine film, showing the monster in motion, would be invaluable to zoologists. Most cine cameras these days use Super-8 film, and are fitted with zoom lenses. Better pictures are more likely to be obtained if the camera is tripod mounted rather than hand-held.

Colour film is to be recommended for both still and cine photography where a sea-serpent is to be the subject. A full colour picture would certainly contain far more useful information than one in black and white.Monster-snapping is, of course, very much a matter of luck. Being in the right place at the right time is something which is not so easily planned in advance. Anyone, anywhere on the coast around Falmouth Bay and the mouth of the Helford River has a sporting chance of getting a picture of Morgawr ... so long as they don't forget to carry a camera at all times. Those who are seriously interested in photographing the creature would be best advised to station themselves in one of the less easily accessible parts of, say, 'Morgawr's Mile'. Sea Monsters are most often seen to surface during periods of warm weather and calm, unruffled waters. If and when you are lucky enough to see or to photograph Morgawr, it is advisable to make a few notes as soon after the sighting as possible, giving estimates of size, distance and so on. The more details noted, the more valuable your sighting or picture will be.

If a camera is not available when the monster is seen to surface, sketches, as detailed as possible, should be made and signed by witnesses. In this way, when all the evidence is collected and compared, an accurate picture of the creature can be built up and analysed by scientists interested in such phenomena.

MORGAWR'S RELATIVES

Not since the year 1817 has a sea-serpent generated so much interest as Morgawr. In August of that year, a huge monster was seen in the waters of Massachusetts Bay, mainly in the area of Gloucester Harbour.

In 1846, Captain Christmas of the Danish Navy saw an enormous, long-necked beast between Iceland and the Faroes. He described the creature as having 'a neck thick as a man's waist, with a horse-like head, moving gracefully like a swan's'.

On August 6th 1848, H.M. Corvette 'Daedalus' was homeward bound, from the East Indies. At 5 p.m. the officers were surprised to see a gigantic sea-serpent swimming past the ship. Sixty feet of the creature's body was visible above the surface of the water. It had a snake-like head and, 'something like the mane of a horse', down its back.

In 1893, the British ship 'Umulfi' encountered an eighty foot sea-serpent off the Mauretanian coast. Captain Cringle reported that the monster 'was rushing through the water at great speed, and was throwing water from its breast as a vessel throws water from its bows'.

In 1919, a lawyer, Mr J. Mackintosh-Bell, was on holiday in the Orkney Islands. On the morning of August 5th, from the deck of a cod-line fishing boat, off Hoy, he saw a monster with 'a long neck as thick as an elephant's front leg, all rough looking like an elephant's hide'. The head was like that of a dog, with small, black eyes.

The carcase of a sea-monster was washed up at Prah Sands, Cornwall, in 1933; the year in which 'Nessie' first became famous.

Dr. Heuvelmans lists over 550 reports of marine monsters, in his book 'In the wake of the Sea-Serpents'; I have mentioned just a few of the more famous ones. Morgawr is, without a doubt, destined to become one of the best known and best documented of all. Already, Falmouth's monster has captured the attention of the international press, radio and television; as well as some of the world's best-known monster-hunters.

'CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER'

Morgawr is not the only strange thing to have happened in the Falmouth Bay area since the Autumn of 1975. In October 1975, a group of three UFO's was seen in the sky above Falmouth Docks. Then, in March 1976, a pair of flying saucers appeared over Perranwell.

In the spring of 1976, a group of 'real live Cornish piskies' was photographed by one of the monster raising witches.

During the Easter weekend, the two young daughters of a holidaymaker ... Mr. Don Melling, from Preston, Lancashire ... saw a 'huge great thing with feathers, like a big man with flapping wings', hovering over the church tower at Mawnan (on 'Morgawr's Mile'). The girls ... Vicky, 9, and June, 12 ... were so frightened that the family holiday was cut short by three days. Flying saucers have, of course, been seen by many hundreds of people over the years; and Cornwall has had its fair share. There would be nothing particularly unusual (by normal saucer-spotting standards) about the Falmouth sightings if they had not coincided with the other odd happenings.

'Little People' have been seen from time to time, coming out of flying saucers. Maybe that is how the piskies first arrived in the area!

Like Morgawr, it seems that the weird bird of Mawnan has ancestors in Cornwall. The 'Cornish Echo' for June 4th 1926, carried the headline 'Boys Attacked by Strange Bird', and described how two young boys encountered a very peculiar, very large and very aggressive feathered thing, between Mount Hawke and Porthowan. The big bird was killed after quite a struggle, and the body examined by several people, but nobody could identify it. Coincidentally, during the early part of 1976, a thing called 'Big Bird' was busy frightening the people of Southern Texas. It was reported as being 'big as an automobile, with a fifteen foot wingspan and a bat like face.

Morgawr continues to thrive. On May 20th 1976, Falmouth coastguards received reports of several sightings in the mouth of the Helford River. At the time of writing, Cornwall's Great Sea Serpent is alive and well. Keep an eye on the water ... you may be lucky enough to see the monster yourself.

Good Hunting!