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Post by buzzbomb on Oct 14, 2019 3:35:43 GMT
Fort wrote of them in The Book of the Damned. They appear to be both aerial and marine—or perhaps submarine would be more appropriate. What makes these wheel-like constructions so difficult to insert into a healthy, skeptical worldview is the history they exhibit. The witnesses are generally not imaginative people given to flights of fancy. The witnesses are often sailors and other mariners. People with schedules, chores, business and destinations on their minds. Sailors, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, were a superstitious lot, true. But their superstitions were found in the way one performed ones duties and carried on with shipboard living—such as never passing anything through the rigging but always around it. Penalties were bad luck of some sort, not visitation by bizarre, unknown entities.
The earliest mention of one of these objects or apparitions, as the case may be, comes from the periodical, Athenæum, in 1848. Sir W. S. Harris reported at the meeting of the British Association an account he had served on a ship that was approached by "two wheels of fire, which the men described as rolling millstones of fire." Harris added, "When they came near, an awful crash took place: the topmasts were shivered to pieces." There was also the strong odor of sulfur.
There are also the statements of one E. L. Moss from the periodical, Nature. Moss claims that, while sailing near Vera Cruz in April 1875 aboard the H.M.S. Bulldog, he saw lines or shafts of light. He dipped a bucket in the water but analysis revealed nothing unusual. Apparently he saw the lines moving under the water. The lines moved at high velocity.
Four years later in the Persian Gulf on May 15, 1879, after sailing through patches of a strange unknown substance floating in the ocean at 2140 hrs, the sailors of the H.M.S. Vulture sailing at 26° 26' N, 53° 11' E found themselves staring into the face of something Cdr. J. E. Pringle described as "waves of light [that] extended from the surface well under the water." Pringle also stated, "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." He thought one was merely a mirror-image reflection of the other but what was causing such an illusion? For the next 35 minutes the crew watched the astonishing spectacle. The shafts, according to Cdr. Pringle, were about 25 feet across and spaced about 100 feet apart. The shafts appeared to be rotating at about 84 mph. After the phenomenon ceased, the Vulture sailed through more of the odd substance.
On June 5th, 1880, R. E. Harris, CO of the steamship Shahjehan of the A. H. N. Company, saw off the coast of Malabar at 2200 hrs during a clear, calm evening waves of bright white light with spaces between them. Whether he saw them above or below water is not known but Harris also mentioned sailing into an unknown substance on the ocean which indicates that the lights were submerged and illuminating everything on the surface. He also noted the substance did not give off any kind of light of its own. Cdr. Harris ended his narrative of the incident thusly: "As wave succeeded wave, one of the most grand and brilliant, yet solemn, spectacles that one could think of, was here witnessed."
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Post by buzzbomb on Oct 14, 2019 3:36:09 GMT
An account in the periodical, L'Astronomie, mentions shafts of light like searchlights witnessed by mariners in the South China Sea in 1891.
Perhaps these wheels have been seen out of water in other areas of the world. An 1894 edition of L'Astronomie mentions that on the morning of December 20, 1893 in the skies over Virginia, North and South Carolina, witnesses watched an object described as an enormous wheel of brilliant white light. Witnesses could hear the sound of the object as it moved overhead. They watched the object hang motionless over the eastern horizon for about 20 minutes after which it either disintegrated or exploded soundlessly.
April 4, 1901 at 2030 hrs, the steamship Kilwa very suddenly encountered vast "ripples" of light on the surface of the water. Captain Hoseason mentioned that the ripples were actually rather faint and gradually faded out in about 15 minutes. He added that there was no phosphorescence in the water. Hoseason read his statement of the incident before the Royal Meteorological Society who published it in their Journal.
The Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society also published an account of Mr. Douglas Carnegie of Blackheath, England from 1906 concerning his sighting, while in the Gulf of Oman near the Persian Gulf, of "shafts of brilliant light [20 feet apart and regular that] came sweeping across the ship's own bows at a prodigious speed, which might be put down as anything between 60 and 200 miles an hour." The lights came from under the water because Carnegie noted that another ship passing between them and did not interrupt the "light bars" at all.
The Journal also reported that, S. C. Patterson, the 2nd officer of the steamship Delta of P. & O. witnessed, while passing through the Malacca Strait on March 14, 1907 at 0200 hrs "…shafts which seemed to move a round a center—like the spokes of a wheel—and appeared to be about 300 yards long." Patterson further added that the encounter lasted about a half an hour over a 6- or 7-mile stretch of ocean and ceased quite suddenly.
Scientific American mentioned an account from the Dutch Mercantile Institute's periodical Nautical Meteorological Annual concerning the Dutch East Asiatic Company's steamship, the Bintang, which encountered a huge light wheel at the Straits of Malacca on June 10, 1909 at 0300 hrs. Captain Gabe of the Bintang described it in his log as flat on the water with "long arms issuing forth from a center around which the whole system appeared to rotate." Only half the wheel could be seen on the horizon so gigantic was the image. It faded out in 15 minutes.
From the Dutch Meteorological Institute – South China Sea, 0000 hrs, August 12, 1910 – The CO of the Dutch steamer Valentijn, Captain Breyer, along with the 1st and 2nd mates and the 1st engineer, witnessed a stunning light wheel. Capt. Breyer described it, "It looked like a horizontal wheel, turning rapidly." He added that the wheel was above the water. The Institute's report added that the object "made a somewhat uncomfortable impression" on the officers.
Perhaps it was the same or similar object or perhaps just a "cloud" sighted by the crew of the Lady of the Lake on the evening of March 22, 1870 at 5° 47' N, 27° 52' W. It was essentially circular but gray in color like the clouds but was much lower, according to the captain, F. W. Banner. He further stated, "It came up obliquely against the wind, and finally settled down right in the wind's eye." The object or cloud was visible for half an hour until lost to the darkness of the increasing nightfall. Capt. Banner drew a diagram of the cloud—a well-defined circle with a long well-defined fish-hook-type appendage coming from the center of the circle and that curves back towards it. The object also has what appear to be four small partitions arranged semi-circularly at the rim or edge. (Jour. Roy. Met. Soc. 1-157)
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Post by buzzbomb on Oct 14, 2019 3:36:40 GMT
But the phenomenon of the light wheel is not confined to the 19th and early 20th centuries. Light wheels were still being seen after World War II and were still as mysterious and unnerving as ever.
Taken from a report in the January 1952 issue of the United States Naval Institute Proceedings:
One account of an undersea wheel of light which was most impressive was that described by Commander J. R. Bodler, U.S.N.R. (Inactive), and printed first in the January, 1952, issue of the United States Naval Institute Proceedings, and later in FATE magazine. Commander Bodler's account is thorough and his description of weather conditions (visibility good, clear, bright with no moon) indicates that there was little if anything to interfere with his observation. The date of this particular incident was November 14, 1949. Bodler's ship had passed through the Strait of Hormuz, bound for India. On the starboard quarter, Little Quoin Island Light still lay in sight. The third mate called Bodler to the bridge saying he had spotted something which the commander should see. When Bodler arrived on the bridge the third mate pointed out, about four points off the port bow, a luminous band which seemed to be pulsating. It had the appearance of the aurora borealis but was much lower on, or even below, the horizon. Bodler observed the strange sight with binoculars, which revealed that the luminous area was definitely below the horizon, under the water. It appeared to be approaching the vessel. As it drew nearer, Bodler could see that the pulsations seemed to start at the center of the band of light and flow outward toward its edges. When the lighted area was about a mile from Bodler's ship he could see that it was roughly circular in shape and from 1000 to 1500 feet in diameter. The pulsations were apparently caused by the revolving motion of an entire light pattern around an ill-defined center, from which radiated streaks of light like the beams of searchlights, resembling the spokes of a huge wheel.
Ultimately, the ship passed through the luminous area, right over its central portion; the light was sufficient to illuminate the upper portions of the ship. After it had passed beyond the ship and was several miles astern, another smaller, luminous area showed up on the starboard bow. It was less brilliant as well as smaller than the first phenomenon. About a half hour after the first two luminous patches were seen, a third was observed. It had the same general characteristics but was much smaller and less brilliant than the previous two. Bodler offered his opinion that the illumination was caused by natural phosphorescence in the water which was periodically stimulated by "regular waves of energy." He also noted that the shape of the "pinwheel," the well-defined spokes, the revolutions about the center, and the speed with which each band of light traversed through the water (the bands of luminescence seemed to pass a given point at about half-second intervals) precluded the possibility that the phenomenon could have been caused by schools of fish, porpoises, or other similar undersea manifestations. Bodler wound up his report with a comment on similar phenomena having been observed in the Indian Ocean, and quoted Oddities by T. R. Gould (England) as containing a whole chapter dealing with the same type of unidentified undersea objects.
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Post by buzzbomb on Oct 14, 2019 3:37:12 GMT
Here's an entry from Project Blue Book, one of the most detailed UFO sightings of the 1950s that could be describing a light wheel as an aerial object over southeast Michigan:
"On Sunday night, April 27 (1952), my wife, two children and myself were proceeding home. My wife and I both spotted a brilliant white object coming towards us out of the sky from the northeast. It descended so fast that by the time my wife could realize and state that it was a flying saucer, it had descended to its minimum height of a transport plane in flight.
"It stopped abruptly and rocked slightly, similar to a rowboat in choppy water. It then settled at an approximate thirty-degree angle and the brilliant whiteness diminished as to what appeared to be window lights.
"It sat in this exact position and spot for what was approximately three or four minutes, making it very easy for us to judge its size, shape, etc. We estimated it to be about two miles north of us, and three thousand feet high. The angle at which it rested made it very easy for us to estimate its thickness and diameter. It appeared to have two tiers of windows, each about ten feet high, which resembled looking into the playing section of a mouth organ. The windows were all around the entire diameter, making visible the round flatness. We estimate conservatively that the diameter of the ship was at least two hundred feet (60 meters).
"After what seemed to me that they were getting their bearings, they started drifting northwest towards the city of Pontiac (Michigan), about one hundred miles per hour (160 kilometers per hour) but they stopped two or three times during the time of observation. At no time did it make a noise.
"Immediately, I realized that I should have witnesses to this phenomenon, so I speeded west on Fifteen Mile Road to a drive-in restaurant about a mile away. I ran in and asked some young men if they would come out and witness my experience. After persuasion, two of them went out and were amazed, causing others to follow.
"By this time it had drifted at least five miles northwest. At this point I called the Birmingham (Michigan) police and asked them to alarm all the airfields in this direction which they said they would do.
"I returned to my car and continued to follow it, driving west on Fifteen Mile Road. During the next five minutes, the lights in the saucer went off and on three times. The fourth time, the lights changed from white to a brilliant yellow-orange, and by this time we had reached the Grand Trunk Railroad station, a half-mile from Birmingham. Thinking this experience would make a good newspaper story, I stopped at the railroad station and called the Detroit Times, telling them my story thus far.
"After that, I again called the Birmingham police and asked them if they had reported the incident as yet. They said they were thinking about it, so I became provoked and said I would call (the U.S. Air Force base at) Selfridge Field myself, which I did. If anyone ever got the 'brush,' I sure did...
"During my telephone conversation, my wife had convinced the station attendant and Railroad Express truck driver to observe the spectacle. I secured the truck driver's name and then proceeded west on Fifteen Mile Road and out about seven miles due west, following the saucer as it vanished from my vision over treetops in the general direction of Flint (Michigan) at 11:15 p.m.
"I contacted the Detroit Times on Tuesday a.m. gave them my complete story. Their reporter phoned Selfridge Field and Radar Division and they both told him that it was impossible for anything to be in the air at that time because nothing was picked up by radar, so naturally, the Times dropped the story."
(See the book The Hynek UFO Report by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Dell Books, New York, N.Y., 1977, pages 70 to 72.) Volume 5, Number 21 May 25, 2000
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Post by buzzbomb on Oct 14, 2019 3:37:42 GMT
The following took place in Virginia. The shape of the object now becoming familiar to us: ROCKY MOUNT - On August 1, 1999, a giant disc UFO was seen four miles southeast of Rocky Mount at 3:45 PM. The disc was a giant craft well over 100 feet in diameter. It tilted slightly down toward its direction of travel. We were going north on a county road toward Route 619, when the craft caught my attention. It was located a mile east of my position over or near the county landfill. At first I thought it was a helicopter as I saw it out of the corner of my eye. I immediately stopped my car and got out and looked directly at it. I got back in the car screaming at my partner to wake up and look at this thing. I backed up the car, spinning its wheels so we could chase the craft. I could tell that it was not a helicopter. The UFO was easily bigger than any aircraft that I have ever seen. It had two distinct lines running around the edges with large lights or windows running between the lines. It had a tarnished silver color to it and appeared to glow. It made no sound as it moved silently north behind the trees. The trees did not move as the craft moved toward them. The air was completely still. You could hear traffic coming north on Route 220. After determining that this thing could definitely hear me and knowing that it could see me, I left the county at a high rate of speed and didn't look back. Thanks to Peter Davenport at the National Reporting Center. www.ufocenter.com. Once again, the brilliant light wheel made a spectacular appearance over Australia: LOGAN VILLAGE - On August 8, 1999, six witnesses sighted a UFO that looked like a Ferris wheel 42 kilometers from Brisbane City at 9:15 PM. The object was the size of 50-cent piece at arm's length. Jennifer walked outside and noticed her neighbor looking up at an object in the sky. The object had two rings of lights fast moving lights. One ring rotated clock wise the other going anti-clock wise. It was beautiful to look at. I ran inside and got my sister and my husband and they watched it as well. It was amazing! One ring of lights moved away from the other ring of lights and then it moved back again. The witnesses called several TV stations but they were not interested. Four residents of Hickory St. Marsden also reported seeing the UFO Ferris wheel. (1) Witness Miss Sharn J called the Hotline to ask if anyone had seen strange lights in the sky on Saturday night around 8:50 PM. Sharn said: "It was awesome the size of a foot ball field!" It had two rows of lights turning in opposite directions. The object was laying on its side, it reminded me of Close Encounters the movie and do you know not one of us was scared of it "not at all" I was so excited. I ran over to my neighbor who was outside and asked him to look up "can you see what I see" he looked and ran inside telling me he was going to call someone. He looked really scared! My friends and I went over to the park to get a clearer look. It was so cold but no one wanted to go inside to get our jackets we didn't want to miss a moment of it. We could see the reflection of the lights on the clouds. Thanks to Keith Basterfield Network www.fan.net.au/~tkbnetw/new and Diane Harrison Co-Director The Australian UFO Research Network Australian Skywatch Director. There is some possibility that the windows are really the engine section of the object. There is the possibility it is a propulsion system and the openings or windows are vents, more or less.
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Post by buzzbomb on Oct 14, 2019 3:38:47 GMT
If we assume these light wheels have been accurately reported and have been seen since the mid-19th century, then what are we to make of the identity of them? Alien craft, misidentification of man-made shipping lights or lighthouses, natural phenomena, the craft or lighting system of a foreign nation, imaginations gone wild. These cover the alternatives. Let's explore each one.
Natural phenomena. There could, of course, be a perfectly natural explanation for the light wheels and there is no reason to assume the aerial objects seen by witnesses are the same thing. While sailing the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Straits of Hormuz, I saw literally hundreds of globes of flashing light under the water just off the hull night after night. This was aboard a modern Navy ship made of steel. The phenomenon was only visible at night and it was ongoing, never stopping as long as the ship was moving. Each light flashed once and resembled a ball of light about the size of a basketball. But flashes would keep going off no matter where the ship went. Someone told me that this was caused by a sea animal called a polyp that can fluoresce when startled. Others thought it might have been an electrostatic display caused by friction between the metal hull and the water. The fluorescing animal explanation sounds best (the Persian Gulf, for example, is full of schools of flying fish constantly taking flight and glinting white in the sunlight in every direction one looks all day long). But I know of no natural phenomena that would cause extremely bright or blinding white displays of light thrown out in spokes or rays that appear to revolve around a common but indistinct center. We cannot rule out the possibility of a natural phenomenon at this time but neither have we reason to accept this as a credible explanation of the incidents witnessed. Since early European sailors spent a great deal of time sailing to and from the Spice Islands where many light wheels are sighted, they would have had ample opportunity to witness this extraordinary sight if it was natural. To my knowledge, the earliest reports of light wheels are strictly from the late 19th century.
Misidentification of man-made shipping lights or lighthouses. Obviously, experienced sailors and navigators know a lighthouse when they see one and the idea that they could mistake one for the awesome spectacles they describe is demanding of proof. Same with shipping lights. Lights on the masts of ships are easily identifiable to seasoned salts and there are none that could cause the wonder and fear these incidents inspired in the men who witnessed them.
Alien craft. This one probably most appeals to those purveyors of the bizarre and unexplained but is it credible? Alien craft from where? Circular, discoidal craft are made that way for aerodynamic reasons. They are not made for traveling through space. These craft were made both for flight and submarine navigation and had to be built by someone with a detailed knowledge of our planet's specific and yet very diverse conditions. For aliens to be responsible, they would have to be virtually human like us which means they came from a planet virtually identical to earth, which is statistically impossible. Even if such a planet existed, where is it? Chances are that it would be very far from us and there would be virtually no chance of denizens of either planet locating the other with radio signals much less one visiting the other.
The craft or lighting system of a foreign nation. This is not as far-fetched as it sounds. First of all, the object appeared to be a circle of searchlights. The searchlight was not an unknown technology in the late 19th century (used as early as 1882 according to Wiki). A motor strong enough to rapidly rotate a bank of searchlights would not have been impossible by any means. Furthermore, we must take note of the fact that the light wheels have been noticed almost exclusively in the Indian Ocean region stretching from the Persian Gulf around India and into the Indonesian islands in the Celebes Sea and South China Sea areas. The only exception is the Vera Cruz sighting and that is assuming the report is credible. This localized aspect of the appearance of light wheels makes the alien craft explanation suspect. Why would aliens spend so much time in the Indian Ocean with these craft and not other areas? A foreign nation, however, would naturally keep such testing local. Which nation then was it? Therein lies the mystery. The only nation in that area that could have had the capability to build light wheels would be China and yet they were hardly in any shape for such endeavors after the devastation unleashed on them during the Opium War of the mid-19th century. Perhaps Americans or Europeans could have been testing something in that region of the world for reasons of their own—perhaps to monitor trade. Or disrupt it? As far as I know, however, the light wheels had no effect on trade whatsoever. So what was the purpose of them?
Imaginations gone wild. As stated, the witnesses were largely sailors. While not above rank superstition, they were hard-headed in the way they approached the strange goings-on of the ocean and not given exaggerating ordinary occurrences. Both officers and ordinary seamen witnessed the light wheels. Moreover, we have not one ship or crew but many. Nor were all witnesses the same nationality. Our examples included American, Dutch and British sailors spread out for the better part of a century. It would be interesting to know what the Indonesian and Arabic peoples think of these lights for surely they too have seen them on many occasions. That so many people far removed from one another, in different parts of the ocean, with nothing to gain from fabricating a story that could be easily attributed to drunkenness or old age or any number of causes that could signal forced retirement (no doubt many captains had seen them and forbade any of the crew to speak of it for fear of jeopardizing their careers). The idea that such people would make up the same story or conspire to tell such stories is absurd and frankly not even possible. Whatever they saw was real. What it was that they saw…well…that's why there will always be mystery.
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Post by HAL on Oct 14, 2019 17:22:39 GMT
Interesting reports.
Looks as if the attention is turning more towards the oceans.
HAL.
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Post by mryelm on Jan 23, 2020 15:08:17 GMT
Interesting reports. Looks as if the attention is turning more towards the oceans. HAL. Yes the seas would be the best place to hide, unless ET has the technology to hide in plain sight. I would suspect that ET's that visit our planet would be at different levels of technological advancement. I am kind of new to the UFO world meaning I have been interested in it since I was a teen but I haven't studied the subject extensively. But I do have a lot of study and observational (telescope) time in the field of astronomy etc. I believe the only Alien's we would have a half a chance of seeing by observation or crashes would be a race not too far advanced than we are. That type of ET may be using the sea to hide because it should not take as much technology as say some type of cloak or temporal manipulation. If they are using the oceans our technology may have a better chance of discovering them. Of course all the above is just speculation and semi intelligent guesses , but its fun to think about!
The wheels in wheels in and on the Ocean?
The only thing I have to add is something probably already known its the 'craft' seen by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:16) of the wheel within a wheel that depending on the translation looked like it shined like or gleamed like a beryl stone (Ezekiel 10:9) . Translated directly from the Hebrew some interpretations say the description is indicates the wheels are bronze or gold colored metal, and looked like a gyroscope. The bad news is no sea gong or submersible craft is mentioned. But a biblical wheel like construction is amazing nevertheless.
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