The British phantom airship scares, 1909-1913
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Just before 9pm, crowds of people in Cardiff (including, once again, the Chief Constable of Glamorganshire, Captain Lionel Lindsay), watched an aeroplane or airship with a brilliant light travel from the north-west to the south-east. It appeared to be travelling at 60 to 70 mph at a considerable height, and disappeared over the Bristol Channel.
The Times, 9 April 1913, p. 10.
On a bright night with little wind, an airship was seen shortly after 8pm for ‘a considerable time’. The thousands of witnesses included a police sergeant; some claimed to clearly see the outlines of the airship, which carried a bright light, over the Bristol Channel. It passed out of sight to the northwest.
The Times, 6 February 1913, p. 12; Manchester Guardian, 6 February 1913, p. 9; Standard, 6 February 1913, p. 8.
See 1913-21.
The Times, 6 February 1913, p. 12; Manchester Guardian, 6 February 1913, p. 9; Standard, 6 February 1913, p. 8.
See 1913-20.
The Times, 6 February 1913, p. 12; Manchester Guardian, 6 February 1913, p. 9; Standard, 6 February 1913, p. 8.
Police constable Church observed an airship heading west over Swansea Bay and the Mumbles at 7.30pm for an hour, and several other people also witnessed ‘the outline of an airship carrying a light’.
Globe, 3 February 1913, p. 12; The Times, 4 February 1913, p. 4; Manchester Guardian, 4 February 1913, p. 5.
Date uncertain: 1 or 2 February 1913. Airship heading west, no further details.
Manchester Guardian, 4 February 1913, p. 5.
Airship heading west, no further details.
Manchester Guardian, 4 February 1913, p. 5. The date is from Nigel Watson, Granville Oldroyd, and David Clarke, The 1912-1913 British Phantom Airship Scare (South Humberside: Self published, 1987), 201.
Colonel Henry Lewis’s servants, including a stud groom, saw an airship with a light at the rear coming from Cardiff and heading west at 10.45pm. Although Neath was telephoned nobody saw it there and so it was assumed to have crossed the Bristol Channel to Exmoor. The night was clear.
The Times, 4 February 1913, p. 4; Globe, 3 February 1913, p. 12; Standard, 3 February 1913, p. 9; Manchester Guardian, 4 February 1913, p. 5. The precise location is from Nigel Watson, Granville Oldroyd, and David Clarke, The 1912-1913 British Phantom Airship Scare (South Humberside: Self published, 1987), 198.
An aircraft was seen by inhabitants of this village, south of Aberystwyth, at 8.25pm. It was heading for Cardigan Bay but ‘its searchlight, which swept the hills, evidently revealed the nearness of the sea, and it turned south’.
The Times, 30 January 1913, p. 12; Standard, 31 January 1913, p. 7.
Captain Lionel Lindsay, Chief Constable of Glamorganshire, and a bystander saw an object overhead through the fog at about 4.45pm, heading towards Swansea and leaving behind a dense trail of smoke. It was judged to be both larger and faster than the Willows airship, although its shape was indistinct. At 6pm, Stephen Morgan also saw ‘something resembling an airship’ with a light heading west, and trailing smoke. Further witnesses emerged to verify the story, adding that after leaving Cardiff it altered course from west to north-west, and that it travelled quickly and carried a light – in fact it was so fast that by the time ‘one observer ran to a telephone the airship had almost disappeared’. Another report noted that the sounds of its propellers had been heard in several districts of South Wales at night. One man, E. Morgan, thought it was oval-shaped.
The Times, 21 January 1913, p. 10, 22 January 1913, p. 19; Standard, 21 January 1913, p. 9, 22 January 1913, p. 9; Globe, 21 January 1913, p. 6, 22 January 1913, p. 5; Norfolk News, 25 January 1913, p. 10; Daily Herald, 22 January 1913, p. 7; Manchester Guardian, 23 January 1913, p. 12.
Lights were seen in the sky over the Bristol Channel at night, believed to be an airship.
Standard, 21 January 1913, p. 9, 22 January 1913, p. 9.
A cigar-shaped airship with a light at each end and which ‘quivered’ in such as way as to suggest a ‘mechanical contrivance’, was seen by architect and surveyor Garth Fisher and his wife over their house between 9.30pm and 10pm. It was also seen by nearly all the workers at the town forge and two postal workers, heading northwards over a mountain, having changed direction by nearly ninety degrees. It was apparently carrying a canvas.
Globe, 20 May 1909, p. 7; Manchester Guardian, 21 May 1909, p. 7; Norfolk News, 22 May 1909, p. 13.
At 1.15am, an airship was seen by a couple of dozen ‘highly respectable and intelligent dock officials and coal trimmers’ working at the Queen Alexandria Dock. In the words of signalman Charles (or Robert) Westlake, the object appeared to be have a ‘cigar shape, making a whizzing noise. It was lit by two lights, which could be plainly seen. It was travelling at a great rate, and was elevated at a distance of half a mile, making from the eastward’ where it disappeared over the Bristol Channel. It was only visible for two or three minutes; the night was clear, with no moon. Other witnesses included pointsman W. Morrison, traffic foreman C. Harwood, boxman W. John, coal tippers C. Hayman, J. Rogers and C. Bray, and F. Smith, acting mate of the Arndale.
Globe, 19 May 1909, p. 4; Manchester Guardian, 20 May 1909, p. 7; Standard, 20 May 1909, p. 10.
There were unconfirmed rumours of an airship sighting in the Cathays district of Cardiff just before 11pm.
Manchester Guardian, 20 May 1909, p. 7.
At about 11pm, a travelling Punch and Judy showman named C. Lethbridge encountered an airship on the ground, about 45 feet in length, on the summit of Caerphilly Mountain, just to the north of Cardiff. He also claimed to have met its crew, two young men in heavy fur coats who ‘jabbered furiously to each other in a strange language — Welsh, or something else. Certainly not English’. The airship rose into the air, the men jumped into a carriage suspended underneath, ‘two lights like electric lamps’ switched on, and it flew towards Cardiff. There was a whirring sound which came from a fan at the back of the carriage. The next day, Lethbridge accompanied a journalist to the landing site where the ground appeared disturbed; a collection of strange objects was found, including a kind of plug with a label in French (including the ominous word obus, “shrapnel”), paper scraps on the letterhead of a firm of London stockbrokers, and a number of newspaper clippings concerning ‘airships or the German army’. Also found were fragments of notes ‘bearing a mass of figures and letters of the alphabet formed in a style distinctly different to that of the average English hand’.
Manchester Guardian, 20 May 1909, p. 7; Standard, 20 May 1909, p. 10; Globe, 20 May 1909, p. 7.
Monmouth auctioneer Oliver Jones and his wife saw an airship at 10.30pm while driving from Tregare with two passengers. They watched it for about half an hour and could clearly discern its cigar shape, apparently travelling faster than the 8 to 10 miles an hour of the motor car. It came from the direction of Raglan, heading towards Chepstow; it then turned around and headed back towards Raglan.
Manchester Guardian, 21 May 1909, p. 7. The place name is given as Tregarog, but this appears to be a garbled reference to Tregare.
Date uncertain: between 6 and 20 May. No details.
