At 6 1/2 o'clock this morning, when returning from McNab's Island I saw a Sea Serpent over 20 feet long, between the Red Buoy [Ives Knoll] and the NW point of the Island moving very rapidly. It greatly resembled a large eel - had a very small head, raised 2 or 3 inches above the water, and it moved in an undulating motion.
Peter McNab, Jr., watched the sea serpent for upwards of one-half hour and was twice within one hundred yards of it.
Ironically, twenty years later, on November 18, 1873, Peter McNab, Jr., was tried on the charge of "feloniously cutting and wounding and doing grievous bodily harm." He was found insane or went violently insane while in jail and was committed to Mount Hope Asylum where he died shortly afterwards.