Hans

Hans Egede, a Dano-Norwegian missionary, reported an encounter with a sea monster in July 1734 during a voyage to Godthåb on the western coast of Greenland. He described a most terrible creature, resembling nothing they saw before, which lifted its head so high that it seemed to be higher than the crow's nest on the mainmast. The head was small and the body short and wrinkled, and the unknown creature used giant fins which propelled it through the water. Later the sailors saw its tail as well, and the monster was longer than our whole ship. Ellis (1999) suggested the Egede monster might have been a giant squid.