Wouldst thou … learn the secret of the sea? Only those who brave its dangers Comprehend its mystery!
Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was talking about sailors in that 1850 verse, and it was indeed the mariners of ancient times who braved the uncharted dangers of the ocean, encountering mysteries aplenty.
But they didn’t always fully comprehend what they saw. In a time when uncharted areas on maps were decorated with dragons and other mythical creatures, sailors of old likewise embellished their stories with accounts of monsters of unfathomable size dwelling in the depths of the oceans.
Back on shore, storytellers and even early scientists were more than happy to spread the tales, sometimes pointing to massive fossils or outsized remains washing ashore as proof of the existence of sea monsters. Over the centuries, countless legends of sea creatures grew across virtually every culture in the world.
