Post by uforn on Jul 7, 2010 6:02:31 GMT 1
Reports From 1700s Through Till 1900s
09-??-1767
SCOTLAND UFO REPORT FROM THE YEAR 1767
Ilias Chrissochoidis writes, "As a doctoral student in the Humanities, I've been spending much time reading 18th-century British periodicals. In one of them I have found a report of an unexplained phenomenon. I leave it to your judgment and experience to decide its merits as a UFO sighting. Extract of a letter from Edinburgh, Sept. 8, 1767 follows:
"We hear from Perthsire, that an uncommon phaenomenon was observed on the water of Isla, near Cupor Angus, preceded by a thick dark smoke, which soon dispelled, and discovered a large luminous body, like a house on fire, but presently after took a form something pyramidal, and rolled forwards with impetuosity till it came to the water of Erick, up which river it took its direction, with great rapidity, and disappeared a little above Blairgowrie. The effects were as extraordinary as the appearance.
In its passage, it carried a large cart many yards over a field of grass; a man riding along the high road was carried from his horse, and so stunned with the fall, as to remain senseless a considerable time. It destroyed one half of a house, and left the other behind, undermined and destroyed an arch of the new bridge building at Blairgowrie, immediately after which it disappeared.
As few appearances of this kind ever were attended with like consequences, various conjectures have been formed concerning it.
This One Is From 1783
08-17?-1783
Extract of a letter from Ostend, Aug. 18.
"Yesterday evening, at about half past nine, a ball of fire, seemingly as large as the moon at full, was seen to rise out of the sea towards1 the North, and passing over this city seemed to burst, and disperse with great rapidity towards the south. As it passed it seemed to drop particles of fire of a bluish colour, of the size of a star; upon the whole, this phenomenon, which lasted two minutes, was very much like a rocket going off, but of a much larger magnitude, and whilst it passed it was as light as day.”
1825
08-12-1825
"The Diary of Andrew Bloxam," published in 1925 by the Bernice P. Bishop Museam, (Sic) Honolulu, has an account of a strange object rising from the sea a hundred years before:
"About half past 3 o'clock this morning (Aug. 12, 1825), the middle watch on deck was astonished to find everything around them suddenly illuminated. Turning their eyes to the eastward, they beheld a large, round, luminous body rising up about seven degrees apparently from the water to the clouds, and falling again out of sight, and a second time rising and falling. It was the color of a red-hot [cannon] shot and appeared about the size of the sun... It gave so great a light that a pin might be picked up on deck."
1845
06-18-1845
SECTION A. - MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE.
Catalogue of Observations of Luminous Meteors, from September, 1833, to July, 1848, by the Rev. Prof. Powell. - In the Report of the Association for 1847, Prof. Powell had given an imperfect list of observed luminous meteors, so far as he could collect them, for the years subsequent to the termination of M. Quetelet's Catalogue. The Catalogue itself was not suited to be read in detail. Many of the facts in the Appendix were interesting. The Secretary selected the following as an example: -- "Extract from the Malta Mail Times, August 18th, 1845: 'On June 18th, at 9h. 30m. p.m. the brig Victoria, from Newcastle to Malta, in lat. 36° 40' 56", long. 13° 44' 36” was becalmed, with no appearance of bad weather; when her topgallant and royal masts suddenly went over the side as if carried away by a squall. Two hours it blew very hard from the east; and whilst all hands were aloft reefing topsails, it suddenly fell calm again, and they felt an overpowering heat and stench of sulphur. At this moment three luminous bodies issued from the sea, about half a mile from the vessel, and remained visible for ten minutes (it is not said what became of them). Soon after it began to blow hard again, and the vessel got into a current of cold fresh air.'
At Ainab, on Mount Lebanon, at the same time, June 18th, at half an hour after sunset, the heavens presented an extraordinary and beautiful though awful spectacle. A fiery meteor - composed of two large bodies, each apparently at least five times larger than the moon, with streamers or appendages from each joining the two, and looking precisely like large flags blown out by a gentle breeze - appeared in the west, remaining visible for an hour, taking an easterly course, and gradually disappeared. The appendages appeared to shine from the reflected light of main bodies, which it was painful to look at for any time. The moon had risen about half an hour before, and there was scarcely any wind." - Sir W.S. Harris characterized this Catalogue as the commencement of a store of valuable facts. The account of the brig Victoria was to him most interesting. He had no doubt it was an electrical phenomenon, exemplifying what Prof. Faraday had described under the name of the glow discharge. Indeed, he had himself imitated the phenomenon artificially; and had recorded a similar fact which had occurred to a vessel when sailing close on a wind under reefed topsails. They saw bearing down from windward, straight on the ship, two wheels of fire, which the men described as rolling mill-stones of fire. When they came near, an awful crash took place, the topmasts were shivered to pieces, and the crew experienced the same overpowering sulphurous stench. The phenomena were thus accounted for: - a highly-charged thunder-cloud was brought down by the wind on the ship; its distance from the sea, though beyond the striking distance, admitted of the "glow discharge," which produced the appearance of the balls or wheels of fire that so alarmed the men. When the cloud came near the ship, its masts brought it within striking distance, - when a discharge or thunder-clap took place. The sulphurous stench was a concomitant of such discharges.
1873 This Is One Of The Earliest UFO/USO Reports From Australia
10-??-1873
SOUTH AUSTRALIA 2230-2330 hours
One of the earliest mentions of UFO activity down under dates back to 1873 and comes from the South Australian Register. It concerns a bright light that followed a sailing ship for almost an hour. Captain Lebman, of the ship Adelheid, described the light as “milky-white”. He said it came over the ship in waves, with one wave every two seconds between 10:30 and 11:30 at night.
“A shuddering feeling was experienced at the sight,” Captain Lebman said, “and the intense light made the eyes ache. During the whole time the sea was illuminated, though not vividly. For a quarter of an hour after it was over, flashes of light were perceptible in the water.” Source: Robin Northover, Post
1879
05-15-1879
Report to the Admiralty by Capt. Evans, the Hydrographer of the British Navy:
That Commander J. E. Pringle, of H. M. S. Vulture, had reported that, at Lat. 26° 26' N., and Long. 53° 11’ E.--in the Persian Gulf--May 15, 1879, he had noticed luminous waves or pulsations in the water, moving at great speed. This time we have a definite datum upon origin somewhere below the surface. It is said that these waves of light passed under the Vulture. "On looking toward the east, the appearance was that of a revolving wheel with a center on that bearing, and whose spokes were illuminated, and, looking toward the west, a similar wheel appeared to be revolving, but in the opposite direction." Or finally as to submergence--"These waves of light extended from the surface well under the water." It is Commander Pringle's opinion that the shafts constituted one wheel, and that doubling was an illusion. He judges the shafts to have been about 25 feet broad, and the spaces about 100. Velocity about 84 miles an hour. Duration about 35 minutes.
1880 Bermuda Triangle
01-05-1880
Again, in 1880, a show that lasted for an hour was seen by R. E. Harris, Commander of the S.S. Shahjehan, on January 5th. He recounted:
"The most remarkable phenomenon that I have ever seen at sea was witnessed by myself and officers . . . between Oyster Reef and Pigeon Key [Malabar Coast]. At 10 p.m. we were steaming along very comfortably; there was a perfect calm, the water was without a ripple in it, the sky was cloudless and, there being no moon, the stars shone brightly. The atmosphere was beautifully clear, and the night was one of great quietude. "
“... I went on deck, and at once observed a streak of white matter on the horizon bearing south-southwest. I went on the bridge and pointed it out to the third officer. In a few minutes it had assumed the shape of a segment of a circle measuring about 45 degrees in length and several degrees in altitude about its center. At this time it shone with a peculiar but beautiful milky whiteness, and resembled . . . the nebulae sometimes seen in the heavens. We were steaming to the southward, and as the bank of light extended, one of its arms crossed our path. The whole thing appeared so foreign to anything I had ever seen, and so wonderful, that I stopped the ship just on its outskirts so that I might try for a true and just conception of what it really was. By this time all the officers and engineers had assembled on deck . . . and all were equally astonished and interested.”
"Some little time before the first body of light reached the ship I saw [with my night glasses] a huge mass of nebulous matter. I distinctly saw spaces between what again appeared to be waves of light of great lustre. These came rolling on with ever increasing rapidity till they reached the ship, and in a short time the ship was completely surrounded with one great body of undulating light, which soon extended to the horizon on all sides. On looking into the water, it was seen to be studded with patches of faint, luminous, inanimate matter, measuring about two feet in diameter. . . . The waves (of light) stood many degrees above the water, like a highly luminous mist, and obscured . . . the distant horizon; and as wave succeeded wave in rapid succession, one of the most grand and brilliant, yet solemn, spectacles . . . was here witnessed. [The waves of light were not] mere ripplings . . . but waves of great length and breadth . . . great bodies of light. If the sea could be converted into a huge mirror and thousands of powerful electric lights were made to throw their rays across it, it would convey no adequate idea of this strange yet grand phenomenon.”
"As the waves of light converged upon the ship from all sides, they appeared higher than her hull and looked as if they were about to envelop her, and as they impinged upon her, her sides seemed to collapse and expand.”
"Whilst this was going on, the ship was perfectly at rest, and the water was like a millpond."
This reference: “Bermuda Triangle Special Report 1977,” compiled by the editors of SAGA Magazine & UFO Report. “Strange Underwater Wheels of Light” by Lucius Farish & Dale M. Titler, © 1977.
1880 In The Persian Gulf
05-??-1880
Knowledge, Dec. 28, 1883
Seeing so many meteorological phenomena in your excellent paper Knowledge, I am tempted to ask for an explanation of the following, which I saw when on board the British India Company's steamer Patna, while on a voyage up the Persian Gulf. In May 1880, on a dark night, about 11:30 P.M., there suddenly appeared on each side of the ship an enormous luminous wheel, whirling around, the spokes of which seemed to brush the ship along. The spokes would be 200 or 300 yards long and resembled the birch rods of the dames' schools. Each wheel contained about sixteen spokes, and, although the wheels must have been some 500 or 600 yards in diameter, the spokes could be distinctly seen all the way round. The phosphorescent gleam seemed to glide along flat on the surface of the sea, no light being visible in the air above the water. The appearance of the spokes could be almost exactly represented by standing in a boat and flashing a bull's-eye lantern horizontally along the surface of the water, round and round. I may mention that the phenomenon was also seen by Captain Avern, of the Patna, and Mr. Manning, third officer.
Lee Fore Brace.
"P. S. --The wheels advanced along with the ship for about twenty minutes. --L.F.B.”