Captain McQuhae of the Daedalus and several…
August 1848 CE
Captain McQuhae of the Daedalus and several of his officers and crew (en route to St Helena) see a sea serpent on August 6, 1848, which will subsequently reported (and debated) in The Times.
The vessel sights what they name as an enormous serpent between the Cape of Good Hope and St Helena.
The serpent is witnessed to have been swimming with four feet (one point two meters) of its head above the water and they believe that there is another sixty feet (eighteen meters) of the creature in the sea.
Captain McQuahoe also says that "[The creature] passed rapidly, but so close under our lee quarter, that had it been a man of my acquaintance I should have easily have recognised his features with the naked eye."
According to seven members of the crew it remained in view for around twenty minutes.
Another officer will write that the creature was more of a lizard than a serpent.
Evolutionary biologist Gary J. Galbreath will contend that what the crew of the Daedalus saw was a sei baleen whale.
