The following is one of Bob Taylor’s best-known stories. It appeared Tuesday, April 27, 1954, on Page One of the Bangor Daily News.

There it is! It’s a whale! It’s a shark! It’s a porpoise! Whatever it was, it’s been a long time since Bangor has had such an eminent visitor. It seems that nearly everybody saw it Monday as it swam up and down the Penobscot river.

Hundreds line river

Hundreds of people lined both sides of the river during the day to catch a glimpse of the creature. And, although no two of them seemed to agree on what it was or the size and shape, it was generally accepted that it was white in color and “pretty big.”

It was also generally agreed that it must be a visitor from the Atlantic Ocean, since marine creatures of that size are somewhat unusual in these parts.

Therefore, it is easily determined that the critter was: 1. a white whale; 2. a shark; 3. a porpoise; 4. a seal; 5. a sturgeon; 6. a sea lion; 7. a halibut; 8. a dolphin; 9. a cod fish; 10. something else.

Bangor police don’t know what it was, although it gave them quite a busy day. They received their first call shortly after 7 o’clock in the morning, reporting that “a body is floating in the river.”

A squad car was dispatched to the scene immediately. The policemen’s trained eyes quickly determined that it wasn’t a body. Furthermore, it apparently wasn’t breaking any local laws or ordinances so the police department decided to leave it alone.

Only a start

But that was only the start. A few minutes later somebody reported a submarine coming up the river toward the city. Within an hour, the police telephone was ringing every few minutes with the latest report on the creature’s progress toward Bangor.

At about 9 o’clock, it was near the Eastern Corporation in Brewer, appearing above water every four or five minutes and slowly working its way upstream against a heavy current.

That was about the time the crowd started to gather along the riverbank. Automobiles were lined up along the highway in Bangor and Brewer as the drivers stopped to watch.

According to witnesses, the creature would submerge for about five minutes at a time. A part of its body would then be seen above the water, moving in a rolling motion. Many spectators estimated that about 12 to 14 feet of the body would be exposed each time, although nobody reported seeing either the head or the tail.

Opinions vary

Opinions circulated throughout the crowds. Many spectators declared it was a porpoise, although others argued that it would have to be the biggest porpoise ever grown. Some thought it might be a shark, while still others declared that even the hardiest shark would freeze in the cold Penobscot waters at this time of the year.

One local youngster about 12 years old offered an interesting but somewhat improbable explanation. It was, he said, a prehistoric monster that had been sleeping peacefully for thousands of years under the clay riverbed. It had undoubtedly been uncovered and aroused from its slumber by the work now underway on the new bridge, he said.

A more likely opinion was that the visitor was a small white whale that had followed smelts up the river. Many spectators who have had previous experience with whales agreed that the behavior of and general appearance of the creature were like a whale’s.

Lester Stubbs of Hampden, former Sea and Shore Fisheries warden, didn’t see it himself, but he said the description was the same as that of a white whale that came up the river in a similar manner several years ago. Whales often chase smelts at this time of the year, he said, while the size of the creature virtually eliminates most of the other opinions.

By early afternoon it had reached the site of construction on the new Bangor-Brewer bridge and continued up the river slowly until it was opposite Union Station at about 5 o’clock in the evening.

It was within sight of the present bridge during the evening rush period as dozens of persons lined up on the bridge to watch.

Causes traffic jam

Police Chief Ralph Willoughby of Brewer also received numerous inquiries during the day from persons wanting to know what it was. “I don’t know what it was,” Willoughby said, “but I hope it doesn’t come back again. It caused the biggest traffic jam in years on the bridge.”

One daring band of local people set out in a motor boat to get a closer look, although they were hampered by the swift current and didn’t get much closer than the spectators on the shore.

Whatever it was, it started to move downstream again early in the evening, undoubtedly tired from a day of splashing and deciding Bangor is a nice place to visit.