Caledonian Mercury, 3 August 1778
Friday se'enight, was killed at Coatham, near Kirkleatham in Cleveland, a very extraordinary monster that resembled a crocodile. It was seven yards long, and was thought, by a numerous company who assembled to see it, to be the most surprising creature ever seen on any coast in England.
This "monster" may have an oarfish, specimens of which occasionally wash up on the shores of North-East England. In recent decades such strandings have been at Whitby (1981), Skinningrove caught by an angler (2003), Seaham and Tynemouth (both in 2009). Without further details of the monster an ID cannot be 100%.
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