1808: a 55-foot 'sea serpent' washed up in Orkney and got an official scientific name before it was debunked

this is a proper old one and i love it because the SCIENTISTS were the believers, not the locals. September 1808, after a storm, a carcass washes up at Rothiesholm Head on Stronsay (Orkney). a fisherman, John Peace, spots birds on it. the thing is measured at 55 FEET, with a long slender neck, a ma……