The Nantucket sea serpent
The monstrous creature that terrorized a sleepy New England town
Alex Q. Arbuckle
1937
In the summer of 1937, newspapers on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket began circulating images of colossal footprints reportedly found on a local beach.Nantucket, historically a hub of the American whaling industry, was no stranger to reports of leviathans and sea serpents. The discovery of these footprints, however, stirred rumors that one of these beasts may have finally emerged from the sea.
No marine mammal could have left the tracks, as they do not move so much on their flippers as they do on their second joint and on their bellies. Evidence of their passage would be seen on the beach only in a slight indentation. As for a land mammal, there is nothing on Nantucket Island that could leave such large tracks. - Dr. W. Reid Blair, Director, New York Zoological Society, 1937
Finally, the monster was sighted: a massive reptilian creature with a forked tongue, a spiny, frilled back and teeth as long as a man’s arm.It was also a balloon.The inflatable sea serpent was the handiwork of Tony Sarg, a puppeteer, designer, painter and owner of a store on Nantucket, Tony Sarg’s Curiosity Shop. He was most famous for creating massive balloon characters for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parades. After the whole population of Nantucket had feasted their eyes on the inflatable creature, it migrated south to New York and appeared in that year’s parade.
