Daedalus Serpent

Imagine you're aboard a ship in 1826, sailing out there in that big blue wet thing known as the ocean, when suddenly you see a strange long creature cruising right by you. That is exactly what happened the crew of the HMS Daedalus in August of that year while they were between the Cape of Good Hope (same place as the Flying Dutchman lurks) and St. Helena.

The creature was described as being nearly 60ft in length with it's head about 4 feet above the water, with a main running down it's neck. Captain McQuhae said that the creature was so close that he could recognize the features of it if it was someone he knew. I don't think you can get much closer to a sea serpent then that.

Oddly I've heard of people trying to pass off this sighting as being a canoe that had top sized passing by them, however I doubt that anyone made 60ft long canoes. Also somewhere along the line people have classified it as possibly being a gigantic eel. Seems odd since the largest eel only reaches 9ft in length, but squid seem to jump from the size of about 6-7ft to that of the giant and colossal squids(45-60ft, still debatable), with no real intermediates known, so giant eels aren't that big of a leap.


Sources and Further Reading:
HMS Daedalus - Wikipedia
HMS Daedalus Sea Serpent - The Unexplained
Daedalus Serpent - Unknown Explorers