This story is one from my father, uncle and my grandfather. In the 1930's through early 1960's my great aunt owned (inherited) a 40 acre beach front estate from her deceased husband's family. My uncle would live there during the summers when he was a kid. Often my father whom was younger would visit for a week or so in the summers. This story was one told me by my father, uncle and now deceased grandfather. It is about an encounter they had repeatedly one summer with a long, thick sea monster.
In the summer of 1959 like every summer before, my uncle (Herman, whom was 16 years old) was living the summer months down at his aunt's (Aunt Mary, my great aunt) bay front beach estate. Herman would work around the estate; painting, repairing things, tending the vegetable gardens, harvesting from the fruit trees, and taking care of the lawn and shrubs. For fun everyday he would fish, boat, hike, swim and just adventure like kids do. This summer was his last summer he would spend down there and he had some great stories to tell about that last summer.
As the summer was coming to an end, Herman's father (my grandfather) and his little brother Ronnie (my father) drove down to spend a few days with Aunt Mary before bringing Herman home for the new school year. Herman was excited when he saw his father and brother Ronnie. He was telling all the great stories of the summer; including, his few encounters with a giant sea creature. The sea monster encounters drew laughter from his father, intrigue from Ronnie and Aunt Mary just shrugged it off and ignored him.
The next day in the early morning Herman and Ronnie were told to go out along the grassy shore line and collect soft shelled crabs for lunch. While they were out they heard loud splashes from out on the the bay. Every time they turned around they saw that the water was calm minus a few large circular wakes where something had made the large splash. Herman told Ronnie that it might be the sea monster again. Herman said it came out only at dawn and dusk all summer. When they took a break and sat on the shoreline they were looking out at the calm water and saw a huge hump come up and at the same time another huge dark hump came up 10-15 ft away. It was moving in an up and down in a snake-like movement. Suddenly they saw a large, fat, dull pointed tail come up and slap down at the water. Then it just disappeared. They rushed back and told Aunt Mary and their father but they just laughed it off and said it was a beaver.
The day before they were going to leave, Aunt Mary wanted to have a big, steamed crab dinner. She asked their father (her brother in-law) to take Herman and Ronnie out on the boat and do some crabbing the next day early. They left before dawn and took the 18 ft wooden boat out on the bay into the darkness. They set up crab traps and headed back in. Just after the sun came up they headed out to check the traps. Half way through checking the traps the got bumped very hard by something large. All three of them were nervous, but continued. Shortly there after they got bumped very hard and the boat tilted hard to the point that the starboard rail almost dipped into the water. Instantly they started the motor and headed to shore. As they were heading in they were struck again. They never saw anything but they all experienced the attack. Their father instructed Herman and Ronnie to not tell their aunt and never mention it.
In the early evening, Aunt Mary had prepared a big feast of the crabs that they did bring in. While out on the grassy shoreline eating, Aunt Mary looked out and noticed that there was still crab traps far out. She asked why they left them? They all agreed they must have forgotten them. She being a very demanding and strict woman told the boys to get in the boat and go get those traps. Nervously Herman and Ronnie got in the boat and went out as dusk was quickly approaching. They started pulling the traps when they got bumped again. Ronnie looked out at the water while Herman quickly pulled up the traps. Suddenly Ronnie yelled that he saw a huge dark hump coming towards them. Within a second they got bumped very hard. They started the motor and sped off too the last two traps. As soon as the last trap was pulled they both saw a few dark humps in a line rolling towards them. As they started moving the were hit very hard again and it almost top-sized the boat. As they got close to shore everything got quiet. Their father helped them at the pier to unload and asked if they were ok. He said that he was watching from the shore and saw exactly what they saw. The next day on their ride home their father said to never talk about this. He felt that people would consider them crazy. They all agreed to never mention it to anyone.
I personally first heard the story from all of them at a summer cookout; at my grandmom and grandfather's house many years later, around 1981-2 (I was around 10-11 years old). At this time, the story came out in an odd, accidental way. My father and uncle returned to the cookout with 2 bushels of crabs and they had caught a huge eel. They were teasing and scaring the girls with the eel. My grandfather spouted out, "Hey, that's your sea monster from Aunt Marys". They all started laughing and everyone asked what they were talking about. So they all sat down and told the story that was long forgotten. At that time they also released that Aunt Mary's boat sank a week after they left. She was very mad and the local boatyard said that the wooden planks were seriously cracked and broken from repeated hard strikes. She blamed the boys and my grandfather secretly bought her a new boat on the promise that she wouldn't tell the family that the "boys" destroyed the boat.
Till this day my father and uncle openly tell that story. They have accepted that what they encountered was real and it truly happened to them. Many stories of bay sea monsters have been told since the 17th century in the Chesapeake Bay. Even Captain John Smith mentioned in his two voyages to explore the bay in 1607 and 1609 that he saw huge sea-like monsters easily as big as his boats. In the mid-1900's the term Chessie was adopted by watermen and those who live on the bay. In recent years in has been found as fact that some rare manatees migrate from Florida all the way up the east coast and into the upper branches of the Chesapeake Bay. Also 8-10 ft bull sharks have been caught well northwards into almost fresh water parts of the bay. Twice since 2000, a 14 & 16 foot mako shark has been caught far above the Bay Bridge in brackish water. Are these possibly "sea monsters" of the stories? Who knows. but they surely don't match the descriptions of multiple humps in a line rolling in synchronicity 15-25 ft. long.
