Fishermen at Barhöft (then the territory of Sweden, now Germany) on April 8, 1665 at about 14:00 saw the skyships fighting in the sky with each other. After the battle, a dark object hovered in the sky.
“A flat round shape appeared in the sky, like a plate resembling a large man's hat … It had the color of a darkening moon, it hovered over the Church of St. Nicholas. There she remained motionless until evening. The fishermen were scared to death, they did not want to look in that direction, and covered their faces with their hands. The next day they all fell ill. The fishermen felt tremors and pain in the head and limbs. Many learned people have contemplated this event, wrote the German author Erasmus Finks in 1689.
Photo: Right: engraving from 1680 with notes by Erasmus Finks describing the battle between ships in the sky in 1665. In the background: text and image from the book "Illustrated description of the mysterious battles in the sky over Stralsund", 1665
Finks collected reports related to this event in 1665. "Scientists" could not explain this phenomenon and the cause of the illness of fishermen.
In the June 2015 edition of EdgeScience magazine, Chris Obeck and Martin Shaw examined the event. Obeck writes articles on the cultural impact of UFOs. Shaw works at the National Aviation Center for Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP).
Aubek and Shaw tried to find an explanation. They immediately ruled out some optical phenomena. For example, the angle of the sun indicated in the message excluded the appearance of a halo.
Mirage?
Promotional video:
Fata Morgana near Santa Cruz, California, May 7, 2007
Photo: Brocken Inaglory / Wikimedia Commons
Fata morgana is a kind of mirages that appear above the horizon with a certain combination of thermal layers. The mirage changes rapidly and sometimes gives the illusion of ships appearing in the sky above the horizon.
But in the incident of 1665, the events were higher than usual with the appearance of the fata morgana. The mirage does not explain the rounded object in the sky, which remained there until evening. Fata morgana doesn't last that long.
A huge flock of birds?
The "battle" began with the appearance of a flock of birds. Obek and Shaw summarized all the messages: “A large flock of birds appeared in the sky. Moving synchronously for some time, they took the form of a long corridor in the house. Then they turned into a warship, which moved from the north, followed by other ships. Another group of large airships appeared from the south, heading north-east.
Photo: Walter Baxter / Wikimedia Commons
The two main ships fired shells at each other, fire and smoke appeared in the sky, which frightened the fishermen. Then the ship in the north retreated, then returned and moved south. Two other air fleets emerged from the west and east with small ships. As the smoke cleared, the fishermen saw the ruined mast of the southern flotilla and a man in brown clothing watching his crew work and flee.
An incredibly large flock of starlings could create a similar scene, according to Obeck and Shaw. Sometimes several flocks of starlings unite in a large mass, which has a bizarre changing shape. Perhaps, in the spring of 1665, unusual weather conditions were observed, and a very large number of starlings created flocks to go to the west of the Baltic for their summer nesting?
However, the flock of birds does not explain the dark object that remained in the sky until midnight. Is it possible that two unusual phenomena occurred simultaneously in the sky? One created the illusion of an aerial battle, while the other took the form of a hovering object in the sky?
Obek and Shaw consider this to be an "amazing case." Whether it's true or not, it can be considered the first "flying saucer" report in history.