The Canvey Island Monsters

The Canvey Island Monsters
The Legend:

On an November day in 1954, some citizens of Canvey Island, Britain, were said to have found a bizarre looking animal in the shallow water of a beach.

Those who found the dead thing dragged it up onto the sand, covered it with seaweed, and ran to tell the authorities; the local authorities contacted the federal authorities, and the federal authorities responded by sending two zoologists. These two gentlemen examined and photographed the corpse, then admitted they had never seen anything like it.

The unknown creature appeared to be a marine animal, but with feet and legs it could walk on if it chose; standing upright, it would have been about two and a half feet tall. The feet had five toes arranged in a ‘U’ shape, with a concave arch. the creature also had a thick, brownish-red skin and a pulpy head with two protruding eyes.

The body was cremated by the zoologists, who then left without making a public statement about the corpse.

On August 11, 1954, the Reverend Joseph Overs was walking along the beaches of Canvey Island a couple of miles from the site of the corpse’s discovery, when he ran across a second body floating in a shallow tidepool. He contacted the local authorities, and they, once again, sent for expert help.

This new body was not only taller than the last — four feet tall, standing — but was in overall better condition too. The specialists stated that the body weighed about twenty-five pounds, had two large eyes, nostrils, strong, sharp teeth in its mouth, and gills. Its skin was pink and tough, like the hide of a healthy pig. Like the corpse found before it, the new body had two legs and feet, the feet possesing the odd toes arranged in a ‘U’ shape with a concave center.