Globe

An airship was seen by a crowd of people in the evening, consisting of a moving light and possibly the white gas envelope itself.

Globe, 8 March 1913, p. 2.

Date uncertain: late February or early March 1913. A ’scareship’ with two lights on either side of its dark body flew over the head of a Grimsby police constable at night, but he subsequently found that it was a box-kite flown by two young men.

Globe, 6 March 1913, p. 7.

At 8pm, the crew, including Captain J. H. Parker and the chief engineer, of the trawler Othello out of Hull saw an airship with a powerful searchlight. Initially it was distant, but within five minutes it was close enough to circle their trawler twice; in fact Captain Parker was afraid that it would crash into the mast. As it left to the west he saluted it with his siren and was answered by a flash from the searchlight. It had two lights aft. The Moon and stars were not visible.

The Times, 5 March 1913, p. 7; Manchester Guardian, 5 March 1913, p. 7; Standard, 5 March 1913, p, 8; Globe, 5 March 1913, p. 10.

At about 8.30pm, three bright lights were observed to rapidly approach the town from the east by a postman and numerous residents. They were visible for half an hour over the town, were sometimes stationary, and moved off to the north-west. No shape was discernible.

The Times, 27 February 1913, p. 6; Manchester Guardian, 1 March 1913, p. 9; Norfolk News, 1 March 1913, p. 12; Globe, 26 February 1913, p. 2.

‘[C]rowds of excited people’ in the centre of the city watched an airship, which came from the east, for over an hour from about 8.30pm before it disappeared to the west; it had bright lights with an occasional ‘patch of red’.

The Times, 26 February 1913, p. 8; Manchester Guardian, 26 February 1913, p. 6, 27 February 1913, p. 7, 1 March 1913, p. 9; Norfolk News, 1 March 1913, p. 12; Standard, 26 February 1913, p. 7; Globe, 26 February 1913, p. 2.

An airship with a bright light was seen to the west for about an hour after 8pm by coastguards, who observed it with binoculars. A resident claimed it came in from over the North Sea, changing course frequently, and departed westwards at speed; another resident Falconer Jameson was able to discern a discern a cone-shaped airship through binoculars; a patch of red was visible.

The Times, 26 February 1913, p. 8; Manchester Guardian, 26 February 1913, p. 6, 1 March 1913, p. 9; Norfolk News, 1 March 1913, p. 12; Standard, 26 February 1913, p. 7; Globe, 26 February 1913, p. 2.

An airship without lights was seen overhead ‘with perfect distinctness, including wing attachments’ heading west-south-west towards Grimsby, by Captain Lundie and Second Officer Williams of the steamer City of Leeds out of Grimsby, bound for Hamburg. The Moon was shining brightly and the airship was seen for a full two minutes. It was observed with binoculars.

The Times, 3 March 1913, p. 7, 5 March 1913, p. 7; Manchester Guardian, 3 March 1913, p. 9, 5 March 1913, p. 7; Standard, 3 March 1913, p. 9; Globe, 3 March 1913, p. 7.

At 7.40pm, Mrs. Schofield, the wife of the manager of Singer’s Machine Company in Selby, saw two very powerful lights, one in front ‘like the headlight of a motor car’ and one 30 to 40 feet to the rear approaching while being driven to the village of Cawood. Having seen a flight of army airmen on their way to Montrose in Scotland the day before, she was able to estimate the airship’s height at some 1500 to 2000 feet. It disappeared from view within three or four minutes.

Standard, 26 February 1913, p. 7. On the flight to Montrose, see Globe, 21 February 1913, p. 12, 22 February 1913, p. 7.

Rapidly moving lights seen at night, no further details.

The Times, 27 February 1913, p. 6; Manchester Guardian, 1 March 1913, p. 9; Norfolk News, 1 March 1913, p. 12; Globe, 26 February 1913, p. 2.

The train driver on the express from Wistow Gates to Selby, Fred Head, reported that an airship with a bright headlight kept pace with his train, to the front and side, until it was lost in the fog.

Standard, 25 February 1913, p. 9; Globe, 25 February 1913, p. 10.

Solicitor C. H. March and his wife watched a bright starlike object flying to the west of Selby from about 9.25pm, moving up and down and occasionally disappearing. Just after 10pm it disappeared to the west. Mr Sanderson Daw saw it flying overhead; it had a strong front light and two rear lights. Two women saw it using its searchlight over a common. At 10pm Sergeant Skyrme, an Army veteran of twenty years’ service, saw an object he took to be an aeroplane with powerful lights in front and rear.

Manchester Guardian, 27 February 1913, p. 7, 1 March 1913, p. 9; Standard, 24 February 1913, p. 9; Daily Herald, 26 February 1913, p. 3; Globe, 25 February 1913, p. 10.

Lights seen at night and engine sounds heard at about 8.30pm, no further details.

The Times, 27 February 1913, p. 6; Norfolk News, 1 March 1913, p. 12; Globe, 26 February 1913, p. 2.

A number of people saw an airship.

Globe, 3 February 1913, p. 12.

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.

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 airship was seen, no further details.

Globe, 3 February 1913, p. 12.

An airship was seen, no further details.

Globe, 3 February 1913, p. 12.

At 7.30pm, several people saw an airship carrying a light.

Globe, 22 January 1913, p. 5.

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.

Between midnight and 1am, an airship or aeroplane was heard overhead by several residents, including Herbert A. Pertwee (partner of the witness in 1913-05). It passed very quickly and then returned three or four minutes later.

Globe, 22 January 1913, p. 5; Norfolk News, 25 January 1913, p. 10.

Lights were seen in the sky over the Bristol Channel at night, believed to be an airship. Another source says that an airship was dimly perceived over the Barry docks at night.

Standard, 21 January 1913, p. 9, 22 January 1913, p. 9; Globe, 22 January 1913, p. 5.

Just before 11.30pm, a ‘well-known gentleman’ had stopped to repair the headlight on his motorcycle, when he was dazzled by a light shining on him from above for about thirty seconds. It was apparently travelling towards Norwich. He did not see or hear anything else.

Globe, 20 May 1909, p. 7; Norfolk News, 22 May 1909, p. 13.

Strong lights were seen between 11.30pm and midnight, and a ‘whizzing’ sound was also heard.

Globe, 20 May 1909, p. 7.

The brother of the witness in another sighting and at least one other person saw a strange light in the sky between 11.30pm and midnight.

Globe, 20 May 1909, p. 7; Norfolk News, 22 May 1909, p. 13.

An airship was seen manoeuvring high up at dusk; it disappeared with nightfall.

Globe, 20 May 1909, p. 7; Norfolk News, 22 May 1909, p. 13.

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.

Several people independently saw an airship at night.

Globe, 20 May 1909. p.7.

At 1.30am a man cycling home saw an airship with two brilliant lights flying at speed to the southwest. (Kingstown is now Dún Laoghaire.)

Globe, 20 May 1909, p. 7.

At 11.30pm, Mrs. Turner saw lights and heard propellers while coming home from the theatre, as did a young man and a young woman. The street was lit up as if it was day. The object flew very low and approached from the north-north-east, but was not seen itself, only a ‘bright star of light’ at the front and a searchlight at the rear.

Globe, 20 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.

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.

Captain Egenes and the crew of the Norwegian steamer St. Olaf saw a low-flying airship fly overhead, which shone a searchlight onto the ship’s deck. It moved off and examined another steamer.

Globe, 19 May 1909, p. 4; Manchester Guardian, 20 May 1909, p. 7. The location was off Blyth, Northumberland, according to David Clarke, “Scareships over Britain: The airship wave of 1909,” Fortean Studies 6 (1999): 52.

Egerton Free saw a long sausage-shaped airship manoeuvring over the cliffs for a few minutes at dusk (one report says 10.30pm); it remained stationary at a an estimated height of 600 feet for a few minutes and then headed north-east. At the same location the next day he found ‘a curious object made of steel and India-rubber’ weighing 35lb, stamped with the words ‘Müller Bremen Fabrik’.

Manchester Guardian, 20 May 1909, p. 7; Norfolk News, 15 May 1909, p. 15; Standard, 17 May 1909, p. 9; Globe, 17 May 1909, p. 7.