The Loch Ness Monster
Many expert long-distance swimmers have tried to accomplish the thirty-seven kilometres journey across Loch Ness in Scotland, but it was left to an 18-year-old English girl, Brenda Sherrat to do this.
It took her just over thirty hours to complete the distance, and for nearly ten of those hours she was swimming in complete darkness.
Everyone applauded Brenda for her strength and stamina, but they also applauded her for her bravery in tackling this most mysterious of Scottish lakes.
Loch Ness is the legendary home of probably the world’s most famous monster.
In fact, less than three weeks before Brenda made her journey, the monster, or ‘Nessie’, as it’s known to the local people, had made yet another appearance.
Four people reported seeing three great black humps on the loch surface, and said they had watched them travelling at high speed for three minutes before the creature dived.
There are reports of similar appearances
Is the monster fact or fiction?
Experts have been discussing that question for years, but in recent times more and more people have become convinced that a whole colony of giant creatures may live in the loch.
In 1962 a group of people formed an organization called the Bureau for the Investigation of the Loch Ness Phenomena.
Each summer, the Bureau enlists the aid of volunteers who watch the loch in daylight hours. And in 1966, they established powerful cameras on the banks to try for a picture that would prove ‘Nessie’s’ existence.
Other people have photographed something on the loch’s surface, but the pictures have never been quite good enough to convince anyone, although a film made in 1961 convinced a lot of people that there’s something there.
The film was examined by photographic experts, who reported that it showed an object twenty-eight metres long, travelling at sixteen kilometres per hour.
The Bureau also keeps records of all appearances, and says that during the past thirty years descriptions of the monster have been very much the same.
The following picture has been created: a length of around eighteen metres, one-sixth of which is head and neck; four fins; and a stubby tail.
There are all sorts of theories about the monster. Some people believe it’s a giant eel, others that it’s a plesiosaurus, a huge water creature that lived more than sixty million years ago.
Experts have used radar and echo-sounders to hunt for ‘Nessie’; underwater swimmers have dived deep looking for her; others have established guns on the bank, hoping to shoot her; one man even trained his dogs to sniff her out; and a circus owner has offered a large sum of money for her capture.
In 1973 a Japanese trading firm organized its own ‘scientific’ expedition. The necessary equipment, including a small submarine, was brought to Scotland.
But the monster of Loch Ness remains mysterious.
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