Rumours of a prehistoric ‘monster’ lurking in the murky depths of Loch Ness were reignited 85 years ago today by a report in a Scottish newspaper.
Published in the May 2nd, 1933, edition of the Inverness Courier, the report was headed “Strange spectacle on Loch Ness”, with a strapline asking “What was it?”. Printed in a single column on an inside page and running to just five paragraphs, it could easily have sunk, like the ‘monster’ itself, without a trace.
Instead, it caught the public imagination and, as the first modern-day sighting of the legendary ‘Loch Ness Monster’, is credited with reviving interest in the mythical beastie. Tales of a ‘water kelpie’ living in the deep freshwater loch near Inverness featured in Scots folklore from at least the sixth century, when it was claimed St Columba cowed the fearsome creature with the sign of the cross.
Stories and claimed sightings were noted throughout the following centuries, but without modern media it remained only a local legend, useful in keeping curious children from straying too far into the deep dark waters of Loch Ness. Covering 22 square miles and in places almost 900ft deep, it contains more fresh water than all the lakes in England and Wales combined – certainly enough to conceal a whole family of monsters!
It was the writer of the May 1933 piece in the Inverness Courier who first linked the word “monster” with the legend. He was Alex Campbell, a local water-bailiff and part-time correspondent for the newspaper whose report told of a local “well-known business man and his wife (a University graduate)”. They were motoring along the north shore of the loch when they were “startled to see a tremendous upheaval on the loch, which, previously, had been as calm as the proverbial mill pond”.
The report said the disturbance was “fully three-quarters of a mile from the shore” noting that: “There, the creature disported itself, rolling and plunging for fully a minute, it’s body resembling that of a whale, and the water cascading and churning like a simmering cauldron. Soon, however, it disappeared in a boiling mass of foam”. Its final plunge gave an indication of its massive size, sending out waves “big enough to have been caused by a passing steamer”.
Mr Campbell’s report added that previous sightings had been dismissed as being seals or porpoises, but neither of those had ever been known to enter Loch Ness, and for porpoises (a salt water marine mammal) it would be impossible. As someone who knew the loch well, he noted that what the couple witnessed was “no ordinary denizen of the depths”.
While previous reports had only caused ripples of local interest, this one, like the ‘monster’ itself, created waves that spread far and wide. The story was picked up by regional then national newspapers and even syndicated to America, as well as featuring in radio news programmes. Before long people were travelling to Loch Ness specifically to look for the monster and, perhaps not surprisingly, more visitors led to more sightings.
There were two more in 1933 alone, including the first blurred black and white photograph of what was claimed to be the monster, but was more likely the photographer’s Labrador dog retrieving a stick thrown into the loch! Another photograph, taken the following year, fanned the growing flames of ‘Nessie fever’ into an inferno. It showed the now-classic image of a creature with a small head atop a long neck and a large body, similar to the prehistoric plesiosaurus. It stirred speculation that that Loch Ness could be home to a family of creatures which had somehow survived from the time of the dinosaurs.
Many years later the famous photo was revealed to be a hoax, made using a toy submarine bought at Woolworths and wood putty modelled into the head and neck. With nothing in the photo to indicate scale, the small model could easily appear to be a huge monster in the distance. Later, cine films and then videos also claimed to have captured the monster, each sighting painstakingly analysed and investigated.
Today the legend of the Loch Ness Monster lives on and brings an estimated million tourists each year to the mysterious Scottish lake, all hoping for a rare glimpse of the real thing.