The HMS Daedalus sea serpent
The crew of HMS Daedalus reported a huge sea creature on 6 August 1848 off the African coast. Captain Peter M'Quhae's account was printed in The Times after two months.
At about five in the afternoon on 6 August 1848, HMS Daedalus was sailing off the African coast under Captain Peter M'Quhae, on a passage towards St Helena. The crew reported sighting an enormous sea serpent. The story ran in The Times after a gap of two months, describing a creature close to 100 feet long.
ExplorersWeb says the crew watched it swim around the vessel for more than twenty minutes. It had a mane, dark colouring with yellow at the throat, and some seaweed on its body. M'Quhae wrote that it passed so close under the lee quarter that he could have recognised a man's features at that range. Seven crew members put the time in view at around twenty minutes, and another officer called it more lizard than serpent.
The evolutionary biologist Gary J. Galbreath contends that the crew saw a sei whale.
"Captain M'Quhae also said 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 recognized his features with the naked eye." According to seven members of the crew, it remained in view for around twenty minutes. Another officer wrote that the creature was more of a lizard than a serpent. Evolutionary biologist Gary J. Galbreath contends that what the crew of Daedalus saw was a sei whale.[22]"
- The Giant Squid: Dragon of the Deep, Smithsonian Magazine (2011)
- Exploration Mysteries: HMS Daedalus and the Sea Serpent, ExplorersWeb (2025)