HMS Daedalus (1826)
{{short description|Frigate of the Royal Navy}}
{{other ships|HMS Daedalus}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=HMS Daedalus with sea serpent.jpg |Ship caption=The Daedalus sea serpent of 1848 }} {{Infobox ship career |Ship country=United Kingdom |Ship flag=File:Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg |Ship name=HMS Daedalus |Ship namesake= |Ship ordered=23 July 1817 |Ship builder=Sheerness Dockyard |Ship laid down=November 1822 |Ship launched=22 May 1826 (floated out) |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship captured= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship fate=Sold 14 September 1911 |Ship honours= |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class=Modified Leda-class frigate |Ship tons burthen=1082 bm |Ship length=*{{convert|150|ft|10.25|in|m|abbr=on}} (gundeck)
|Ship beam={{convert|40|ft|3.5|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship height= |Ship draught= |Ship hold depth={{convert|12|ft|9|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship sail plan=Full-rigged ship |Ship speed= |Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship boats= |Ship capacity= |Ship complement=300 |Ship troops= |Ship armament=*46 guns (original)
|Ship armour= |Ship notes= }} |
HMS Daedalus was a 19th-century warship of the Royal Navy. She is primarily remembered for a reported sea serpent sighting by her captain and crew in August 1848.
History
The ship was launched as a fifth-rate frigate of 46 guns of the Modified {{sclass|Leda|frigate|4}} in 1826, but never commissioned in that role, being roofed over fore and aft and then laid up in Ordinary (reserve). After spending 18 years laid up in reserve, she was raséed (cut down) at Woolwich Dockyard into a corvette, reduced to 19 guns in 1844.
In 1853, Daedalus was laid up at Plymouth Dockyard. Between March and June 1851 she was fitted out as a training ship, and transferred to the Royal Naval Reserve as a drill ship at Bristol.{{cite web |url=http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowShip.php?id=1314 |title=HMS Daedalus (1826) |website=The Victorian Royal Navy}} She was finally paid off from this role in September 1910, and sold in 1911 at Bristol to take to pieces.
Sea serpent sighting
File:Daedalus sea serpent 1848.jpg
On 6 August 1848, Captain McQuhae of Daedalus and several of his officers and crew (en route to St Helena) saw a sea serpent which was subsequently reported (and debated) in The Times. The vessel sighted what they named as an enormous serpent between the Cape of Good Hope and St Helena (reported by the captain as {{coord|24|44|S|9|22|E|display=inline}}; off the coast of modern-day Namibia). The serpent was witnessed to have been swimming with {{convert|4|ft|spell=in}} of its head above the water, with {{convert|60|ft|m}} "of body in a straight line on the surface", and observers estimated there was another {{convert|30|to|40|ft|m}} of the creature underwater.{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/stream/gleasonspictoria03glea#page/4/mode/2up |magazine=Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion |location=Boston |date=July 3, 1853 |volume=III |number=1 |pages=4–5 |title=The Great Sea-Serpent |via=Internet Archive |accessdate=January 5, 2025}}
Captain McQuahae also reported that the creature was dark brown and had a yellowish white colour around its throat and was moving at {{convert|12|to|15|mph|knot kph}}. Captain McQuahae 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 have recognised his features with the naked eye." According to seven members of the crew, it remained in view for around 20 minutes. Another officer wrote that the creature was more of a lizard than a serpent.
In 2015, evolutionary biologist Gary J. Galbreath contended that what the crew of Daedalus saw was a sei whale.{{cite press release |url=https://centerforinquiry.org/news/mystery_of_the_daedalus_sea_serpent_solved_in_skeptical_inquirer/ |title=Mystery of the Daedalus Sea Serpent SOLVED in Skeptical Inquirer |publisher=Center for Inquiry |date=August 28, 2015 |accessdate=January 5, 2025 |via=centerforinquiry.org}}{{cite magazine |url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/2015/09/the-1848-enormous-serpent-of-the-daedalus-identified/ |title=The 1848 ‘Enormous Serpent’ of the Daedalus Identified |first=Gary J. |last=Galbreath |magazine=Skeptical Inquirer |date=October 2015 |volume=39 |number=5 |accessdate=January 5, 2025 |via=skepticalinquirer.org}}
Sources
- "Big eels and little eels" in Eagle Annual 1968, Oldhams Books Limited, Holland, 1967, p 118.
- "Don't Shoot the Albatros!: Nautical Myths and Superstitions" by Jonathan Eyers, A&C Black, London, UK, 2011, p 87.
- The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889 Rif Winfield and David Lyon. Chatham Publishing, 2004. {{ISBN|1-86176-032-9}}.
References
{{reflist}}
Further reading
{{commons category|HMS Daedalus (ship, 1826)}}
- {{cite book |first=Matthew |last=Willis |title=Daedalus and the Deep |date=2013 |publisher=Cortero Publishing |isbn=978-1611792676}} — historical fiction
- {{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/south-australian-gazette-and-mining-jour/162376946/ |title=The Great Sea-Serpent |newspaper=South Australian Gazette and Mining Journal |page=4 |date=February 15, 1849 |accessdate=January 5, 2025 |via=newspapers.com}}
{{Leda class frigate}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daedalus}}