Morgawr is a plesiosaur

Plesiosaur

Plesiosauroidea is an extinct clade of carnivorous plesiosaur marine reptiles. Plesiosauroids, are known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods...

-like cryptid

Cryptid

In cryptozoology and sometimes in cryptobotany, a cryptid is a creature or plant whose existence has been suggested but is unrecognized by scientific consensus and often regarded as highly unlikely. Famous examples include the Yeti in the Himalayas and the Loch Ness Monster in...

 purported to live in the sea near Falmouth Bay, Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

. It has been photographed and even caught on tape.

First sighted in 1906, various theories have been proposed for as to the identity of this sea serpent

Sea serpent

A sea serpent or sea dragon is a type of sea monster either wholly or partly serpentine.Sightings of sea serpents have been reported for hundreds of years, and continue to be claimed today. Cryptozoologist Bruce Champagne identified more than 1,200 purported sea serpent sightings...

, ranging from a hoax

Hoax

A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...

 or mistaken identity, to the suggestion that the creature is a surviving species of Plesiosaur

Plesiosaur

Plesiosauroidea is an extinct clade of carnivorous plesiosaur marine reptiles. Plesiosauroids, are known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods...

 or that it is a previously undiscovered species of long necked seal

Pinniped

Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...

. In the absence of a carcass or a living specimen, identity explanations depend only on eyewitness accounts and low-quality photographs.

Chronology/Timeline

• 1876: A sea serpent is allegedly captured by fishers at Gerran's Bay.

• Allegedly sighted in 1906 off Land's End
  Land's End
  Land's End is a headland and small settlement in west Cornwall, England, within the United Kingdom. It is located on the Penwith peninsula approximately eight miles west-southwest of Penzance....
  
  .

• Pendennis Point, September 1975. Two witnesses claim to have seen a humped figure with 'stumpy horns' and bristles on its long neck, catching a conger eel in its mouth.

• Rosemullion Head, Falmouth
  Falmouth, Cornwall
  Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....
  
  , February 1976. 'Mary F' sent two photographs, apparently of Morgawr, to the Falmouth Packet, along with a covering letter. She said "it looked like an elephant waving its trunk, but the trunk was a long neck with a small head at the end, like a snake's head. It had humps on its back which moved in a funny way... the animal frightened me. I would not like to see it any closer. I do not like the way it moved when swimming." Neither Mary F or the negatives have ever been traced. Noted mystery writers and photographers Janet and Colin Bord have examined first-generation copy prints, and "feel that these photographs could well be genuine."

Mary F.'s Photos: http://www.ufodigest.com/news/1007/images/morgawr.jpg

• 25 miles south of Lizard Point
  Lizard Point, Cornwall
  Lizard Point in Cornwall is at the southern tip of the Lizard Peninsula. It is situated half-a-mile south of Lizard village in the civil parish of Landewednack and approximately 11 miles southeast of Helston....
  
  , July 1976. Fishers John Cock and George Vinnicombe claim to sight a creature whose neck "reared 4 feet up in the water". They estimated the animal's length at 22 feet.

• Parson's Beach, Mawnan, November 1976. Tony 'Doc' Shiels claims to photograph the creature lying low in the water. He mentions "little stumpy horns" on its head, and he describes the body of the animal as 15 feet long. (For more mysterious happenings at Mawnan in 1976, see Owlman
  Owlman
  The Owlman, sometimes referred to as the Cornish Owlman, or The Owlman of Mawnan, is a purported cryptid that was supposedly sighted around mid 1976 in the village of Mawnan, Cornwall...
  
  ).

• Gerran's Bay, August 1985. Christopher and Susan Waldron of King's Stanley, Gloucestershire report on having seen the creature whilst on holiday. It was noted that Mrs Waldron was watching her husband swimming in the sea, when she noticed a large silhouette under the surface behind him. The shape was described to be that of a large, long necked creature.

• Devil's Point, off Plymouth
  Plymouth
  Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
  
  , 1987. An experienced diver sees a dog-like head on a neck rising 1 metre out of the sea. He notes that it is in a spot favoured by conger eels.

• Gerran's Bay, 1999. John Holmes videotapes what is claimed to be an unidentified creature in the sea.

Hoax tape

In 1991 Strange magazine published transcripts from a series of tapes made by Shiels, in which he discusses the possibility of hoaxing the people of Falmouth with a sea-serpent story. The article reports him saying:

• "I am a born hoaxer" (30 January 1976)

• "I think that I mentioned that I am hoping to hoax the people of Falmouth, and thereabouts, here in Cornwall, into thinking that there is a Cornish sea monster on the loose." (30 January 1976)

• "They have to be bad photographs in order to seem authentic." (4 February 1976)

• "Of course we are going to have our hoaxing session here with the Cornish sea monster..." (19 February 1976)

• "[There is] a great revival in public interest in things that are strange and mysterious, and we may as well ride the crest of this wave as long as we possibly can..." (19 February 1976)

• "A fisherman friend of mine... he is a good man to start a little bit of a rumor going down here concerning the famous Cornish sea monster as will be, heh-heh. We hope to build the thing up during the next three or four weeks. Paul has agreed to see something strange within the next few days when he is fishing." (19 February 1976) (note, however, that this fisher is not one of the two fishers listed as witness above).

Mentions in other Literature

The Morgawr

Morgawr

* For the fictional character see Morgawr * For the Cornish sea monster, see Morgawr Morgawr is the third book in the The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara fantasy trilogy by Terry Brooks. It was first published in 2002....

 is the name of a powerful demon in the Shannara Series by Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks

Terence Dean "Terry" Brooks is an American writer of fantasy fiction. He writes mainly epic fantasy, and has also written two movie novelizations. He has written 23 New York Times bestsellers during his writing career, and has over 21 million copies of his books in print...

. Other than the name, there is no connection between the two.

The Morgow Rises! is the title of a horror novel by Peter Tremayne, set in the fictional Cornish village of Bosbradoe.