Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

A young gentleman of the customs in Edinburgh, has favoured us with the following Extract of a letter, sent him from Dundee, dated August 17, 1786.

"Very little credit has been given to what Pontoppidan, bishop of Bergen, in his natural history of Norway, says of a certain animal called Kraken, but if the declaration made by the master and mate of a Norway ship now here, whereof the inclosed is a copy, may be depended on, it will afford some reason to believe that there is in nature such a creature as he describes.

"It is proposed further to examine them, and the whole crew upon oath, and if any thing material occurs, I shall acquaint you."

"At Dundee, the 16th of August.
Before F. R. Lamy, one of his majesty's justices of the peace for the county of Forfar, and Mr. John Guild, one of the present magistrates of Dundee, appeared Jens Anderson and Mads Jensen, master and mate of the Margaretta, of Easterezer, of Norway, who declare, and it is further confirmed by their several journals produced, That on Saturday, the 6th day of this present month of August, between the hours of nine and ten in the forenoon of that day, being on their voyage to Dundee, and in latitude 56, 16. N. about fifteen or sixteen leagues to the eastward of the island of May, they, as well as the whole crew of the said ship, perceived, within less than one mile's distance to the southward of them, what they conceived to be an animal, called in Norway a sea worm, a creature of a huge size, emerging from the sea: That from its appearance, it seemed to form three low islands, or sand banks, of a greyish colour, thus-

That they conceive the length of it to have been at least three English miles: That it lay stretched from S. W. to N. E. That its breadth appeared to be about twenty or thirty fathoms: That it was in sight fifty minutes, and went down gradually, without any remarkable agitation of the water. From the time of its ascending, and during its appearance on the water, the weather was perfectly calm, and it went down again as soon as a breeze came on. The waves broke on those parts of it which were above water, as on a bank. The greatest apparent height it bore above water seemed to be from two to three fathoms.

Jens Anderson.
Mads Jensen.

Declared and signed before us,
J. R. Lamy, J. P.
John Guild, Magistrate."