Nicholas Witchell - The Loch Ness Story

[dem bones]

Nicholas Witchell - The Loch Ness Story (Penguin, 1975: originally Terence Dalton Ltd, 1974)

Author's Preface to the Penguin Edition.
Foreword to the First Edition by Gerald Durrell

The Scales In Balance
Background To A Mystery
The 'Monster' Is Born
'Look - The Loch Ness Monster!'
Curiouser And Curiouser
The Monster Comes Ashore
The Net Closes
Underwater Eyes
The Fakers
Breakthrough In 1972
Monster Philosophy

Postscript: September 1975: The Solution

Now this looks superlative. The first published book by the BBC Royal correspondent, chronicling mysterious activities in and around the Loch, from the first reported 'monster' sighting (Inverness Courier, may 2nd 1933) through to 1975 when the author received the phone call he'd been waiting for. "We've hit the jackpot!" exclaimed an ecstatic Bob Rines of the American Academy of Applied Science. "We have detailed colour photographs of the head, neck and body of one of the animals!" And he had, too!

Or maybe not.

When I got home, tucked inside the book I found a short letter on BBC stationary, from the author to a Mr. A------ in Bromley, Kent, dated 20th April 1994.

It runs in part:

The aftermath of the 1975 pictures is described in the most recent paperback edition of the book, published in 1985 by Corgi books. With hindsight I don't think they justified the initial excitement they caused!

Many thanks for writing with your interest.

Had been hoping to bag a concise 'non-fiction' book on the subject, and this one runs to a slick 150 pages plus photo-insets (sadly devoid of the contentious colour shots). Entry on 'The Fakers' is a minor disappointment. All done and dusted in three sides and only references two hoax blokes, though I suspect there may be others infiltrated the 'genuine' camp.

Of course. Now I want to see that later edition.

#crytozoologicalgreatness. #earthmysteries #LochNessMonster #freshwaterseabeasts #TorySewageParty #projectwaterhorse #surgeonsphoto

[Shrink Proof]

In 1977, about half way through my daze at Liverpool University, one winter's evening the late Tim Dinsdale gave a talk to one of the student societies about his Loch Ness Monster hunting. I'd read one of his books, but it was fascinating to see and hear from someone who was completely obsessed with the thing. He appears to have dedicated his entire life to looking for the beast. As I recall, he was a good speaker - funny, articulate and engaging by turns. In fact, he inspired three of us to go and see for ourselves, so, after some discussion in a Scouse boozer, we loaded up and just set off there and then, driving north through the winter night and arriving at Loch Ness at dawn. Sadly, the only thing we saw on the loch was an oil drum.

One hell of a trip though. Fear and loathing in Fort Augustus....

[dem bones]

May 30, 2016 5:50:44 GMT Shrink Proof said:

In 1977, about half way through my daze at Liverpool University, one winter's evening the late Tim Dinsdale gave a talk to one of the student societies about his Loch Ness Monster hunting. I'd read one of his books, but it was fascinating to see and hear from someone who was completely obsessed with the thing. He appears to have dedicated his entire life to looking for the beast. As I recall, he was a good speaker - funny, articulate and engaging by turns. In fact, he inspired three of us to go and see for ourselves, so, after some discussion in a Scouse boozer, we loaded up and just set off there and then, driving north through the winter night and arriving at Loch Ness at dawn. Sadly, the only thing we saw on the loch was an oil drum.

One hell of a trip though. Fear and loathing in Fort Augustus....

Ah, but are you 100% sure it was an oil drum?

"The hunters will be armed with two Bren guns mounted on canoes, harpoon guns, underwater spear-guns. 'And,' said Mr. O'Connor, we may use a bomb. I'll take a machete." (Sunday Express, October 2nd 1959).

Tim Duggan, "Britain's leading monster hunter," emerges from the book with reputation and dignity in tact. In fact, Mr. Witchell goes so far as to recommend his Project Waterhorse (Kegan Paul, 1975). The same cannot be said of Mr. Peter O'Connor, a young fireman from Gateshead, who allegedly faked a photograph of the beastie for the Sunday Express. Dr. Maurice Burton would later tell New Scientist that, a fortnight after the "sighting," he paid a visit to the scene. "On the shore I found the remains of three large polythene bags, a ring of stones each about nine inches in diameter tied together with string, and a stick that looked identical with the head and neck of O'Connor's monster. A photograph taken subsequently of an inflated polythene bag weighted with stones and with the stick wedged in front of it does not differ in any significant way from the O'Connor picture." I have a fondness for this particular hoax - if hoax it was! - as it is not altogether impossible that Peter O'Connor's antics inspired 1961's What A Whopper!. Needless to say, he is now one of my all-time heroes.

Similarly, in the summer of 1972, Mr. Frank Searle, a former soldier turned greengrocer, who had spent three years camped by the Loch with nothing to show for his trouble, finally struck gold with a series of snapshots of what the day's cynics blithely dismissed as a discarded oil-drum. The fact that we have Dr. Proof's authentic account of a similar sighting five years later suggests that, not for the first time, the so-called "experts" don't know what they are on about and are the last people we should consult for proper facts.

[Shrink Proof]

May 30, 2016 9:17:28 GMT dem bones said:

The fact that we have Dr. Proof's authentic account of a similar sighting five years later suggests that, not for the first time, the so-called "experts" don't know what they are on about and are the last people we should consult for proper facts.

Yeah, well, I mean, yer can prove anything with facts, can't yer?

[dem bones]

Stroke of luck. Peter Haining's Ancient Mysteries includes a cracking chapter culled from Mr. Dinsdale's The Story of the Loch Ness Monster (Target, 1975) plus double page spread from Illustrated News, Jan. 1934, "a pictorial round up of the major sightings to that date."

[moosepathian]

On the other side of the pond, we had: The Great Orm of Loch Ness: A practical inquiry into the nature and habits of watermonsters by F. W. Holiday, way back in 1968!  I was enthralled and 12 years old)!

[dem bones]

Jun 2, 2016 18:39:05 GMT moosepathian said:

On the other side of the pond, we had: The Great Orm of Loch Ness: A practical inquiry into the nature and habits of watermonsters by F. W. Holiday, way back in 1968!  I was enthralled and 12 years old)!

Thank you. Shall add that to my list!

Am trying to compile a listing of the Loch Ness Monster in horror & Sci-fi lit ... and not getting very far, just Peter Tremayne's The Curse Of Loch Ness, Leslie Charteris's magnificent Saint adventure, The Convenient Monster. Gary Fry's Jack Knife begins as an innocent Loch Ness Monster hunt but veers off into something altogether more horrible. Not yet read Michael & Mollie Hardwick's novelisation of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, and don't have a copy of Sandy Schofield's 'Quantum Leap' tie-in, Lock Ness Leap (Boulevard, 1997), but could be they qualify. Any more?

[Dr Strange]

There's a Roger Zelazny short story, "The Horses of Lir", that I read years ago (I think in the Whispers III anthology) - though it is more fantasy than horror, unfortunately.

[ripper]

The 4th Doctor serial "Terror of the Zygons" was published as "Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster" when it was novelised by Terrance Dicks.

[dem bones]

"She glided down into black depths, wondering what lay before her, wondering if she would find Val ... or just his helmet ..."

Bron Fane [R. Lionel Fanthorpe] - The Loch Ness Terror: (Supernatural Stories #38, Jan. 1961: Read here on PelTorro.com) Maybe it was a journalist’s dramatisation . . . but he had to be sure.

University Professor Graham Gregory invites The Globe's Val Stearman and Mrs. La Noire to join his students on a thorough exploration of Loss Ness utilizing diving gear, sonar, radar and underwater TV camera equipment. "This is a lucky break I didn’t count on! Fancy this chap being one of our fans!," enthuses the delighted adventurer/ occult troubleshooter/ ghoulbuster/ ace reporter & co. After an exhaustive rundown of his greatest escapades to date — God, has the Professor kept a close watch on Stearman's career — Val dons frogman gear and descends to the depths of Loch Ness. A six million-year-old plesiosaur awaits ....

As much a very useful checklist of best Monster sightings as it is a "Supernatural Story." Despite some magical lines - "He imagined being slowly mutilated by the monster before it ate him ... The thought was not pleasant." - possibly not the most essential reads among Mr & Mrs Stearmans' adventures.

[humgoo]

Steven Spruill - Hellstone (Playboy Paperbacks, 1980)

Blurb:

THIS IS THE KEY TO HELL

A blackmailer finds a strange stone by the shores of Loch Ness. As it changes hands, people die. For the stone's inscription unlocks the secret of the "monster" in the lake—and it is the key to an awesome demonic power.

At the same time, newsman Jonathan Gant is covering the testing of a powerful new underwater camera. His friend, Dr. Honig, leader of the scientific expedition, is obsessed with proving the camera's ability to locate the lake's legendary creature. And while Honig is preoccupied with this insane search, Jonathan is passionately preoccupied with Honig's beautiful wife Sandra.

Unfortunately for them all, the stone and its hellish inscription are incomplete. Jonathan and Sandra discover that the missing half is still in the lake—with its guardian.

[dem bones]

Alex Harvey Presents The Loch Ness Monster (K-tel, 1977 ; Voiceprint 2009)

"Walked into Fort Augustus Police Station to find Sergeant Nicolson up to the ears in accidents and not at all happy about them. Once we got him talking he was accurate, informative and it was fascinating to hear the excitement through the factual account."

In July 1976, Alex Harvey took a break from what had become too demanding a touring schedule to holiday with his family at the Invermorton Caravan site — and record his first solo album — a documentary. Introduced by Richard O’ Brien, Alex Harvey Presents The Loch Ness Monster comprises a series of Harvey-conducted interviews with local eyewitnesses, including Father Gregory Brussey, Prior of the Benedictine Abbey at Fort Augustus; Mrs. Grant of Invermorriston; Cockney Frank Searle, a former army man who pitched tent by the Loch in the early seventies and spent several years stalking and photographing the monster; Sandy Smart, a young fellow who'd seen the monster on a number of occasions — "Do you think you might have been imagining things?" "Yes" — and wondered if perhaps it were "a made up monster put into the water ... to make tourists believe in it." Mrs. Katherine Robertson, the Fort Augustus welfare worker ("She has seen the monster twice. A sincere and impressive woman, she talked to us this afternoon. Papa [Les Harvey Snr.] had been sure when he first called on her to set up the interview she would make a great eyewitness — he was right."), and a member of the local constabulary. The original vinyl album came with 16-page illustrated booklet reproducing Harvey's handwritten journal entries over the 10 day working vacation.

Uncertain of the copyright situation, I'll not provide a direct link. Suffice to say those who prefer to try before they buy shouldn't have too much difficulty doing so.

Rock star comes up with monster LP.

GLASGOW rock star Alex Harvey has always been fascinated by the Bermuda Triangle, UFOS, the Yeti and the Loch Ness Monster.

Interest in the monster is reinforced by his knowledge of the area — part of his family lived near Fort Augustus and he camped regularly in the area when he was growing up.
Now he has made a documentary album about the loch and its "inhabitant." The record, to be released at the end of November, is a fascinating collection of interview and opinion, presented in an unusually direct and accessible way, about a still unsolved mystery.

One of the factors which prompted him to make the album was Alex's feeling that books were gradually becoming obsolescent on the subject. "The project grew in my mind for over a year. My father still knew people in Inverness and was enthusiastic about undertaking the preliminary research and setting up the necessary interviews with people who claim to have seen the monster," explained Alex. At the beginning of July, Alex and his sound expert, David Batchelor, went north to Inverness to join his father and record interviews with a wide selection of people, all of whom claimed to have seen the creature in the loch.

— Aberdeen Evening Express, Thurs. 21 October 1976

#AlexHarvey #SAHB #Vambo #LochNessMonster #VamboRoolOK #Eat_your_heart_out_Nicholas_Witchell

[Shrink Proof]

The "jigsaw" image on the cover of the book is the so-called "surgeon's photograph", probably the most widely-known Nessie picture. The original photographic plates were taken to a chemist in Inverness to be developed by Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London-based surgeon/gynaecologist who was on holiday in Northern Scotland at the time. He hadn't actually taken the picture(s) but those that had thought that associating them with a doctor would give them credibility. This proved to be the case, and they were sold to the Daily Mail for £100 (quite a sum back then), though Wilson was fined by the General Medical Council for allowing his name to be linked with them, this being considered to be a breach of medical ethics.

Sadly, decades later, the pictures were revealed by a combination of forensic analysis and deathbed confessions to be an elaborate hoax. But at least the Daily Mail got fleeced and ridiculed, so some good came of it.

[dem bones]

Alex references it in the accompanying booklet: "Would like to use D**ly M**l's Surgeon's Picture.
It is definitely one of the clearest available, a true piece of history." [my asterisks]

Frank Searle, as exposed in Witchell's book, was "a bit of a character." Sandy Smart's suggestion that the creature - at least, one version of it - was man-made might be construed as a knowing dig at the famous monster hunter.

[helrunar]

That LP sounds like a fun cultural artifact. Last weekend I rewatched the Dr Who story Terror of the Zygons which purports to be set in Scotland near Loch Ness but turns out to have been shot in Sussex. The monster in the story is so adorable. I kept crooning "baby!" as the "Scarasen" was googly-eyed rushing to squash the poor Doctor (Tom Baker misplaced his tartan scarf and bonnet after episode 1).

On a possibly unrelated note, this morning I was reading an article in The Enquiring Eye, a zine published by the Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle, Cornwall, in which the author put forward the theory that a lot of the "old Manx legends" about Witchcraft, Faeries etc. were the work of crafty locals seeking to boost the tourist trade from foreign parts (e.g., Sussex).

cheers, Hel.