Upon page 428 of this number of _Nature_, E.L. Moss says that, in April,
1875, when upon H.M.S. _Bulldog_, a few miles north of Vera Cruz, he had
seen a series of swift lines of light. He had dipped up some of the
water, finding in it animalcule, which would, however, not account for
phenomena of geometric formation and high velocity. If he means Vera
Cruz, Mexico, this is the only instance we have out of oriental waters.
_Scientific American_, 106-51:
That, in the _Nautical Meteorological Annual_, published by the Danish
Meteorological Institute, appears a report upon a "singular phenomenon"
that was seen by Capt. Gabe, of the Danish East Asiatic Co.'s steamship
_Bintang_. At 3 A.M., June 10, 1909, while sailing through the Straits
of Malacca, Captain Gabe saw a vast revolving wheel of light, flat upon
the water--"long arms issuing from a center around which the whole
system appeared to rotate." So vast was the appearance that only half of
it could be seen at a time, the center lying near the horizon. This
display lasted about fifteen minutes. Heretofore we have not been clear
upon the important point that forward motions of these wheels do not
synchronize with a vessel's motions, and freaks of disregard, or,
rather, commonplaces of disregard, might attempt to assimilate with
lights of a vessel. This time we are told that the vast wheel moved
forward, decreasing in brilliancy, and also in speed of rotation,
disappearing when the center was right ahead of the vessel--or my own
interpretation would be that the source of light was submerging deeper
and deeper and slowing down because meeting more and more resistance.
The Danish Meteorological Institute reports another instance:
That, when Capt. Breyer, of the Dutch steamer _Valentijn_, was in the
South China Sea, midnight, Aug. 12, 1910, he saw a rotation of flashes.
"It looked like a horizontal wheel, turning rapidly." This time it is
said that the appearance was above water. "The phenomenon was observed
by the captain, the first and second mates, and the first engineer, and
upon all of them it made a somewhat uncomfortable impression."
In general, if our expression be not immediately acceptable, we
recommend to rival interpreters that they consider the localization--with
one exception--of this phenomenon, to the Indian Ocean and adjacent waters,
or Persian Gulf on one side and China Sea on the other side. Though we're
Intermediatists, the call of attempted Positivism, in the aspect of
Completeness, is irresistible. We have expressed that from few aspects
would wheels of fire in the air look like wheels of fire, but, if we can
get it, we must have observation upon vast luminous wheels, not
interpretable as optical illusions, but enormous, substantial things
that have smashed down material resistances, and have been seen to
plunge into the ocean:
_Athenaeum_, 1848-833:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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