Seventy Years of The Gourock Monster



This is not a picture of the Gourock Monster carcass,
but monster experts agree it may have looked slightly similar
Cryptomundo

June 2012 is the 70th Anniversary of the mysterious Gourock Monster washing up at Cardwell Bay, as detailed in our post "Massive Sea Monster Terrorises Gourock" and our only sort of kidding April Fool "Time For A Serpent Sculpture".

The possibility of the Clyde being home to a sea creature, was a major feature of our original book Tales of the Oak, and sure enough, could tie together centuries of potential river and serpent worship along the banks of the Clyde (though how the serpent got along with the Port Glasgow Mermaid remains a source of some debate).

I still live in hope that Gourock will eventually base some sort of community festival round this event...It could be called "Serpentfest" or "Monster Mania".

Anyhow, we've a few wee related items over the month, but for those of you who have missed it previously, or not found the time in your life to search it out on youtube, here again is the classic clip from Arthur C Clarkes Mysterious World which deals with "The Gourock Monster".





The legend of the Gourock Monster also appears in a childrens book I've written, The Superpower Project...

With the help of a wisecracking, steampunk robot, two accidental superheroes discover that they have inherited some amazing, if unusual, abilities. Computer whiz Megan can fly (mostly sleep-flying, but she's working on it) while her best friend Cam can (in theory) transform into any animal, but mostly ends up as a were-hamster.

Together they must protect the source of their ancestral powers from a wannabe evil mastermind and his gang of industrial transformer robots who've disguised themselves as modern art installations on their Greenock estate.

It isn't easy to balance school and epic super-battles, not to mention finding time to search for other super-talents and train with their Mr Miyagi-esque were-tiger coach.Can Megan and Cam beat the bad guy, defeat his robot transformers and become the superheroes they were born to be?

The Superpower Project is available from Floris Books / Kelpies.

Time for a Sea Serpent Sculpture?

New archaeological evidence, published last month, suggests that there may be more to local legends about sea serpent worship than we previously thought. The original discoveries are detailed in Skelmorlie : The Story of The Parish Consisting of Skelmorlie and Wemyss Bay (Walter Smart).

In Skelmorlie is one of the most remarkable antiquities in Scotland a ‘Serpent Mound’, supposed to have been used by the  ancient Britons in the worship of the Sun and the Serpent, and other religious rites. The head of the Serpent lies behind Brigend House and the ridge forming the body is now severed by the road running up the hill at Meigle. In the 1870’s Dr. Phené of Chelsea made some interesting excavations, discovering a paved platform some 80 feet long, and evidence of early cremations. The details were fully reported in the Glasgow Herald and the Scotsman at the time and there are specimens in the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow.

Recent examination of the pieces at Kelvingrove confirms that they are indeed burned human bones, something which was always disputed about Phene's original findings. Artefacts found at the Kempock Stone during similar excavations in the 19th Century are now also due to be tested alongside items found during the controversial excavations at Langbank, recently rediscovered at the National Museum Edinburgh. It is suggested that dating of the artefacts and remains will show them to be contemporary, and that the strange serpentlike drawings uncovered on stones at Langbank are linked to the "serpent mound" at Skelmorlie, via some sort of celtic river or serpent worship cult.

Sadly at this point no one has discovered any evidence of a big monster in the river. But of course there is certainly plenty of myth and legend linked to serpents and the West of Scotland, believed by many to be largely due to our links with Ireland. Certainly we have our own "Saint banishing serpent" legend for the area, and of course the washing up of the mysterious "Gourock monster" at Cardwell Bay during the Second World War.

The discovery has prompted local calls for a sculpture of the beast to be sited somewhere on the riverside, with space adjacent to Newark Castle, or locations at Cardwell Bay or Lunderston Bay being suggested.An online petition to pledge support to the potential sculpture has been set up.

Public art is itself a strange beast, wee Annie Kempock seems very popular, debate is still raging on the Endeavour sculpture up the Port, and its largely safe to say no one is altogether fussed about Ginger the traditional Greenock Arabian Stallion carthorse. We still think we've missed a trick on a Captain Kidd statue. But I'm happy to pledge support to this one...though I think the good people of Skelmorlie might have something to say about it...but who doesn't like sea serpents? Apart from sailors obviously.

Some Art Is Useful

It's a typically grim New Year Monday, so here's just two things that have cheered us up over the weekend.

We were delighted to see the arrival of a facebook page to celebrate the legend of The Greenock Giant Squid. And it wasn't even us that set it up. What legend? Well..the legend printed in popular music paper NME in a live review for the band Tailgunner in Rico's Wine Bar...an event now itself the stuff of legend. We reckon the squid might be a wee bit of a retake on the Legend of the Gourock Monster....which this year, celebrates it's 70th Anniversary of being dead and buried under some Gourock school or other.

Also down in Gourock, we've been slowly won over by the arrival of the new Gourock statue "Girl on a Suitcase". It's dead easy to be cynical about public art, I've done it myself loads of times. Generally though, it works best when it connects with people, whether that's about involving community in the design, or selecting a subject that resonates with the community that surrounds it. That's why a wood nymph and a big daft dead horse might reasonably struggle in Greenock town centre, but a wee lassie on a trip "doon the watter" fits just right at the Gourock riverside. And apparently the kids involved on the day of the unveiling called her Annie...not sure if that's official, but it has a nice ring...Annie Kempock.

Nope. Not everyone likes it. Why would they? It's art. But it's nice, just for a change, to see at least some people liking something, making her part of the community by dressing her in hats and scarves for winter...

Wee Annie Kempock, watched over by her Granny up on the hill.

Gaun yerself.

Sea Stories - The Serpent and The Saint

When the Tall Ships first arrived in 1999, we were just beginning our local research into folklore and heritage, and we were lucky enough to get the opportunity to get involved in a number of the local art projects organised for the Tall Ships Celebrations. The first involved us creating an illuminated medieval manuscript, with celtic knotwork borders designed by local schoolchildren, stories we collected from the community, and a hand carved wooden cover. It's still one of the most enjoyable things we've ever done.

The other was to write and illustrate a short story in a single afternoon, which was then published in a book produced to commemorate Tall Ships 1999, Tall Ships, Short Stories.

We chose to create a traditional fable or parable involving one of the Saints associated with Greenock, and a mythical encounter he had with our local sea serpent. The story was eventually reworked and expanded for our book of folktales and fables "Tales of the Oak" (available this weekend at Tall Ships!)

This is a recording of that story.

Sea Stories - The Kaptayanos

In celebration of the Tall Ships arriving in Greenock next weekend, we're going to have a wee selection of shanties, superstitions and fish stories for this month.

First up is a brand new recording from local band Ard Amas. The spoken word piece was researched and written by Ross Ahlfeld and concerns the sinking of The Kaptayanos (not to be confused with The Captayannis, the much more famous "sunken sugar ship")

Ard Amas is a band made up of staff and volunteers from Inverclyde Community Development Trust, and they will be selling their cd at Tall Ships Inverclyde as well as performing on Monday 11 July. "The Kaptayanos" features Dave Robinson on vocals and was engineered by John Joyce.

Massive Sea Monster Terrorises Gourock!!

Well. Sort of.

Official records show, that in the summer of 1942, the carcass of a large unidentified creature was washed up at Cardwell Bay. Council Officer Charles Rankin was sent to observe the badly decomposed remains.

“Measuring 27-28 ft. long, it had a lengthy neck, a relatively small flattened head with sharp muzzle and prominent eyebrow ridges, large pointed teeth in each jaw, rather large laterally sited eyes, a long rectangular tail that seemed to have been vertical in life, and two pairs of “L”-shaped flippers (of which the front pair were the larger, and the back pair the broader). The head was comparatively small, of a shape rather like that of a seal but the snout was much sharper and the top of the head flatter. The jaws came together one over the other and there appeared to be bumps over the eyes - say prominent eyebrows. There were large pointed teeth in each jaw. The eys were comparitively large, rather like those of a seal but more to the side of the head. Curiously, its body did not appear to contain any bones other than its spinal column, but its smooth skin bore many 6-inch-long, bristle-like ‘hairs’ - resembling steel knitting needles in form and thickness but more flexible.”

Curiously, when Rankin cut open the beasts stomach, he found “a small piece of knitted woolen material as from a cardigan” and even more bizarre, “a small corner of what had been a woven cotton tablecloth - complete with tassels”. In Rankin’s opinion, the remains were that of a huge lizard, however wartime restrictions permitted him from taking any photographs of the creature. He rang the Royal Scottish Museum in attempt to convince them to examine the creature, but the museum were not interested. Scientific examination of the creature would have been unlikely during the war years, there was simply no time for such work. Consequently, the beasts remains were hacked into pieces and subsequently buried beneath the playing fields of St Ninian's school in Gourock, where they potentially remain to this day. However, Rankin removed one of the “knitting needle” bristles from the flipper of the creature, and he kept it for many years in his desk. It eventually shriveled to resemble a finely coiled spring.

Cryptozoologists suggest that the creature may have been a basking shark or even a puffer fish, but agree that the large pointed teeth of the beast would tend to suggest it was in fact one of the carnivorous shark species. If it was indeed a carnivorous shark, then the size estimated by Rankin would actually make it one of the largest sharks ever discovered, for even Great Whites rarely exceed twenty feet in length. Rankin himself remained unconvinced by the “shark theory”.

  

The mystery of “The Gourock Monster” was popularised in the late seventies when the story featured in an episode of “Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World”. The Gourock section is about 3 minutes into the video. Children of the 60s and 70s may wish to view the whole episode to terrify themselves with the theme music.

You can see Clutha, the friendly river monster in our childrens book Wee Nasties

Also, over on my other blog, I've a wee fable featuring the monster

A video of the episode was on youtube for years, but has recently disappeared, new link below - Gourock part starts at about 22 minutes (though to be honest, it's all good!)

Arthur C. Clarke Mysterious World S01 E02... by kaanozten


The legend of the Gourock monster also crops up in a childrens book I've written, The Superpower Project...

With the help of a wisecracking, steampunk robot, two accidental superheroes discover that they have inherited some amazing, if unusual, abilities. Computer whiz Megan can fly (mostly sleep-flying, but she's working on it) while her best friend Cam can (in theory) transform into any animal, but mostly ends up as a were-hamster.

Together they must protect the source of their ancestral powers from a wannabe evil mastermind and his gang of industrial transformer robots who've disguised themselves as modern art installations on their Greenock estate.

It isn't easy to balance school and epic super-battles, not to mention finding time to search for other super-talents and train with their Mr Miyagi-esque were-tiger coach.Can Megan and Cam beat the bad guy, defeat his robot transformers and become the superheroes they were born to be?

The Superpower Project is available from Floris Books / Kelpies.