In 1978, the USS Stein, a US Navy frigate, suddenly experienced an emergency that required it to return to its home base, and the radar system responsible for detecting submarine threats was suddenly out of service. Stein headed ashore and reached the dry dock so engineers could examine the failure of the massive 27,215 kilogram dome attached to the front of the ship’s hull.
However, engineers examining the sonar dome found something they didn’t expect. According to a Navy magazine at the time, the rubber “NOFOUL” coating of the dome had ruptured and the tears covered about 8 percent of this large surface. With some tears reaching nearly “four feet in length” (about one meter and 25 centimeters), the veneer looked as if it had been damaged by something of serious force. In fact, many of the crevices had huge teeth under them, and witnesses said the ship appeared to be surrounded by a group of crocodiles. Later, rumors of the “Stein Monster” surfaced.
To unlock the “Stein Monster”, Navy biologist FG Wood was called in to examine the NOFOUL coating. He pointed out that the teeth or claws (or arms) found on the dome were likely culprits of the large rips, and they matched perfectly with the width of each.
Wood concluded it was a large squid because of the structure of the teeth, but said it could also be something that hasn’t been found in the ocean yet. The only problem was that a giant squid with such large teeth would have to be 45 meters long, making it about half the length of the Statue of Liberty.
One of the “claws” attached to the ship’s hull…So, it probably wasn’t a mythical squid like the Kraken depicted as you see at the top of the page, but it was probably an impressively large creature. The claws embedded in the coat appear to belong to a gigantic squid, differing in the overall body mass of the giant squid and the large hooks covering the tentacles. These hooks are used to hold on to prey and can even tear the prey apart, so it’s not an animal you want to snuggle with.
While it’s not known for certain what happened, if the Stein Monster had been found, it would likely be one of the largest specimens ever discovered.
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