“In 1830, the Harper’s New Monthly magazine told of various sightings of a serpent-like creature that could travel at a rate of a mile or so per minute and claimed that its head was like a rattlesnake’s but as big as a horse’s. The magazine went on to report that the body appeared rough and scaly, measuring between forty and sixty feet long, and its tongue was two feet in length. An early newspaper depiction of a giant sea snake. During that same year, fishermen in Wells and Kennebunk spotted the same serpent on several occasions in late June while fishing near the mouth of the Kennebunk River. Two of the men were so much alarmed that they went below deck. The third however, Mr. Gooch, a man whose statements can be relied on, remained on deck and returned the glances of the serpent for a considerable length of time. Mr. Gooch claimed that the creature came within six feet of the boat, raised its head from the water and looked directly in the boat, so remaining for several minutes. Daniel Remich’s History of Kennebunk related this same story and reported that Mr. Gooch said that he could have easily struck the serpent with his oar but was willing to let it alone if the serpent chose not to bother him.”
Kathleen Ostrander in “Remembering the Kennebunks”