Hells Gate Sea Monster
Hells gate is a drainage system in the New York area.
City Island is located at the extreme western end of Long Island Sound, south
of Pelham Bay Park.
Long Island Sound off the shores of Pelham had been the source of sightings of a mysterious
sea serpent for a few years.There were so many reports during that two or three
year period in the late 1870's that the respected scientific journal Scientific
American collected, analyzed, and published
eyewitness accounts. No definitive proof was found.
Captain Banta ,the river pilot, rowing a small
boat off the waters of City Island shortly before daylight in August 1895 on
his way to meet a vessel that he was to guide through the treacherous
waters of nearby Hells Gate. Suddenly a
huge creature with "big black eyes,
which gleamed like dark lanterns" and that made a noise that
"resembled that of a big steamer turning about in midstream" rose
from the deep and struck his boat, raising it out of the water and nearly
capsizing it. Captain Banta dropped his
oars and held onto the sides of the boat for dear life.
The sea monster sank beneath the waters and then rose again striking the boat a second time and lifting it
out of the water The monster was then
attracted by the sound of a steamer and headed away leaving Banta to steer his damaged
boat to shore
Three members of the United States Military also
sighted the Sea Serpent in 1895, the
large beast had a head covered with "a big shock of hair." It could lift that massive head out of the
water on a long neck that writhed in the air.
Its neck was "at least four feet in diameter" and had skin
that was scaly and "spotted white in places." The face of the beast had great whiskers.." It had a green beard and bright blue eyes
with big flippers that it used to propel itself along. Most frighteningly, when the beast dove into
the depths of the Long Island Sound, its tail would shoot upward into the air
"clad in rattles exactly like a rattlesnake." When the tail reached its highest point out
of the water, the rattles would begin to clang before the beast disappeared
into the deep.
A few
days after this a twenty-five foot long snake thought to be a boa constrictor
floated out of the Sound and onto the shores of an island near Hell Gate, It was
reported in local newspapers.
The snake's
back was badly torn as if it had been
killed by the paddle wheel of a steamer."
Some reports cite Banta’s experience as 1902 which
would be after the snake was found. If that is the correct date then the dead
snake was not responsible for the sightings.
