18 September 1860, but never made port. Disappearance Commodore Montgomery reported that a violent hurricane had occurred in September 1860 in a part of the Pacific Ocean which Levant was to cross. In June 1861, a mast and a part of a lower yardarm believed to be from Levant were found near Hilo. Spikes had been driven into the mast as if to form a raft. Rumors also circulated that she had run aground on an uncharted reef off California. In July 1861, a small bottle was found at Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia. It was corked and contained a card that read in part: "Pacific Ocean" "Levant" "Written by the last remaining" "three" "in a boat" "God forgive us". Unfortunately, the card was damaged when it was removed from the bottle and parts of the message were unreadable. This card was in the possession of Thomas Willett of Pubnico, Nova Scotia, in 1862, who lost a son aboard this vessel.(How? Further information is needed). On 24 July 1861, the United States Congress passed a law to compensate the widows and orphan children of the officers, seamen, marines and others who were lost with the Levant. The law made a provision for accounts paid and received by the ship's purser, Andrew J. Watson, which were to be settled. The law was included in the "Private Acts" section of the statutes book. The deaths of the officers of Levant were recorded in the Navy Register of 1863 as occurring on 30 June 1861. (This was probably to allow the survivors of the lost men to collect 6 months of their pay as compensation.) Literary reemergence In 1863, when Edward Everett Hale wrote the patriotic short story The Man Without a Country, the announcement of the death of the exiled Philip Nolan while at sea is said to have been while he was aboard the USS Levant on 11 May 1863. In reality, the ship was last heard from in September 1860. References Sloops of the United States Navy Mexican–American War ships of the United States 1837 ships Second Opium War