The Sea Serpent at
Mandal in 1867

This was a most extraordinary event that took only a few days to reach the bailiff and the courtrooms in Mandal, at July 30th.

1st witness:  Pilot Gunder Jørgensen, 49 years.
Together with his young son he had gone to the shores near Gismer island to tend to his salmon net on Saturday 13th. Later he wanted to row to some skerries, called Hvillingskjæret, where he intended to dry his salmon net. As they got close to the rock, his son got aware of something swimming in the water. The witness at first thought it might be a fish of some kind that was hurt.

Having cut the distance to about 20 feet, he saw that the thing had to be the head of a big animal. There were two protuberances on the head, one on each side. The head appeared to have a pointed snout. He was not able to see eyes. Banging one of his oars against the rail of the boat, the witness hoped to scare the animal away. So it happened, - for several minutes.

Safe on the rocks at Hvillingskjær, he again observed the same head, now bigger than before. He then realized that the animal now held the head completely out of the water. The animal began leisurely patrolling the open water between Hvillingskjær and Kleven and kept up doing so very slowly  for half an hour, and was at a 120 feet distance at the closest. At about 6 p.m.the witness left the rocks without seeing the animal. Suddenly it surfaced 40 - 60 feet away from the rowing boat, again displaying its head abowe the surface. Suddenly it sped off in the direction of the mouth of the fjord and the small Hattøy island, leaving a powerful surge behind it. At a distance of 200 feet he saw that the body of the animal formed a dozen humps, each a distance of three feet apart.

When he was asked to estimate the length of the animal visible above the surface, he proposed a length of 30 feet. Further he estimated the total length to be far more, as the thickness of the animal were equal in both ends, and a considerable part of the body was hidden submerged. The animal moved with vertical undulations, not horizontal as was the nature of terrestial snakes. The witness had travelled the seas from his youth and had been a pilot for the last two decades. He had seen many sorts of sea creatures, but never anything like this. The colour of the animal was dark.

2nd witness: His son Søren, 10 - 11 years.
He supported the statement of his father, and he was excused without having to give an oath.

3rd witness: Pilot Bent Olsen from Kleven, 45 years.
He was told about the animal by Gunder and his son, and he observed the animal at long distance. From land he was later able to watch it through his scope, but due to the long distance he was not able to see anything of the animal but the undulating movements as it swam away at high speed.

4th witness: Pilot Gabriel Olsen from Kleven, 43 years.
His statement was accoording to the previous witness as he was with him in his boat.

5th witness. Merchant and captain Theodor Bessesen from Kleven, 35 years.
He declared that he lived at Kleven. When he found out about the animal, he climbed the rocks at Kleven bringing his excellent scope. Sitting there he very clearly was able to watch the animal move at high speed with vertical undulations. The sea was dead calm and the animal was quite a way off. It appeared to be massive and to be exceptionally long and big. The witness and some others wanted to go out in a boat for the purpose of harpooning the animal, but at that point it headed for the open sea. The witness is an experienced sailor.

6th witness: Customs officer Svend Thorkildsen Banken, 54 years.
He stated that he had been out fishing at Friday12th. The time was 6 p.m., and he was in the Krågefjord when he saw the animal a great distance away.

7th witness: Pilot Niels Olsen Skjebstad, 56 years.
His statement was according to the previous witness as they had been in the same boat.

8th witness: Pilot Jacob Jansen from Kleven, 54 years.
He stated that he had passed the animal at sea on Saturday 13th just before 10 p.m.. He was using his own boat travelling from Kleven to Mandal. He observed it at a distance of 60 feet. At that time of  the evening much of the daylight was gone, but he was still able to see well. The witness saw something that looked like a head above the water. 30 feet further back he saw humps. He was not able to see anything of the animal between the head and the humps. The animal moved very fast and left a small wake.

The description of the animal:

The head - ends in a pointed snout. Two protuberances on the head, one on each side.
The neck - obviously a well defined neck. One witness estimated a length of 30 feet between the neck and the humps (at the main body).
The length - my estimate says 90 - 120 feet.
The head (unknown length) + The neck: almost 5 fathoms (30 feet) + The main body: about 10 - 12 humps plus the distances between each (3 feet) + the tail. Total length may be 90  - 120 feet, more than a blue whale, but much slimmer. Still it would weigh many tons.
Humps - 10 to12 humps with a 3 feet distance between each hump.
Colour - dark.
Swimming - vertical movements. Able to change from very slow swimming to high speed swimming leaving a powerful wake.

It swam like mammals do, - with undulating vertical movements.
Some of the witnesses uses the word "bukter", which can be translated to both coils and humps. I choose to use the humps, instead of coils, because the animal was described to have a very massive main body. An animal so big and massive would never be able to coils itself creating coils so close to each other as a 3 feet distance at surface level. Only a slimmer serpentine like animal would be able to do that. None of the witnesses ever refers to a serpent likeness (with a parallell even body). The word "bukter" must refer to humps positioned along the back. The animal swam with vertical movements as some of the witnesses pointed out. Only sea mammals move that way. Fish and reptiles use horizontal movements.

So, the animal consisted of a head, a long neck, a massive and long body, that eventually ended in a tail of some kind. NONE of the witnesses called this animal a sea serpent, nor did the court. To the witnesses it meant that they had seen an unknown animal, whatever species it ever belonged to. All the witnesses were experienced sailors and seamen who knew well the animals and fish of their coast.

In the old days our country used foot, feet, inches and the rest - but (since 1875) we of course have use the modern metric system.

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