Ladies Cave

A visitor from another world may find it strange that we call our planet Earth, when in fact over two-thirds of our planet's surface is submerged under water.

The vast oceans that cover the Earth are mostly unexplored, and there are many unknown sea creatures in their depths that marine biologists have yet to discover.

In 1938, a large fish called the Coelacanth was caught in the Indian Ocean. The huge fearsome-looking fish, which was swimming the seas when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, was thought to have become extinct 70 millions of years ago.

If the extinct' Coelacanth survived the age of the Dinosaurs, could larger creatures have also survived and perhaps be roaming the ocean bed?

As late as 1991, Smithsonian and Peruvian scientists described a new species of beaked whale that had previously gone undetected in the oceans of the world.

New discoveries of various species of sea creature are regularly made, and some think the Loch Ness Monster and the sea serpents of old maritime folklore may have a basis in fact.

In this part of the world, there have been many well-documented encounters with unidentified sea creatures, and many of the incidents took place in Wirral waters.

In the 1880s on several occasions, fishermen spotted a long snake-like creature with eleven humps cruising from the River Dee towards Liverpool Bay.

A Justice of the Peace from Liverpool, vacationing in Llandudno in 1882, sighted the same humped sea monster' and later signed an affidavit stating that it was over 300 feet in length, and was swimming out towards Liverpool Bay.

Eight other people at Llandudno saw the same large creature. For centuries, the fishermen of Cardigan Bay have claimed that a sea serpent patrols the Irish Sea.

They call the creature Morgwar, and curiously, the fishermen of Cornwall also call their legendary sea monster Morgwar. Legend says that Morgwar belonged to a race of monsters from the north, and that one of these serpents (also referred to as a dragon) had a lair in a riverside cave.

According to some medieval maps, this cave was located near to modern day Ellesmere Port, and in the days of King Arthur, Sir Gawain, an outstanding Knight of the Round Table, went to slay the monster, which was causing havoc with the fishing community.

Sir Gawain chased the monster into what is now the Delamere Forest and killed it.

In modern times there have been a few alleged encounters with a spine-chilling creature at West Kirby which were explained away as imagination and urban legend, but I'm not so sure.

The first report comes from a 13-year-old named Susan Rogers, who was visiting Hilbre Island in the winter of 1954 with her 18-year-old cousin Tina Jones.

Susan had a row with Tina on the island and ran off to hide. Tina looked for her cousin and shouted out to her, warning that the tide would soon be coming in and the island would be cut off from the mainland.

Susan went sulking into the Ladie's Cave' on the island as the rain-laden skies turned gloomy.

Susan was gazing out from the cave to see if Tina was looking for her - when she heard a rattling sound.

Something touched the girl's bare ankle.

She looked down and saw what looked like a dark brown length of cane covered with bristles, quivering between her sandals. She spun round in fright and saw something horrifying.

A huge crustacean creature, about four feet high and six feet wide, was standing on four, perhaps even six jointed legs. It was grey and clad in segmented shells.

The most frightening thing about it was the pair of huge blood-red eyes. Susan almost fainted with fear.

The bristled cane' prodded at her skirt, and was one of two antennae attached to the head of the monstrosity. It's mouth opened and closed with a rattling sound and it's legs clicked as it lunged forward.

Susan leaped from the cave mouth and landed on the rocks below with a sprained ankle. She still couldn't scream, and almost blacked out twice as she scrambled across the beach, because she could hear the rattling sound in the distance.

Tina found her in a sorry state on all fours, and shuddered when Susan told her about the thing' in the cave.

The unknown shelled creature was allegedly seen on several more occasions at Hilbre Island in the 1960s, and there is even one report of a similar creature being washed ashore on Parkgate Promenade during a fierce storm in the late 1940s.

Men delivering beer to a waterfront pub said the crab-like creature was some seven feet in length, and it kicked furiously on its back until a wave crashed over the promenade and righted it.

The scary creature then crawled back into the sea.