By Tim Binnall
Passengers on a British sightseeing boat were understandably amazed when they spotted an eerie optical illusion believed to be the cause of countless 'ghost ships' and other strange sightings on the sea in the distant past. The peculiar incident reportedly occurred on May 24th when a vessel from the company St Ives Boats was cruising along the coast of Cornwall. As the trip was getting underway, tour boat operator Mike Hancock recalled, the group saw a British aircraft carrier out at sea, but "didn't pay it too much attention" as such sights are "quite cool to see but not unusual." However, when they changed direction and traveled some distance, what initially seemed to be another vessel appeared out on the water, and the day's adventure took a wondrous turn.
"It started to change shape," recounted Hancock, "initially it was like two huge blocks, and they suddenly got taller, then they became very fuzzy, then became thin and defined, and the shape changed and changed." As one might imagine, all eyes on the boat turned to the weird anomaly out on the water (featured in the photos below) as it transformed into something resembling a bear and then the mathematical symbol for Pi. "It would come in and out of focus, and we actually had three horizons at one point, the whole horizon sort of tripled and was bendy," Hancock marveled, "it was so surreal."
Watching the weirdness unfold before them, the group eventually deduced that they were observing an optical illusion known as Fata Morgana. The bewildering effect is created when a stark temperature inversion occurs, 'bending' the air and causing reflected objects to appear distorted. In this case, the passengers on the St Ives vessel were seeing an inverted version of the aircraft carrier they passed at the start of their trip. The phenomenon is thought to have been responsible for ancient sightings of 'ghost ships' and inexplicable 'structures,' like castles, seemingly floating above the sea, and, in recent times, has been the cause of several headline-making moments when bewildered witnesses encountered similarly strange anomalies likened to glimpses of another world.