"In 1741, a Danish-Norwegian missionary named Hans Egede published what became a famous account of "a most dreadful monster" that appeared off the coast of Greenland. "The case is interesting," the modern scientists write, "in that Egede had drawn and described a number of large northern whale species in his book, so he obviously felt the 'dreadful' monster was something different."

Paxton says that most historians have relied solely on a bad translation of Egede's book. He and his colleagues apply modern biological insights to the case. Egede's animal had a serpent-like tail that appeared out of the water when the rest of the beast had disappeared.

But rather than a tail, Paxton et al say, this was most likely a penis. They present photographs of well-endowed male whales, and also a drawing from Egede's book, in which we see the sea monster's serpent-like tail. The latter is remarkably similar to what we see in the photographs.

The case is not proved definitively, but it should be an inspiration to both biologists and whale-watching tourists." - link

Thanks Deep Sea News and Pharyngula!
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