Scotland Discovering a huge object on Loch Ness during a trip in 1933, Hugh Gray quickly took a photo and was sure he saw the monster Nessie.
On November 12, 1933, Hugh Gray was walking along Loch Ness, near the Scottish city of Inverness, on a sunny Sunday when he saw a “large object” rising from the water not far from him. Gray took out his Kodak camera to photograph what appeared to be an animal’s tail stirring the water before it sank.
Gray sent the story, along with the only photograph he took that day, to the Scottish Daily Record . He believes he has captured the first image of Nessie, the mysterious creature that has been rumored to be in Loch Ness for decades, according to Roland Watson, who analyzed Gray's photo.
Loch Ness is about 37 km in circumference and more than 200 m deep in places, and can hold more than 7.4 million m3 of water. The first records of the Nessie monster appeared in the Middle Ages, when the Irish monk St Columba is said to have encountered the giant creature on the Ness, the river that flows from Loch Ness.
Gray's story added to the growing body of reports about the mysterious creature. The black and white photograph he took sparked Nessie fever not only in the region but around the world .
"The photograph launched the modern era of Nessie hunting. Before that, it was considered just a local legend," said Watson, who has written several books on the Loch Ness monster. "Ninety years later, Gray's photograph is still considered one of the best Nessie photographs ever taken."
Hugh Gray's photo of an object on Loch Ness in November 1933. Photo: Washington Post
So far, Nessie hunters have not had a more convincing image of the mysterious creature, despite the support of many new technologies such as digital cameras, sonar equipment, satellite images and smartphones.
The Loch Ness Centre and the Loch Ness Exploration volunteer research group held a Nessie Monster Hunt Campaign last weekend with the participation of hundreds of volunteers around the world, but got no results.
Gray, who worked at the aluminum smelter in Foyers, on the east coast of Loch Ness, was highly respected by his colleagues and the community for his Nessie discovery, according to Watson. But skeptics at the time believed he was simply photographing a floating log or possibly a whale.
However, Gray's photograph was taken at a time when there were several significant sightings of the Loch Ness Monster. In April 1933, the Inverness Courier newspaper reported that local hotel manager Aldie Mackay had seen a whale-like "monster" stirring the waters of Loch Ness while driving along the shore. Tourists then flocked to Loch Ness in the hope of seeing the monster.
That summer, George Spicer, a tourist from London, said he saw a creature more than two meters long with a long neck crossing the road while he was driving near Loch Ness.
"The animal looked very much like a dragon or a prehistoric animal. It crossed the road about 45 meters in front of my car and seemed to be holding a small sheep or some animal," he said.
Spicer's story "gained media attention and the 'Loch Ness monster' story was born," said Gary Campbell, who runs the Loch Ness Monster Sightings website. The site has recorded 1,148 sightings of unidentified creatures in and around the lake.
Campbell created the site after he saw the alleged Nessie creature himself in 1996. He told the Washington Post at the time that he saw "a black hump disappear and reappear. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen."
Campbell's website notes that many sightings can be easily disproven. What appears to be Nessie could actually be a boat, a log, or a human mirage. Seals, otters, large eels, sturgeon, and catfish have also been mistaken for Nessie.
In 1934, London physician R. Kenneth Wilson sold a black and white photograph to the Daily Mail of a creature with a long neck sticking its head out of the water. Wilson claimed to have taken the photograph in Loch Ness while passing through there with a friend.
Wilson's photograph quickly spread through the media, becoming the most popular "proof" of Nessie's existence, overshadowing Gray's. However, by 1994, the photo was determined to be a fake.
The photo is said to be "evidence" of the Loch Ness monster published by Dr. Wilson. Photo: Washington Post
Many people later theorized that Nessie was a giant sea snake that had crawled into Loch Ness and gotten stuck there.
However, according to Darren Naish, zoologist and founder of the blog Tetrapod Zoology, with thousands of people visiting Loch Ness every day, if such a creature really exists, someone will surely have taken a clearer picture of it.
Gray never took another photo of Nessie. However, the Scot still believes in what he saw and the photo he took.
Even in 1960, shortly before Gray's death, he took a cryptozoologist to the location where he had taken the photograph and "spoke of what he had seen with unwavering conviction," according to Watson.
Location of Loch Ness, Scotland. Graphics: BBC
Thanh Tam (According to Washington Post )
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