The St. Augustine Monster: A Sea Creature

September 15, 2018 by Doug Dillon 9513 0 0

The St. Augustine Monster was the name given to the remains of a huge, mysterious sea creature discovered on November 30, 1896 by two boys riding their bikes on a north Florida beach.

The remains Dr. Webb encountered. Courtesy of the St. Augustine Historical Society.

That discovery led to multiple scientific investigations right up through the 1990s. The results were often contradictory, classifying the remains as those of a giant squid, a giant octopus and even whale blubber. In fact, the final and most definitive analysis uses the word “probably” in giving the creature an ultimate identity – a rather imprecise term for scientists to use.

Such expert analyses of what would soon become known as the St. Augustine Monster began almost immediately after the finding of the creature back in 1896. Why? Because of the involvement of Dr. DeWitt Webb, a prominent local citizen. He was a physician, amateur naturalist and head of the St. Augustine Historical Society and Institute of Science, known now simply as the St. Augustine Historical Society. It was very natural for such information to come to Dr. Webb’s attention.

Dr. Webb, credited with bringing the St. Augustiner Monster ti light

Dr. DeWitt Webb

Investigating the Carcass

The day after he was notified of their discovery by the two boys, December 7, 1896, Dr. Webb went to St. Augustine Beach to see for himself. What he found was a very large, badly decomposed carcass, partly buried in sand. Its surface was pale pink in color that, when viewed in direct sunlight, looked silvery white.

Amazed and excited, Webb quickly went to work digging sand away from the remains, measuring that huge mass, and drawing pictures ofd it. A compressed/abbreviated version of his notes written at the time, including his conclusions, are as follows:

Length: 18 feet
Width: 7 to 10 feet
Estimated weight: 4 to 7 tons
Hide thickness: 3 inches
Indications: There were multiple stumps where arms had probably been attached.
Conclusion: The carcass is that of a giant octopus

Within a short time after that, Webb had sent his notes and drawings to various scientists, including Dr. Addison Verill of Yale University. It was Verill who responded. At first, Verill thought the find might be a giant squid but then upon reflection he decided it had to be, as Dr. Webb concluded, that it was a giant octopus. In fact, Verill publicized his conclusion and even gave the creature a scientific name, Octopus Giganteous.

And based upon the dimensions supplied by Dr. Webb, Verill estimated the arms of the creature had to be 100 feet in length. That meant the diameter must have been around 200 feet, an incredible and almost impossible size to believe possible.

Dr. Webb at the discovery site

Then on December 7, Dr. Webb returned to the carcass with two amateur photographers in order to document the find and also cut tissue samples from the creature. But when he arrived, he found that a Mr. Wilson had dug away a considerable amount of sand around the remains. This exposure showed even more “stumps” and even an arm, measuring 23 feet in length. Soon after that beach visit, Webb sent photos and tissue samples to Dr. Verill.

Shifting Sands

In January of 1897, Webb was horrified to find out that a storm had apparently swept the carcass out to sea. Luckily, he scoured the coastline and found the remains 16 miles south of St. Augustine near Crescent Beach. Determined not to lose his find again, Webb used four horses, six men and numerous wooden planks to move his “octopus” back to St. Augustine Beach and 40 feet above the high tide line.

Soon after that move, the carcass became a temporary tourist attraction and was given the name the St. Augustine Monster. But that notoriety didn’t last long for two reasons:

In March of 1897, another large storm stole the carcass for the last time. It was never seen again.
Upon receipt of Webb’s rather dark and blurry photos, as well as the tissue samples, and after having received a great deal of criticism by other scientists for his initial identification, Dr. Verill changed his analysis. His new conclusion was that the discovery was nothing more than whale skin and blubber. And so that identification remained until the late 20^th

The St. Augustine Monster was thought to be a giant octopus

Tales of such giant creatures abound in history

Interest in the St. Augustine Monster was eventually resurrected in 1957 by Mr. Forest Wood, Director of Marine Studios, later called Marineland, just south of St. Augustine Beach. Wood gathered every document he could find about that old carcass and even tracked down the tissue samples Dr. Webb sent out back in the previous century. He found them in the National Museum of Natural History, part of the Smithsonian Institution.

Intent generating a new analysis of the St. Augustine Monster’s remains, Wood sent his information to a wide variety of scientists. His enthusiasm, however, didn’t stir up an immediate response: far from it, actually.

Yet Other Interpretations of the St. Augustine Monster’s Identity

It took until 1971, when Dr. Joseph Genarro, Jr., a naturalist at the University of Florida, looked at Woods collected evidence. His conclusion? Dr. Webb was right. The carcass was indeed an unknown type of octopus. A giant one. Then in 1986, Dr. Roy Mackal of the University of Chicago verified Genarro’s finding.

Location of the St. Augsutine Monster discovery

St. Augustine Beach today

End of the St. Augustine Monster story? Not quite. In 1995 a joint team of investigators from the Universities of Maryland and Indiana, Sidney Pierce, Gerald Smith, Timothy Maugel and Eugenie Clark, found that Dr. Verill’s 19^th century conclusion of whale skin and blubber was correct.

In that analysis, however, the 1995 team hedged a bit. They said that the carcass was probably part of a whale. Why probably? Because their studies strongly leaned in that direction and that it could be nothing else. And sadly, the tissue samples Forest Wood found at the Smithsonian have disappeared, leaving any further analysis rather problematic.

Here at the St. Augustine Historical Society Reseach Library are extensuve records relating to the St. Augustine Monster

Entrance to the St. Augustine Historical Society’s Research Library

NOTE: This article is a very abbreviated description of the St. Augustine Monster story. For a great deal more information, please refer to the following links.

An Octopus Trilogy (Natural History Magazine)

Historic City Memories: St. Augustine Sea Monster (Historic City News)

Ogre? Octopus? Blobologists Solve An Ancient Mystery (New York Times)

Saint Augustine Monster (Smithsonian Archives)

Scientists say sea-monster legend is all washed up (Baltimore Sun)

The Legendary Giant Octopus Resurfaces (Orlando Sentinel)

The sea monster that never was (New Scientist)