Nessie Sightings

In August 27, 1930 3 fishermen reported seeing a disturbance in the water. The men watched as a creature 20 feet long approached their boat throwing water in the air. As it passes them, its wake caused their boat to rock violently. The men were convinced that a living creature caused the disturbance. Following the story, the newspaper received several letters from people claiming also to have seen a strange creature in the Loch. 

The most famous encounter was perhaps in April 28 1933. On that day Mr. and Mrs. Spicer, returning from a trip to London, saw a monster that “resembled a whale” cross the road, with an animal in his jaws, and submerge in the lake. This incident drew the attention of the world press as national and international news teams visited the loch for a glimpse of the beast. The hoax temptation was too strong as entrepreneurs created fraudulent evidence such as photographs and cine film of a monstrous creature swimming in the loch. 

In August 1933 a motorcyclist named Arthur Grant claimed to have nearly hit the creature while approaching Abriachan on the north-eastern shore, at about 1 am on a moonlit night. Grant claimed that he saw a small head attached to a long neck, and that the creature saw him and crossed the road back into the loch.

In another 1933 sighting, a young maidservant named Margaret Munro supposedly observed the creature for about 20 minutes. She claimed it was about 6:30 am on 5 June, when she spotted it on shore from about 200 yards (180 m). She described it as having elephant-like skin, a long neck, a small head and two short forelegs or flippers. The sighting apparently ended when the creature re-entered the water.

In 1934 RK Wilson produced a photograph known as the ‘Surgeon’s Photograph’ with the head and neck of the monster. Supposedly taken by Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London gynecologist, it was published in the Daily Mail on 21 April 1934.

The ripples on the photo fit the size and circular pattern of small ripples as opposed to large waves when photographed up close. The image was revealed as a hoax in 1994, a toy submarine with a head and neck made of plastic wood, built by Christian Spurling, the son-in-law of Marmaduke Wetherell

In 1938, G.E. Taylor, a South African tourist, filmed something in the loch for three minutes on 16 mm colour film, which is now in the possession of Maurice Burton. However, Burton has refused to show the film to Loch Ness investigators (such as Peter Costello or the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau). A single frame was published in his book The Elusive Monster; before he retired. Roy P. Mackal, a biologist and cryptozoologist, declared the frame to be “positive evidence”. Later, it was shown also to the National Institute of Oceanography, now known as the Southampton Oceanographic Centre. It was agreed by the experts that the film clearly showed an ordinary inanimate object floating in the Loch.

In May 1943, C. B. Farrel of the Royal Observer Corps was supposedly distracted from his duties by a Nessie sighting. He claimed to have been about 250 yards (230 m) away from a large-eyed, ‘finned’ creature, which had a 20-to-30-foot (6 to 9 m) long body, and a neck that protruded about 4–5 feet (1.2–1.5 m) out of the water.

In December 1954 a strange sonar contact was made by the fishing boat Rival III. The vessel’s crew observed sonar readings of a large object keeping pace with the boat at a depth of 480 feet (146 m). It was detected travelling for half a mile (800 m) in this manner, before contact was lost, but then found again later.

A further sighting in April 1960 by aeronautical engineer Tim Dunstall drew attention again by producing a 16mm film containing images of something swimming across the loch in a powerful wake unlike that of a boat; skeptics tell us it is a small boat, believers, that it is the monster. In 1993 Discovery Communications made a documentary called Loch Ness Discovered that featured a digital enhancement where a smaller second hump and possibly a third hump appeared that looks like a plesiosaur’s rear end.

In the early 1970s, a group of people led by Robert H. Rines obtained some underwater photographs. Two were rather vague images, perhaps of a rhomboid flipper (though others have dismissed the image as air bubbles or a fish fin). The alleged flipper was photographed in different positions, indicating movement.

On 26 May 2007, Gordon Holmes, a 55-year-old lab technician, captured video of what he said was “this jet black thing, about 45 feet (14 m) long, moving fairly fast in the water.” North Tonight aired the footage on 28 May 2007 and interviewed Holmes. In this feature, Adrian Shine of the Loch Ness Centre was also interviewed and suggested that the footage in fact showed an otter, seal or water bird. The Monster Quest team investigated this video as well in their TV episode “Death of Loch Ness”, where they examine evidence that Nessie has died, as well as other photos.

There have been many expeditions since, but none as successful as to prove its existence. Also the many sightings, photos and films, have been inconclusive.