Mystery airship

The Mystery Airships were unidentified flying objects reported in newspapers in western states of the US, starting in 1896 and continuing into 1897. The reported ships were usually said to be a type of dirigible, and were usually differentiated from gliders or hot air balloons. The airship tales were largely confined to North America, but there were a few exceptions from other nations.

While the range and variety of reported sightings is many ways analogous to twentieth century flying saucer flaps, most, though not all reports assumed the crafts to be airships of human invention. Some speculated that the airships had extraterrestrial origins, an early example of the extraterrestrial hypothesis.

Some accounts note that occupants were visible on some airships, and encounters with the pilots were reported as well. These occupants were said to be human, though their behaviour, mannerisms and clothing were sometimes unusual. One witness from Arkansas--a former state senator Harris--was told by an airship pilot that the craft was bound for Cuba, to use its “Hotchkiss gun” to “kill Spaniards”. (Jacobs, 10)

In one account from Texas, three men reported an encounter with an airship and with “five peculiarly dressed men” who reported that they were descendant from the lost tribes of Israel; they had learned English from the 1553 north pole expedition led by Hugh Willoughby.

It is suggested that most of these "Airships" were hoaxes perpetrated by newspaper writers. Though such pranks and tall tales would be considered quite unprofessional if perpetrated by today's news writers, they were not uncommon in the late 1800's.

At least two airship tales were taken as at least possibly genuine by generations of later ufologists:

• An account by Alexander Hamilton of Leroy, Kansas supposedly occured about April 19, 1897, and was published in the ‘’Yates Center Farmer’s Advocate’’ of April 23. Hamilton, his son, and a tenant witnessed an airship hovering over his cattle pen. Upon closer examination, the witnesses realized that a red “cable” from the airship had lassoed a heifer, but had also become entangled in the pen’s fence. After trying usucessfully to free the heifer, Hamilton cut lose a portion of the fence, then “stood in amazement to see the ship, cow and all rise slowly and sail off.” (Jacobs, 15) Some have suggested this was the earliest report of cattle mutilation.

• An account from Aurora, Texas (as related in the ‘’Dallas Morning News’’) reported that an airship had smashed into a windmill belonging to a Judge Proctor, then crashed. The occupant was dead and mangled, but the story reported that presumed pilot was clearly “not an inhabitant of this world.” (Jacobs, 17) Strange “hieroglyphic” figures were seen on the wreckage, which resembled “a mixture of aluminum and silver ... it must have weighed several tons.” (idib.) The story ended by noting that the pilot was to be buried in Aurora. Jacobs notes that the Aurora account is probably a hoax, given that there is no corroborative evidence, and that two longtime Aurora residents “scoffed” when questioned about the tale in 1966.

As with later UFO reports, there were some hoaxes, which may be illustrative of the ways imagination can elaborate or embellish an account: In April, 1897, hoaxers manufactured a large “tissue paper” balloon and set it loose over Burlington, Iowa. The ‘’Des Moines Leader’’ received reports from citizens who swore the balloon had “red and green lights; one reputable citizen swore he heard voices.” (Jacobs, 16)

Jacobs notes that many airship tales were due to “Enterprising reporters perpetrating journalistic hoaxes.” (Jacobs, 16) However, Jacobs notes that many of these accounts “are easy to identify because of their tongue-in-cheek tone, and accent on the sensational.” (ibid.) Furthermore, the supposed authors of many such newspaper hoaxes make their hoax obvious “by saying--in the last line--that he was writing from an insane asylum (or something to that effect).” (Jacobs, 17-18)

At the time, there were many attempts to explain the airship sightings. Hoaxes, pranks, publicity stunts and hallucinations were all proposed as explanations. One man suggested the airships were swarms of lightning beetles misidentified by observers (Jacobs, 30).

Some argued that the airship reports were genuine accounts. Early citations of the extraterrestrial hypothesis, all from 1897, include the Washington Times, which speculated that the airships were “a reconnoitering party from Mars”; and the ‘’St. Louis Post Dispatch’’ which suggsted of the airships, “these may be visitors from Mars, fearful, at the last, of invading the planet they have been seeking”; (Jacobs, 29)

Clark writes that attempts to “uncover the truth about the late-nineteenth-century airship scare comes up against some unhappy realities: newspaper coverage was unreliable; no independent investigators (“airshipologists”) spoke directly with alleged witnesses or attempted to verify or debunk their testimony; and, with a single unsatisfactory exception, no eyewitness was ever interviewed even in the 1950’s, when some were presumably still living.”(Clark, 37)

The “single unsatisfactory example” Clark cites is a former San Francisco Chronicle employee interviewed via telephone by Edward J. Ruppelt in 1952. Ruppelt wrote that the man “had been a copy boy ... and remembered the incident, but time had cancelled out the details. He did tell me that he, the editor of the paper, and the news staff had seen ‘the ship’, as he referred to the UFO. His story, even though it was fifty-six years old, smacked of others I’d heard when he said that no one at the newspaper ever told anyone what they had seen; they didn’t want people to think they were ’crazy.’” (ibid.)

Jacobs notes that “Most arguments against the airship idea came from individuals who assumed that the witnesses did not see what they claimed to see. This is the crucial link between the 1896-97 phenomenon and the modern unidentified flying object phenomenon beginning in 1947. It also was central to the debate over whether unidentified flying objects constituted a unique phenomenon.” (Jacobs, 33-34)

Sources

• Jerome Clark; The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial; Visible Ink, 1998; ISBN 1578590299
• David Michael Jacobs; The UFO Controversey In America; Indiana University Press, 1975; ISBN 0253190061