Research source

I have not had the opportunity of consulting this work, but the passage about the sea-serpent runs m

Date of account: Late nineteenth-century survey
Source: The great sea-serpent: an historical and critical treatise
Reference: The great sea-serpent: an historical and critical treatise · selected passage 222
Rights: public_domain
Language: English edition of a European scholarly compilation
Translation: English edition of A. C. Oudemans's historical survey
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

“In the paper called the “Illustrated London News” of 28th

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

“In the paper called the “Illustrated London News” of 28th. October, is an account given by Capt. M’Quhae, of H. R. M. ship Daedalus, of a sea-serpent, seen from his ship in August last, on her passage from the East-Indies, and between the Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena. The perusal of several articles on the subject leads me to send you a letter written by me on my passage from England to the United States, in August, 1820, to Jno. P. Cushing, my friend and then partner, residing at Canton in China. I also send you a memorandum from Commander Bolton, of the U. S. Navy, giving the report of the gentlemen of the Navy who were on board a tender called the Lynx, and who had a very favourable opportunity of satisfying themselves of the existence of the animal which had caused so much excitement. The serpent was seen in 1817, ’19, and ’20, from the _shore_, and the reports show the bunches to be produced by the vertical motion of the body when in action. From the drawings which accompany the letter of Capt. M’Quhae, there are none of the protuberances, and which would lead to the opinion that the animal seen on the other side of the Equator differs in genus from that which has been seen on our coast.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This is a historical compilation of unusual-animal reports and argument. Witness testimony, repetition between publications and the author's zoological assumptions all affect independence and reliability.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

Lattice compares morphology, behaviour and setting while keeping misidentification, folklore, exaggeration, error and known animals available as alternatives.

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