In the field of cryptozoology, I think the most fascinating tales (for me) involve sea monsters! There are numerous famous examples in the myths and legends of old, but not so many in the modern era. But they do exist. And these are particularly interesting.
There are several accounts from World War I and II, including that of U-Boat U85. The Captain, Günther Krech, audaciously blamed the damage and eventual capture of his U-boat off the coast of Ireland in 1918 on an attack by a great 'sea-monster'. His story went down in history, lasting a long time, but it was only hearsay after all...
It was finally proven to be a hoax only recently, when the truth was revealed by records in the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in the United States.
Records of the German Navy, from 1850 to 1945, were captured by the Allies at the end of the war, and copied on to 4,317 rolls of microfilm. Among these records were the official testimonies of U85's crew. The damage had been caused by quite conventional means, with no mention of any sea beasts.
However, the story of U-Boat U28 is a little different.
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DID U-28 SEE A SEA MONSTER?
On July 31st, 1915 the SS Iberian, a British merchant steamer was headed from Manchester to Boston, Massachusetts when it was torpedoed and sank by the U-28, roughly nine miles south-west of Fastnet, Ireland and resulting in the deaths of seven people. The Iberian sank stern first, with the bow aiming directly upwards, and after about twenty-five seconds underwater there was another, very large explosion which was most likely the Iberian‘s boilers exploding. However, during the explosion U-28‘s commander, or “captain-lieutenant,” Kapitänleutnant Freiherr Georg-Günther von Forstner, reported seeing something very unusual. In his own words, Forstner stated:
“The wreckage remained beneath the water for approximately twenty-five seconds, at a depth that remains clearly impossible to assess, when suddenly there was a violent explosion, which shot pieces of debris – among them a gigantic aquatic animal – out of the water to a height of approximately eighty feet.
“At that moment I had with me in the conning tower six of my officers of the watch, including the chief engineer, the navigator, and the helmsman. Simultaneously we all drew one another’s attention to this wonder of the seas, which was writhing and struggling among the debris. We were unable to identify the creature, but all of us agreed that it resembled an aquatic crocodile, which was about sixty feet long, with four limbs resembling large webbed feet, a long, pointed tail and a head which also tapered to a point. Unfortunately we were not able to take a photograph, for the animal sank out of sight after ten or fifteen seconds.”
Continues: https://northatlanticblog.wordpress....a-sea-monster/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM_U-28_(Germany)
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Sixty feet is huge, but interestingly enough, the rough description of the animal given by von Forstner is very close to a real creature that exists in the fossil record - the Mosasaur. It is estimated it grew to that approximate length, but Mosasaurs disappeared at the K-T extinction event at the end of Cretaceous Period, some 66 million years ago...or so we think.
Note: NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) states that less than five percent of the Earth’s oceans have been explored.
[Artists impression of a Mosasaur, which closely resembles the description of the beast.]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosasaur