His Snakeship

As recorded in the Boston Daily Commercial Gazette in June, 1831:

This monster made his first appearance this season in Boothbay on Sunday last. He was seen again on Tuesday by two gentlemen at a distance of about sixty feet, and afterwards by ten or twelve citizens of Boothbay, as he passed and repassed several times about 150 feet distant from them. He is described by the editor of the Wiscasset Journal, who was on the spot, as from 150 to 200 feet in length, of brown color on the back, and a yellow brown on the belly. He moved with an undulating motion like that of a leech, or blood sucker, which gave to his back the appearance of the bumps described by those who have previously seen him.

Anent this on another occasion that summer a newspaper published:

This animal seems peculiar to Boothbay Harbor and no wonder, for it is a pleasant harbor and one of the finest watering places on the coast of Maine. His Snakeship paid another visit there on Sunday before last we were informed by Capt. Walden of the U. S. revenue cutter Detector. The cutter was at anchor in the harbor and the officers and crew all had a fair view of the Leviathan of the Deep as he boomed along in the neighborhood of the lighthouse. They judged him to be over one hundred feet long. They sent a boat to reconnoitre it, but his snakeship marched off with as much dignity as a bashaw with three tails. Whether he was attempting to smuggle something ashore in that neighborhood and felt a little shy of the cutter’s long lines, or whether he was fearful that the U. S. Boys might take him to Washington and compel him to beard the lion in his den, could not be certainly ascertained.

It seems that after a 175 year absence His Snakeship has returned to the area to lair in the vicinity of Lewis Cove. The would-be hunter should begin at the entrance to Barrett’s Park and make his heading 150° to a square boulder. Thence, coming left 70° and proceeding to the embankment to find a suitable path to descend to the top of the seawall. He has made his new home in a small cave formed by a broken, old piece of the seawall lodged in the embankment against an oak with a loose brick for a door.

[Newspaper citations unavailable, but text as quoted by George Wharton Rice, The Shipping Days of Old Boothbay: from the Revolution to the World War with Mention of Adjacent Towns (Portland, Maine: The Southworh-Anthoensen Press, 1938), p. 24 & 28.]


Updated 4/15/2006 to compensate for construction (stump removal).

Hike Length: 0.1 miles
Elevation Gain: 10 feet