The Possibility of Alien Life Forms and Unidentified Aerial Phenomena: Sightings Prior to the 20th Century
Prior to the modern tales of UFOs and the Foo-Fighters reported during World War II, stories of mysterious lights and phantom airships existed between the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Guardian, 1913). These stories are attributable not only to the contemporary development of effective airships during the aerial age, but also to anomalous sightings observed during this time. The following section will introduce two types of pre-20th century UFO sightings that are not mutually exclusive:
- A. Verified firsthand accounts from scholars and professionals with credentials related to UFOs, and
- B. Reports that match videos of UFOs or modern accounts of “alien ship” encounters.
The 19th-century sightings listed here pertain to both categories, with the exception of two cases that are recorded in the Dianshizhai Pictorial and Annals of Songzi County.
1893 “An Atmospheric Phenomenon in the North China Sea” –Nature (Type B)
Captain Norcock of H.M.S. Caroline writes, During a recent wintry cruise in H.M.S. Caroline in the North China Sea, a curious phenomenon was seen which may be of interest to your readers. The ship was on passage between Shanghai and the western entrance of the famous inland sea of Japan. On 24th February, at 10 p.m., when in latitude 32° 58’ N., longitude 126° 33’ E., which, on reference to the map, will be seen to be sixteen to seventeen miles south of Quelpart island (south of the Korean peninsula) some unusual lights were reported by the officer of the watch between the ship and Mount Auckland, a mountain 6,000 feet high. It was a windy, cold, moonlight night.
My first impression was that they were either some fires on shore, apparently higher from the horizon than a ship’s masthead, or some junk’s “flare up” lights raised by mirage. To the naked eye they appeared sometimes as a mass; at others, spread out in an irregular line, and, being globular in form, they resembled Chinese lanterns festooned between the masts of a lofty vessel.
They bore north (magnetic), and remained on that bearing until lost sight of about midnight. As the ship was passing the land to the eastward at the rate of seven knots an hour, it soon became obvious that the lights were not on the land, though observed with the mountain behind them.
On the following night, February 25th, about the same time, 10 p.m., the ship having cleared Port Hamilton, was steering east, on the parallel of 34, when these curious lights were again observed on the same bearing, at an altitude of 3 or 4° above the horizon. It was a clear, still, moonlight night, and cold. On this occasion there was no land in sight on a north bearing when the lights were first observed, but soon afterwards a small islet was passed, which for the time eclipsed the lights.
As the ship steamed on at a rate of seven knots an hour, the lights maintained a constant bearing (magnetic) of N. 2°W., as if carried by some vessel travelling in the same direction and at the same speed. The globes of fire altered in their formation as on the previous night, now in a massed group, with an outlying light away to the right, then the isolated one would disappear, and the others would take the form of a crescent or diamond, or hang festoon-fashion in a curved line. A clear reflection or glare could be seen on the horizon beneath the lights. Through a telescope the globes appeared to be of a reddish colour, and to emit a thin smoke.
I watched them for several hours, and could distinguish no perceptible alteration in their bearing or altitude, the changes occurring only in their relative formation, but each light maintained its oval, globular form.
Captain Castle, of H.M.S. Leander, informed me that, not long ago, the officers of his ship saw lights in the same locality which they thought at first were caused by a ship on fire. The course of the vessel was altered at once with a view of rendering assistance, but finding that the lights increased their altitude as he approached, he attributed them to some volcanic disturbance, and being pressed for time, resumed his course. The background of high land seen on the first night dispels all idea of these extraordinary lights being due to a distant volcano.
The uniformity of the bearing renders the theory of their being fires on the shore most improbable. I am inclined to the belief that they were something in the nature of St. Elmo’s fires. It is probable that there are travelers among the readers of your interesting journal who have seen or heard of this phenomenon, and will be able to describe its origin and the atmospheric conditions necessary for its appearance (Nature, 1880).
1892: “Flying Red Flame” (赤焰騰空) – China: Dianshizhai Pictorial (China’s earliest pictorial) by Wu Youru (吳有如Wú yǒurú)
On September 28, 1892, a large egg-like red object sailed very slowly from the West to the East before eventually disappearing from sight. This incident in Nanjing City had hundreds of witnesses, and many tried to speculate the nature of the phenomenon. Some thought it was a meteor, but it was too slow (stagnant). Others thought that it was a sky (Chinese) lantern, but the direction of the wind suggested otherwise. One witness pointed out that the object made a subtle noise when it arrived.
九月二十八日，晚间八点钟时，金陵(今南京市)城南，偶忽见火毯(即球)一
团，自西向东，型如巨卵，色红而无光，飘荡半空，其行甚缓。维时浮云
蔽空，天色昏暗。举头仰视，甚觉分明，立朱雀桥上，翘首踮足者不下数
百人。约一炊许渐远渐减。有谓流星过境者，然星之驰也，瞬息即杳。此
球自近而远，自有而无，甚属濡滞，则非星驰可知。有谓儿童放天灯者，
是夜风暴向北吹，此球转向东去，则非天灯又可知。众口纷纷，穷于推测
。有一叟云，是物初起时微觉有声，非静听不觉也，系由南门外腾越而来
者。嘻，异矣！
1880 “A Strange Phenomenon”- Nature (Type B)
The article, “A Strange Phenomenon,” was published in Nature on February 26, 1880. R. E. Harris, Commander of the S.S. Shahjehan, writes, The most remarkable phenomenon that I have ever seen at sea was seen by myself and officers on the 5th instant between Oyster Reef and Pigeon Island (Malabar coast). At 10 P.M., we were steaming along very comfortably; there was a perfect calm, the water was without a ripple upon 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. At the above-named hour I went on deck, and at once observed a streak of white matter on the horizon bearing south-south- west. I then went on the bridge and drew the third officer’s attention to it.
In a few minutes it had assumed the shape of a segment of a circle measuring about 45° in length and several degrees in altitude about its centre. At this time it shone with a peculiar but beautiful milky whiteness, and resembled (only in a huge mass, and greater luminous intensity) 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 to form a true and just conception of what it really was.
By this time all the officers and engineers had assembled on deck to witness the scene, and were all equally astonished and interested. Some little time before the first body of light reached the ship I was enabled, with my night glasses, to resolve in a measure what appeared, to the unassisted eye, 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 (Nature, 1880).
This is similar to the account written by Shen Kuo in 1088.
1880 Annals of Songzi County (Type B)
《松滋縣志》 (Annals of Songzi County) of Hubei Province records a strange story of a local farmer in Xiyanzui on May 8, 1880 (Chinese Lunar Calendar). There is a farmer who went for a walk in the mountain forest behind the house in the morning. There was an object in the woods, which was emitting a strange, colorful light. He went near it and felt his body being lifted off the ground as if he was floating on clouds.
The sound of whistling wind kept ringing in his ears. His mind was confused, and his body could not move completely. He suddenly falls, and he is on a mountainous hill. He is very surprised as if he had just woken up from a dream. A woodcutter then comes and asked him where he was from. The farmer replied that he was from Songzi County, Hubei Province. The woodcutter said in a curious way: How come you are here? This is Guizhou Province. It is five or six hundred kilometers away from your hometown. The farmer came down the mountain as he was told. He returned home, and 18 days had already passed.
晨起信步往屋後山林，见丛薄间有一物，光彩异常，五色鲜艳。即
往捕之，忽觉身自飘举，若在云端，耳旁飒飒有声，精神懵昧，身
体不能自由。忽然自高坠下，乃一峻岭也。覃某如梦初醒，惊骇非
常。移时来一樵者，询之，答曰：余湖北松滋人也
樵夫诧曰：子胡为乎来哉？此贵州境地，去尔处千余里矣!
指其途径下山. 覃丐而归，抵家已逾十八日矣
(Annals of Songzi County, 1982; Chinanews, 2013; Shanghai Archives, 2008; Wang, 2008). (See the Kentucky Women Case, the A70 Case, and the Kelly Cahill Case.)
1879 Henry Murray (Type A, B)
Sir James Augustus Henry Murray, the primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary from 1879 until his death, reported a strange phenomenon. Sir,—On Saturday evening last I was walking northward on the eastern pavement in St. Giles’s, Oxford, and, having just passed the entrance of St. John’s, was still within the enclosed area in front of that College when my eyes were arrested by a brilliant luminous body which suddenly emerged over the tops of the trees before me on the left and moved eastward across the sky above and in front of me. Its appearance was, at the first glance, such as to suggest a brilliant meteor, considerably larger than Venus at her greatest brilliancy, but the slowness of its motion, as it sailed or floated majestically across the field of vision, as if driven by a strong wind, made me doubt whether it was not some artificial firework.
Expecting to see it explode or go out, I watched for a second or two till it neared its culminating point and was about to be hidden from me by the lofty College building, on which I sprang over the corner of the low stone wall of the enclosure and, walking sidewise and backwards across St. Giles’s, I was enabled to see it through the space between the old and new buildings of the College, as it continued its course toward the eastern horizon. It did not explode, emit any spark, or leave any train or track; but it became rapidly dimmer and fainter as it approached the horizon, and finally disappeared behind a tree seen through the space in question, leaving me quite uncertain as to its nature (Bailey, 1991).
1853 Scientific American (Type A, B)
We have received a letter from Professor A. C. Carnes, of Burritt College, Tenn., with the following account of a singular phenomenon, that was seen by a number of the students, on June 1st., at 4 A. M., just as the sun was rising :— “Two luminous spots were seen, one about 2 north of the san, and the other about 30 minutes further in the same direction. When seen, the first had the appearance of a small new moon; the other that of a large star.— The small one soon diminished, and became invisible; the other assumed a globular shape, and then elongated parallel with the horizon.
The first then became visible again, and increased rapidly in size, while the other diminished, and the two spots kept changing thus for about half an hour. There was considerable wind at the time, and light fleecy clouds passed by, showing the lights to be confined to one place.” The students have asked for an explanation, but neither the President nor Professors are satisfied as to the character of the lights, but think that electricity has something to do with it. The phenomenon was certainly not an electrical one, so far we can judge, and possibly was produced by distant clouds of moisture.
This sighting is similar to one observed in Nature 15, 451 (1877).
1825 Diary of Andrew Bloxam (Type A, B)
Andrew Bloxam was the naturalist on board the H.M.S. Blonde and a noted mycologist and botanist. The following is written in the Diary of Andrew Bloxam: Naturalist of the “Blonde” on Her Trip from England to the Hawaiian Islands (1824-25). August 12. About half-past three o’clock this morning 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 shot and appeared about the size of the sun. It was only visible for a few seconds and after its final departure some rays of light were seen in the same direction. It was probably a meteor or fireball. No sound was heard. It gave so great a light that a pin might be picked up on deck (Bloxam, 1925).