In 1848 a letter from the captain of a ship called the Mary Ann was published in the London Times. The captain reported that he had encountered the Daphne just outside Lisbon harbor and had been told by her crew that they had recently encountered a huge sea serpent at sea. Apparently the serpent had attacked them, but they had repelled the creature with a charge of spike nails and scrap iron fired from a deck gun.

It was eventually pointed out that no ship called the Mary Ann existed. The entire story was the creation of a journalist.

References: Meurger, Michel and Claude Gagnon. Lake Monster Traditions: A Cross-Cultural Analysis. London. 1988.