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.
This reference: The Complete Books of Charles Fort, pp. 270-271, © 1974 by Dover Publications, from the original work The Book of the Damned, © 1919.
Original ref.: Pringle, J. Eliot, "Report of an Unusual Phenomenon Observed at Sea," Nature, 20:291, 1879. (Note by W. Corliss: Obviously a pseudonym.)
UFOCAT PRN 85593 [DOS: 05-??-1880]
UFOCAT URN 85593 Book of the Damned by Charles Fort, p. 258, © 1919
UFOCAT URN 10309 Anatomy of a Phenomenon by Jacques Vallee, p. 151, © 1965
UFOCAT URN 88138 Flying Saucer Review, article by Richard Turner, September 1967, p. 9
UFOCAT URN 69644 UFO Investigator (NICAP), March 1969, p. 4
UFOCAT URN 10308 Computerized Catalog by Jacques Vallee (N=3073), #151, © no date
UFOCAT PRN 85593 [DOS: 12-28-1880]
UFOCAT URN 54500 True Magazine, January 1950
Southwestern Asia - Persian Gulf - is bounded by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran
Persian Gulf - Latitude 27-00 N, Longitude 51-00 E (D-M)
This reference: Oman Gazetteer, prepared by the Defense Mapping Agency Topographic Center, Washington, D.C., March 1976
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