April 23

Breakfast Interrupted by… What?

Tim Dinsdale via Loch Ness Investigation

Imagine having a peaceful breakfast next to a serene lake. Now imagine your breakfast interrupted by a large creature disturbing the serenity by rolling and diving in the lake. That's what happened to Tim Dinsdale at Loch Ness on this date in 1960. As most of us would, he quickly forgot his food, grabbed his camera and took off for the shore.

By the time he got there, though, Nessie had lit out across the loch and all he could capture on film was one hump leaving a wake behind as it diminished in the distance. Dinsdale was sufficiently amazed by the encounter and what he felt was the proof on his film, that he spent the rest of his life, off and on, pursuing the critter.

Of course, we can all guess what happened next. Cue the controversy. Many agreed with Dinsdale that the film definitively showed something strange was living in the loch. Others were just as convinced that what he committed to film was simply a distant boat (even though it didn't leave a similar wake, didn't maneuver like one, and eventually dove beneath the surface). 

Dinsdale stopped filming before running out of film, in order to change locations, hoping to catch a closer shot of the creature when it resurfaced. Unfortunately, it didn't reappear that day. He decided to use the small amount of film left to show some points of reference, in order to gauge the size of the thing, it's speed in the water, etc. To this end he arranged for someone to take a boat along the path the animal took, in order to show the contrast between it and the creature. 

Below I have appended two videos. The first consists of the 40 seconds of Tim's 1960 film that shows the hump traveling across the loch. The second is an interesting short account of Tim Dinsdale and his film.