Have you ever wondered whether or not there was some truth in the stories of monsters in Loch Ness? Here are all of the answers.
Loch Ness Monster Explained & Loch Ness Understood: The Co-Founder of the Loch Ness Centre Provides a Personal Perspecti...
Continuing our tour of the loch, we pull out of the castle car park, having taken our souvenir pictures. Now we head south along one of the most precipitous stretches of the northern shore. The hills here plunge towards the depths of the loch at between 45o and 60o. The road winds dangerously for about a mile until we see a stone cairn standing on the left of the road, opposite some ruined croft houses and two occupied houses. This is Lower Lenie. My own house is not far from here. The cairn was erected by the people of Drumnadrochit and Glenurquhart in memory of John Cobb who died while attempting to set a new water speed record in 1952.
John Cobb, with his jet powered boat Crusader, had been waiting a long time for calm weather. It is a mystery to me why anyone would choose Loch Ness for an event which required absolutely flat calm conditions. Even the best flat calms at Loch Ness rarely last longer than an hour and often include areas of ripples which can spring up without warning.
On the fateful day, Crusader was rapidly prepared to take advantage of one of the few calm mornings for weeks. Cobb warmed up the vessel and then made the first pass along the measured mile at over 200mph (320kph), comfortably breaking the existing record. To be valid an average had to be taken of passes in each direction but at the end of the first pass Crusader seemed to be skimming along just above the surface. It bobbed two or three times then somersaulted and disintegrated. Cobb was pulled from the water alive but died shortly afterwards.
The press, as might be expected, tried to link the accident with Nessie, making suggestions that the waves which had sprung up were the monster's wake, but the answer was probably far more simple. According to Cobb's local engineer, Alex Menzies, (whose son, Gordon, runs Castle Cruises) the run was going to be aborted, but then the loch returned to a calm. In their hurry to return to their stations boat wakes might have been created by Cobb's own support vessels and he ran into those at high speed.
Ironically, as careful viewing of the film of the disaster perhaps demonstrates, if Cobb had not reduced power when he began to hit the wake he may well have ridden through the disturbance. Reducing power probably allowed the nose to drop and strike the next wave. The rest is history.
In 2002, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the disaster, Adrian Shine's Loch Ness Project decided to look for Crusader and managed to pinpoint it using sonar. Then, in collaboration with the Academy of Applied Science, they managed to obtain some good photographs of parts of the boat. It was decided to leave the remains of the boat on the loch bed as a sign of respect.
If stopping to view the cairn, do take care, both pulling on and off the road and crossing it from the layby on the opposite side. The road is fast and dangerous here with many locals using this short straight stretch as a rare opportunity to overtake slower traffic. Expect cars to be exceeding 70mph (112kph) even though the limit is 60mph (96kph).
Beyond Lenie we reach Achnahannet which was the location of the Loch Ness Phenomenon Investigation Bureau's sixties' base camp, although there is nothing there to mark the spot today. The area of the camp was on the flat field opposite the Achnahannet cottages which is sometimes home to a solitary, but well looked-after horse.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
