Wonders in the Sky (68 page)

8 April 1813, Atlantic Ocean
Shell-shaped floating monster

As the ship “Niagara” was about latitude 43 north, longitude 65 west, a large hump was seen on the Southern horizon, “bearing N.W. distance 6 or 8 miles ahead,
which we supposed the hull of a large ship bottom up
. When within a gun shot of it, we discovered that it had motion.”

On nearer approach the sailors thought the object must be a giant fish, “apparently 200 feet in length, about 30 feet broad, and from 17 to 18 feet high in the centre.” Whatever it was, the floating object was covered with a shell. “Near the head on the right side was a large hole or archway, covered occasionally with a fin which was at times 8 or 10 feet out of the water.” The crew intended to send a boat to make further discoveries, “but was deterred from the dreadful appearance of the monster.”

 

Source: Log Book of the ship
Niagara
, captain Merry, traveling from Lisbon to New York, cited in the Plattsburgh [New York]
Republican
, 14 May, 1813.

390.

25 July 1813, Portsmouth, Virginia, USA
A letter to Thomas Jefferson

Carpenter Edward Hansford wrote to Jefferson on July 31, 1813 to describe the object which he and a Baltimore citizen named John L. Clark had witnessed:

“
A Ball of fire as full as large as the sun at Maridian (sic) which was frequently obscured within the space of ten minutes by a smoke emitted from its own body, but ultimately retained its brilliancy, and form during that period, but with apparent agitation. It then assumed the form of a turtle which also appeared much agitated and as frequently obscured by a similar smoke. It descended obliquely to the West, and raised again perpendicular to its original hite (sic) which was on or about 75 degrees.”

 

Edward Hansford lived in Norfolk County during the Revolutionary War, working on forts erected by the Commonwealth. In 1802, he was appointed harbormaster for the District of Norfolk and Portsmouth.

 

Source: “Edward Hansford to Thomas Jefferson, July 31, 1813” in
The Thomas Jefferson Papers
Series 1. General Correspondence, 1651-1827. Library of Congress, Digital Archive “American Memory” (image 1031)

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/index.html

391.

5 September 1814, near Agen, France
Slow-moving, round object

At 11 A.M., by clear sky and as a stiff breeze was blowing, a slow moving, perfectly round white object with a grayish center appeared at great height northwest of the town. Although first described as a “cloud,” it became completely stationary in spite of the wind and remained in that position until about noon, when it suddenly sped off to the south, revolving on its own axis, and emitting rumbling noises that culminated in an explosion.

A shower of stones was released, after which the “cloud” stopped again, and slowly faded away. The explosion was heard throughout the region and terrified the inhabitants.

 

Source:
Annales de Chimie et de Physique
25, tome XCII, Oct. 1814;
Philosophical Magazine & Journal
44 (1814): 316 and 45 (1815): 23-26.

392.

25 September 1817, Lanuéjols, France: Large disk

At 6:25 P.M. three travelers who had just visited the roman monument near Lanuéjols and were going through the “Causse de Mende” to reach that town saw in the south-southeast (towards Villefort) a luminous object, “reddish in color, in the shape of a disk three or four times larger than the full Moon.” It disappeared 2 or 3 minutes later. The sky was hazy and a fine rain was falling.

 

Source:
Le Midi Libre
, 25 September 1954. We have not traced an earlier source.

393.

6 January 1818, Ipswich, England
Unknown object near the sun

Mr. Capel Lofft, an English writer (1751-1824) and Mr. Acton report a strange object near the sun, visible three and a half hours. They saw “a small, uniformly opaque, subelliptical spot, moving more rapidly over the Sun than Venus in transit. Before sunset it disappeared and certainly seemed of a cometary or planetary character. This is a well-attested instance.”

 

Source: Capel Lofft. “On the appearance of an opaque body traversing the sun's disc,”
Monthly Magazine
45, March 1 1818, 102-3.

394.

3 August 1818, Worthing, England
Motionless light in the sky

Mr. Thomas Young saw “a very bright meteor” near Cassiopeia at 11:15 P.M. This object started from a point 19 degrees from the pole at 65 degrees in right ascension. It moved to 17 degrees from the pole and 80 degrees in right ascension and remained motionless for a full minute.

 

Source: Thomas Young, “Observations d'un météore lumineux.”
Annales de Chimie et de Physique
9, (Paris, 1818): 88-90.

395.

26 June 1819, Buchholz, Germany: Multiple planetoids

Astronomer J.W. Pastorff (1767-1838) observed what he thought was a “comet” close to the Sun, but Olbers pointed out it could not have been a comet. The same day, Gruithuisen (observing from Holland) reported three unknown bodies crossing the disk of the Sun, “…viz, one near the middle of the Sun, and two small ones without nebulosity near the western limb.”

It is notable that this observation, initially published in Reverend Webb's well-known astronomy handbooks, has been deleted from recent editions!

 

Source: “New planets,”
Annual of Scientific Discovery
(1860): 410-11, at 411.

396.

9 October 1819, Augsburg, Germany
Enormous planetary intruder

An enormous mass passed in front of the Sun. Mr. Stark, canon of Augsburg, reported this observation, which is quoted by Le Verrier in
Monthly Notices of the R.A.S
., February 1877. It was “a well-defined round spot, about the size of Mercury, not to be seen the same evening.”

 

Source: “Observations of the transits of intra-mercurial planets or other bodies across the Sun's disk,”
The Observatory
29 (1879): 136.