On April 6, 1823, HMS Leven was surveying East Africa when she spied her consort, the Barracouta, about two miles to leeward. This was surprising, as the brig’s sailing orders should have placed her far from that location, but Leven‘s crew recognized her peculiar rig and the faces of her men. Strangely, she stood away when Captain Owen attempted to close with her, and near sunset she lowered a boat, apparently to pick up a man overboard.

The next morning the Leven anchored at Simon’s Bay, and a full week passed before the Barracouta joined her there. Her log showed she had been 300 miles away when the Leven thought she saw her.

So what had the Leven seen? No other vessel of the Barracouta‘s class had been seen about the Cape at that time. The sighting has never been explained.