Friday 20 January 2017

Hunting down the Taylor Film





The above article was recently published by the South African Daily Maverick newspaper and I will return to that later on in this piece. But looking back three and a half years ago, I published that still frame picture on my blog appealing for any information that would lead to the discovery of its film taken by a Mr. G. E. Taylor at Loch Ness in 1938. The first part of that strategy was fulfilled in that the article was highly visible on the Internet. In other words, a google search for "G E Taylor Loch Ness Monster" put the article as the number one hit.

The second part, in which someone would actually reply with some new information, never came to pass. While this was disappointing it was also somewhat worrying as one would assume that anyone who was a descendant or close associate of Mr. Taylor and knew about the film would be sufficiently Internet savvy to at some point search for this film and find the article.

This digital silence could mean one of several things. People may have relevant information but do not wish to divulge it. Or it could be that such people are unaware of such a film, either because they have not looked for it or because the film is now no more. I hope it is not the last of these possibilities, but it would always be a hard thing to confirm.

The other problem was that I did not know G. E. Taylor's full name. Descendants of Mr. Taylor may have searched for information on him by using his full name. Also, if they were not aware of his Loch Ness connection, then "loch ness" would not appear on their search input and so my article would be way down the list of hits (I have recently updated the article to "seed" it with common names that may match the "G" and "E". These are there only to lock into certain google search patterns).

That article remains, but it is not clear if it now still fulfils its original purpose. Expanding the search, enquiring of ancestry websites was the other obvious pursuit, though for me it resulted in tenuous matches. Scotland has a good genealogy site, as do others, and South Africa is also providing such online services. One problem is it costs money, the other problem is one of priority.

A search of the National Archives of South Africa indicates that the digitised archive does not go beyond 1950. Presumably, that is a fluid situation as more births, deaths and marriages are scanned and put online. But this is not a surprise as the service primarily caters to historians and genealogists and that means categorising the older data first and then working your way up to the present day.

The trick is again knowing what the "G. E." stands for. and I suspect this may involve going through the paywall of various genealogical websites to get some (if any) information. However, the main source of information would be the register of births, deaths and marriages in Pietermaritzburg. That may ultimately require the paid employment of a local researcher.

Other lines of enquiry were more proactive. I contacted the National Film Video and Sound Archive in South Africa regarding the old newsreels to see if anything regarding Loch Ness Monster films appeared on the "African Mirror" newsreels around 1938 or 1961. Again, nothing turned up.

I then paid for an advert to be placed in the Notices sections of the popular Sunday Times for three weeks running. Again, nothing, but it piqued the interest of a local journalist who contacted me and with my input ran an article concerning South Africa's claim to fame in producing the first colour film of the Loch Ness Monster and the subsequent disappearance of that film.

That also ended with an appeal for more information. Where that will lead remains an open matter. At the time of writing, there are only a couple of leads but nothing that is truly substantial. However, I have enough new material for an article on the G. E. Taylor film. That will go ahead, but ultimately there can be no really incisive analysis without the actual film.


The author can be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com







21 comments:

  1. Good luck with this. I've always been a bit confused as to how the majority of these films went into the land of lore fairly quickly, with no opportunity for researchers to give them the once over. The still looks interesting to me, but inconclusive. It doesn't look huge either. Are you aware of a video from the early 1990s that looked like a large animal turning over in the water? Quick but unmistakable. I have a feeling it was from a scandanavian tourist. From memory, both banks are visible and possibly Urquhart. My memory of it is sketchy, so some details might be wrong, but I thought it was dynamite when I saw it. It must have been on terrestrial TV because I didn't have satellite. I have never found a trace of it, but I can't have made all that up in my head.

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    1. Yup, it will need a dose of luck. I don't think the Taylor would have seen the light of day at all if it wasn't for the release of the Dinsdale Film. After that, it retreated back into the darkness. It is a bit of a mystery why the LNIB didn't immediately get back to G.E. Taylor for another non-sceptical anaylsis of the film.

      I am not sure what the other film is you refer to!

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    2. It was on one of those many tv programmes about Loch Ness that have popped up over the years. Chances of it having been archived are possibly low considering it is about 25 years old. I keep wondering if I'm going a bit mad here!
      Yes, given the potential importance of the Taylor film, I'm surprised various people weren't all over it. According to another source, the UK Oceanographic Institute examined the footage that Maurice Burton had passed on to them and declared it as one of many inanimate objects in the loch. Although whatever possessed him to keep it locked up automatically makes it interesting to me.

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  2. Here's the video to which I think you refer:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrvmlEOuP78

    It certainly seems solid, and has no trailing or leading wake edge - on one documentary, I think
    it's Ronald Binns gives his sneering dismissal of
    it as the interference of two boat wakes, giving
    the illusion of an animate object. However, no
    wakes are in evidence, though there is one at the
    bottom of the screen. This film doesn't get much
    scrutiny, so maybe the experts are all in agreement
    that it's just water, colliding over and over? But
    it's awfully suggestive of a large creature rolling over and over in the sunshine. . . .

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    1. Ah, that one! Looks too isolated to be a boat after-effect.

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  3. I remember that film well and also thought it was dynamite at the time.

    It is surprising how the film dropped completely off the radar. Well done for tracking it down on YouTube.

    Looking at it now and knowing the loch as i do, i do think the prominent boat wake at the bottom of the screen might be significant. I think It's the turning circle of the Jacobite that pulls in at the Castle Pier and i myself have seen that wake create some odd effects on the water over the years.

    So yes, it's a great film. I'm not sure what it shows but i do think it was passed off as some sort of standing wave at the time.

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  4. It was Stuart Campbell who gave the 'sneering dismissal' of the 90's film, but then dismissal - sneering or otherwise - is his modus operandi. On the other hand a noted British biologist (I think his name was Meadows) was impressed by the film. The poor guy is probably on his way to being the next Denys Tucker.

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  5. That might be the very one. I have remembered it a little differently, but it looks almost decisive. And it looks solid. The reporter talked about white markings, but it may have been a burned out reflection of the sun.
    I too have seen some odd wave effects, but nothing remotely like this. And wave effects are more visible from right at sea level, which the camera operator is not. It's very interesting, and I'm taken by the experts very honest view on the subject.

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  6. That film was new to me too. I don't see how it could possibly be a wake effect.

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  7. Whatever it is seems to be repeating the same motion in one spot. Theres also a bit of a light plume to it. Both those factors lend support to a standing wave of sorts.

    That Jacobite puts in a big turning circle and comes back in on itself both on the way in and the way out of the pier at the castle. Ive sat at the picnic benches in the area directly opposite the castle on the far shore and seen standing waves appear at the other side of the bay way after it has docked or departed.

    So for me the standing wave explanation has some credibility. It's a cracking film though and one of the best 'Nessie' films i've seen. I've always been surprised it was never more widely circulated in the years since.

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  8. I do second your observations RP, on repeated watching I can see a repeated motion. And a wave has repeated motion. But it looks much too solid and has no resemblance to any wave motion I've seen. As Roland has said, it's quite isolated, so there doesn't appear to be a nearby source. My instinct tells me it's a real animal. The repeated shine seems to be indicative of a solid structure moving too.

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  9. My partner has suggested a swimming cow, given the white colour. Does anyone know if that's a possibility? Whatever it is looks a fair bit from the shore. It would be great to track down the camera operator, given the scant details.

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    1. A cow has no chance of getting even a fraction of the way across the loch - they're part of the obese culture - no exercise, do nothing but eat and lounge around. :)

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    2. Its professor tucker's elasmosaurous(water horse)..not to be confused with plambeck's giant salamander ( water bull) which also uses the loch.

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  10. Hardly any cows on the shore of the loch - in fact i can't think of any unless you start to go a fair bit inland (but stand to be corrected). Plus i think any cow in the water would drown long before reaching that point in the loch.

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    1. I agree with both you guys on this myself. We need people armed with 4k video now to see what we can get. The one positive that comes from from the era and quality is that is clearly not a fake.

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  11. It is a bit surprising, given the number of people shown in the shot, that no one else seems to cry out or point, and there are no other films - stills or video from a second source. Surely many of the people there have cameras at the ready? Either it happened too quickly, or they recognized it immediately as something benign and didn't bother to film? I'm still on the fence about it. At one point, there does seem to be something rather large that comes quite a way out of the water before flopping over. A couple feet at least, given the distance, and seems to push foam ahead of it. In that sense it reminds me a bit of the Folden film from Okanagan Lake. If it is indeed merely boat wakes colliding, surely we'd see the trailing edge of at least one wake? This seems to be independently generated. But then lighting conditions, film resolution and pre-conceptions play a part in these things too.

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  12. I agree this is a great video,Im not saying its a large creature buts its certainly unusual. I saw a discussion on this video a while back were the usual sceptics said it was indeed a boat wake as described, and a local saying he sees this sort of thing all the time, well that does not wash ( pardon the pun) with me because if this was true we would have more than one video like this surely?

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  13. I think it's Bambi, the amazing aquatic, submerging deer that was seen by Greta Finlay!

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  14. Good luck on your pursuing this film Glasgow Boy, hopefully we see you track it down. It's possible there may be more films out there witnesses are sitting on deciding if they should reveal a possible nessie on video. You're actively working on the case, it's good to see the mystery is still intriguing. Hopefully anybody out there with a solid video or photograph finds this blog!!

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