The following story, which appeared in the "Liverpool Mercury" on July 28, 1815, falls into the "random weird stuff" category. (Via Newspapers.com)
The following, (copied from the Sun paper) contains a further account of the singular phenomenon already related in page 407 of our last volume. Other papers, we understand, both in America and England have noticed the remarkable circumstance to which we are now alluding. The following is an authentic and correct account, for the truth of which, Captain Hayes, of his majesty’s ship Majestic; now lying in Plymouth harbor, and the whole of his officers and ship’s company, may be appealed to:
On the morning of the 27th August, 1813, the Majestic being then off Boston, the men on board observed, at the rising of the sun, the complete figure of a man in the centre of that luminary, with a flag divided by three lines, in his hand. He was at first on his back, but as day advanced, he gradually assumed an erect posture, and at midday stood upright. Towards evening he as gradually declined, descending with his flag head foremost. We have seen a drawing of the phenomenon, and nothing can be more correct than the human figure, its dress complete and the flag.
On the 28th, it retained the same outline, but had become a skeleton.
On the 29th the figure was disjointed, and its parts gradually assumed the appearance of six separate flags, united in a circle by an apparent cord or line. After this, nothing more was observed on the sun’s disk, but a few small spots.
The American papers, we believe, notice only the extraordinary appearance of the Sun on the above mentioned days. Perhaps the observers on that continent were not in a position to catch the precise appearance which the particles of matter presented to the ship’s company of the Majestic. There could be no optical delusion on the occasion, as the phenomenon was observed by so many different eyes, and for so long a time. The first figure was seen during the whole of the 27th, the skeleton the whole of the 28th, and the six flags during a great part of the 29th.
The above is an occurrence which may merit the attention of the philosophic. It is singular, we conceive, but nothing miraculous or portentous. Indeed, as the sun is the centre of a system of planets, several of which are much larger, and probably more important than ours, we do not know why the common luminary should shape his face, or have it shaped for him, so as to indicate the particular occurrences on this earth. The sun is, no doubt, a material luminous body—perhaps liable to an internal irregular motion of its parts; at least, this phenomenon would seem to prove it so; and most people have observed how frequently the ignited cinders of a common fire present, at different times, the various appearances of men, trees, horses, houses &c. The evidence, however, for the phenomenon itself, we must again add, is of the most undoubted and respectable kind. We have seen, and have by us, copies of drawings made by Captain Hayes on the occasion.
That's just plain weird. I've not read the like. A kind of mirage, perhaps? You'd think sailors would have known of at least one other instance, if that were the case...
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