Stories of sea monsters around Cornwall go back well over a century, with many coming from people who spent their lives at sea. One of the best known was Captain White of the Falmouth tug Triton, who in 1903 reported seeing a serpent around a hundred feet long while returning from Dublin. He described it moving at great speed, with an unusual head and long tusks, and admitted he had no explanation despite decades of experience. Earlier accounts included Captain Drevar of the ship Pauline, who claimed a sea serpent followed his vessel and wrapped coils around whales. These reports were widely printed and talked about in Cornish ports.

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Sightings continued into the early twentieth century. In 1906, officers aboard the liner St Andrew reported a large creature lifting several yards of its body out of the water off Land’s End before diving. Between the wars, fishermen near Falmouth described hauling in nets made impossibly heavy by something unknown, which escaped leaving blood and fur behind. During the 1930s, people at Whitsand Bay, Port Isaac, and the River Gannel all reported long necked, humped animals moving smoothly across the water without leaving a wake. While separated by years and locations, the descriptions were often strikingly similar.

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When Morgawr entered the picture in the 1970s, it arrived alongside both serious witnesses and deliberate showmanship. Local artist and magician Tony Doc Shiels claimed he could summon the creature using psychic rituals, drawing press attention and blurring the line between belief and performance. At the same time, fishermen, walkers, and even former sceptics came forward with their own sightings. Whether explained as seals, whales, misidentifications, or something stranger, Morgawr became the latest expression of a much older pattern of reports. It was less a new monster than a modern name layered onto generations of people seeing things in Cornish waters that did not easily fit the rulebook.