9. The Canvey Island Monster
If only theyd had Google in the 1950s. Canvey Island is an innocuous little splodge of land that pokes, almost politely, out of the Thames Estuary in England. Despite being settled since Roman times, not a lot appears to have happened there, except for an awful tragedy at the beginning of the 50s and the times that two monsters washed ashore in 1953 and 1954, respectively. The 1953 monster was discovered on the Canvey shoreline towards the end of the year. At the beginning of 1953, the North Sea Flood had decimated the island. The cold waters came in on the night of February 1st caused the tragic deaths of 58 people. The water actually reached ceiling level in shorefront properties, drowning all inside. It was 9 months later that the first monster arrived. It was quite badly decomposed, so it was therefore reasonably hard to identify. Despite being admittedly baffled as to the strange creatures identity, a team of zoologists, in their (apparently infinite) wisdom, had the one-of-a-kind specimen burned. Fortunately for locals, a second unidentified monster appeared on their shores about 7 months later, in the summer of 1954. This beast was actually quite recently dead and was far better preserved than its forebear. It was even photographed. This is very fortunate for us, because today, a quick trip to Google images identifies this terrifying creature as nothing more than a dead monkfish, a type of anglerfish. Quite how it got into the Thames is anyones guess (probably something to do with the flooding), but it wouldnt be the first time an anomalous animal has gotten lost and wandered up there. Reports by armchair experts and (frankly, overambitious) cryptozoologists have actually gone as far as to suggest that the pronounced fins of the creature were actually legs (and that it must therefore have been bipedal). The image of a brutal, toadlike creature that leaves the water and toddles along the shorelines at night began to form in the minds of some islanders and the monsters became part of local lore. Today, the tale of the Canvey Island Monster(s) stands as an example of what can happen when unimaginable tragedy combines with local legends (and bad science) to create a wholly imaginary beast, one that has never actually existed.