St. Augustine Monster

In 1896, a strange carcass washed ashore near St. Augustine, Florida. Two boys discovered the St. Augustine Monster and reported their find to Dr. DeWitt Webb, a local physician and founder of the St. Augustine Historical Society and Institute of Science. Webb examined the carcass on December 1 and in his estimation, it weighed at least five tons. He believed a giant octopus had washed ashore.

The mysterious carcass became an area attraction and garnered the attention of news outlets. The New York Herald ran the following piece on January 3, 1897:

Its head was nearly destroyed, and only the stumps of two arms were visible ... The body, as it lies somewhat imbedded in the sand, is 18 feet long and about 7 feet wide, while it rises 3 1⁄2 feet above the sand ... The weight of the body and head would have been at least four or five tons. If the eight arms held the proportions usually seen in smaller species of the octopus, they would have been at least 75 to 100 feet in length and about 18 inches in diameter at the base.

During the second week of January 1897, tides dragged the mysterious carcass back out to see. It washed ashore again, this time a couple miles from where it beached the first time. The carcass was later moved to a location where it would be safe from the tides. For a time, it served as a tourist attraction. No one knows what ultimately happened to the body.

The carcass has been dubbed the St. Augustine Monster, and it is one of the earliest and best documented examples of a “globster.” Globsters are simply large, unidentifiable, organic masses that mysteriously wash up onto beaches. Many believe globsters are the remains of “mythical” creatures such as the giant octopuses and the Lusca. By giant octopus, I am talking something much larger than the giant Pacific octopus which, at most, grows to thirty feet and 120 pounds. The Lusca is a colossal beast lurking in the Caribbean Sea that is a strange blend of octopus and shark. According to legend, the Lusca reaches lengths of 200 feet and snatches boats and drags them to a watery doom.

Usually, globsters turn out to be whales or basking sharks; however, oftentimes the remains are too decomposed to positively identify.

Dr. Joseph F. Gennaro Jr., a biologist at the University of Florida, examined samples of the St. Augustine Monster that the Smithsonian Institution had preserved. Gennaro published the results of his work in the March 1971 issue of Natural History:

After 75 years, the moment of truth was at hand. Viewing section after section of the St. Augustine samples, we decided at once, and beyond any doubt, that the sample was not whale blubber. Further, the connective tissue pattern was that of broad bands in the plane of the section with equally broad bands arranged perpendicularly, a structure similar to, if not identical with, that in my octopus sample.

The evidence appears unmistakable that the St. Augustine sea monster was in fact an octopus, but the implications are fantastic. Even though the sea presents us from time to time with strange and astonishing phenomena, the idea of a gigantic octopus, with arms 75 to 100 feet in length and about 18 inches in diameter at the base—a total spread of some 200 feet—is difficult to comprehend.

Famed cryptozoologist Roy P. Mackal conducted testing of his own in 1986; his results confirmed the work of Dr. Gennaro. He wrote:

On the basis of Gennaro’s histological studies and the present amino acid and Cu and Fe analyses, I conclude that, to the extent the preserved O. giganteus tissue is representative of the carcass washed ashore at St. Augustine, Florida, in November 1896, it was essentially a huge mass of collagenous protein. Certainly, the tissue was not blubber. I interpret these results as consistent with, and supportive of, Webb and Verril’s identification of the carcass as that of a gigantic cephalopod, probably an octopus, not referable to any known species.

Scientists  analyzed samples from the St. Augustine Monster carcass in 1995 and again in 2004 and disputed the findings of Mackal and Gennaro. They claim the samples are consistent with whale blubber. So, the mainstream consensus is that the St. Augustine Monster was nothing more than a whale. But would you expect anything less? After all, everyone knows gargantuan, undiscovered sea monsters cannot exist…

I discuss the St. Augustine Monster and other water monsters in my book Adventures as a Florida Man: Searching for Skunk Apes, Water Monsters, Lost Treasure and More (Detours Into the Paranormal Book 6).

  

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