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The Sea-Serpent: Steele

Again, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Steele, of the Coldstream Guards, wrote to the Zoologist: "I have lately received the following account from my brother, Captain Steele, 9th Lancers, who, on his way out to India in the Barham, saw the sea-serpent. Thinking it might be interesting to you, as corroborating the account of the Dædalus, I have taken the liberty of sending you the extract from my brother's letter :-' On the 28th of August, in long. 40° E., lat. 37° 16′ S., about half-past two, we had all gone down below to get ready for dinner, when the first mate called us on deck to see a most extraordinary sight. About five hundred yards from the ship there was the head and neck of an enormous snake; we saw about sixteen or twenty feet out of the water, and he spouted a long way from his head; down his back he had a crest like a cock's comb, * and was going very slowly through the water, but left a wake of about fifty or sixty feet, as if dragging a long body after him. The captain put the ship off her course to run down to him, but as we approached him he went down. His colour was green, with light spots. He was seen by everyone on board.' My brother is no naturalist; and I think this is the first time the monster has ever been seen to spout."

One of the officers of the ship wrote: "On looking over the side of the vessel I saw a most wonderful sight, which I shall recollect as long as I live. His head appeared to be about sixteen feet above the water, and he kept moving it up and down, sometimes showing his enormous neck, which was surmounted with a huge crest in the shape of a saw. It was surrounded by hundreds of birds, and we at first thought it was a dead whale. He left a track in the water like the wake of a boat, and from what we could see of his head and part of his body, we were led to think he must be about sixty feet in length, but he might be more. The captain kept the vessel away to get nearer to him; and when we were within a hundred yards he slowly sank into the depths of the sea. While we were at dinner he was seen again." The Times, of Feb. 5, 1858, contains a statement made by Captain Harrington, of the ship Castilian, and certified to by his chief and second officers, as follows :- "Ship Castilian, Dec. 12, 1857; N.E. end of St. Helena, distant ten miles. At 6.30P.M., strong breezes and cloudy, ship sailing about twelve miles per hour. While myself and officers were standing on the leeside of the poop, looking towards the island, we were startled by the sight of a huge marine animal, which reared its head out of the water within * How this reminds one of the Chinese dragon. twenty yards of the ship, when it suddenly disappeared for about half a minute, and then made its appearance in the same manner again, showing us distinctly its neck and head about ten or twelve feet out of the water. Its head was shaped like a long nun-buoy, and I suppose the diameter to have been seven or eight feet in the largest part, with a kind of scroll, or tuft of loose skin, encircling it about two feet from the top; the water was discoloured for several hundred feet from its head, so much so that, on its first appearance, my impression was that the ship was in broken water, produced, as I supposed, by some volcanic agency since the last time I had passed the island; but the second appearance completely dispelled those fears, and assured us that it was a monster of extraordinary length, which appeared to be moving slowly towards the land. The ship was going too fast to enable us to reach the masthead in time to form a correct estimate of its extreme length; but from what we saw from the deck, we conclude that it must have been over two hundred feet long. The boatswain and several of the crew who observed it from the topgallant forecastle, state that it was more than double the length of the ship, in which case it must have been five hundred feet. Be that as it may, I am convinced that it belonged to the serpent tribe; it was of a dark colour about the head, and was covered with several white spots."