1930’s Letter to Scottish Government Says “Keep the Loch Ness Monster Safe”

While Nessie – the personal name affectionately ascribed to the Loch Ness Monster – gets seen by people who visit the loch in Scotland, she or he is now in the news for another reason: an unearthed record regarding the creature’s personal safety.

It seems that some time back in the 1930’s Chief Constable William Fraser of Inverness-shire in Scotland composed a letter to the nation’s government claiming that he had seen a group of men at the loch, armed with harpoon guns designed for hunting sea animals. Fearing for Nessie, Fraser believed that it was in the best interest of the government to protect the animal until it could be evaluated exactly what kind of creature Nessie is.

Sketches of Nessie depict it as being some sort of prehistoric dinosaur, with a long neck, a small head, which occasionally is seen peering out of the loch (not totally unlike the underwater bird in a small Venice lake, although in this case the animal has been seen out of the water and flying). As Fraser believed, tourism is the primary reason to protect Nessie, although he seemed to be sincerely concerned for Nessie’s welfare, too. If Nessie were to be hunted and shot, well, the shooter may be in for a big surprise: the animal could either sink or die, or prove to be impervious to bullets (sort of like the Jersey Devil), or even come raging after the shooter. Any of the above might make international news, but then the die-hard fans would come to mourn Nessie, turning its day of death into a spectacle along the lines of Michael Jackson’s or Elvis Presley’s funeral. That is quite a thought. The other thought is that at some point in Scottish government history, somebody cleverly thought up the idea of having a monster live in the lake, assemble some sort of costume, and cleverly swims in and out of the lake, entering it through drainage tunnels underground. It’s not something that has been completely ruled out. Or Nessie could be some kind of ancient battleship, which brings to mind an episode of “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” titled “The Secret of the Loch.” In this episode, Nessie turns out to be a battleship when an evil conspirator shows up, trying to appear as if he is the good guy but really isn’t. Even if Nessie turns out to be some lone creature unrelated to any other living animals, she or he is deserving of some kind of protection, even if it is to preserve the legends of the Loch Ness Monster.

Image Credit: Immanuel Giel, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.