<>#8WHO SENT THE SCARESHIPS? @5When the 1909 epidemic of 'scareship' sightings died down, it seemed to be the end of the story - until, in 1912, new and more mysterious sightings began to be reported. @4RUMOURS OF A FLIGHT by a Zeppelin airship over Sheerness, Kent on the evening of 14 October 1912 caused questions to be asked in the House of Commons. On 27 November 1912, opposition MP Mr William Joynson- Hicks asked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr Winston Churchill, if he knew anything about this matter. Mr Churchill affirmed that an identified aircraft had been reported on that date. It was heard flying over the district at 7 p.m., and caused flares to be lit at nearby Eastchurch in anticipation of a landing by the craft. However, nothing descended from the night sky, and the nationality and origin of the craft, Mr Churchill had to admit, remained a mystery. Enquiries by the press in Eastchurch revealed that the townspeople had heard a buzzing noise between 6.30 and 7 p.m. on 14 October. But at the time it was assumed to be the sound of an airship or aeroplane making its way to the naval aviation school at Eastchurch. This was not the case, however, for no aircraft made any night flight on the date in question, from or to that base. The public discussion that followed in the wake of the exchange between Mr Joynson-Hicks and Mr Churchill had many unforeseen consequences. Almost immediately the German LI Zeppelin, which had started a 30-hour proving flight on 13 October, was blamed as the cause of the Sheerness incident. Whether or not the LI, or any other of Germany's airships, visited Sheerness in 1912 is still a matter for debate. Whatever the reason for the incident, the British government decided to strengthen the Aerial Navigation Act of 1911, in order to pacify public and official disquiet. The bill was quickly passed through parliamentary channels and was given the royal assent on 14 February 1913. It gave the Home Secretary the power to prohibit aerial traffic over areas of the United Kingdom and its territorial waters. It also meant that if an aerial vehicle failed to respond to ground signals, or violated the prohibited areas, it was liable to be fired at. Not, everybody was pleased with the amended act. Feverish efforts were made to construct an efficient sky gun - but while the project remained in its experimental stages, many argued that the act was like a dog with a loud bark, but with no teeth to bite with. It was against this background of events that a new wave of phantom airship sightings began in January 1913. Early in the morning of 4 January three witnesses, including a police constable, saw and heard an airship flying over Dover. It came from the direction of the sea and disappeared from sight to the north east. Despite a strong westerly wind, the craft, which displayed a light and made a distinct droning sound, flew at a great speed. In this case it was alleged that a French airship from a base at Verdun, 120 miles (200 kilometres) away, had been the @4culprit, though it is hard to imagine why the craft would have made such a perilous journey at such an early hour in poor weather conditions. Another significant sighting was made by Captain Lionel Lindsay, Chief Constable of Glamorganshire, on 17 January. At 4.45 p.m. he saw an airship pass over Cardiff. He said: It was much bigger and moved faster than the Willows airship and left in its trail a dense volume of smoke. I called the attention of a bystander to the object, and he agreed with me that it was some large craft. It disappeared quickly so giving evidence of speedy movement. Steven Morgan, of Merthyr, saw a similar object from his bedroom window, half an hour after Captain Lindsay. He was also impressed by the trail of smoke the airship left behind it. Before he could obtain the use of a powerful telescope the craft went out of view over the Aberdare Valley. These sightings encouraged more witnesses to come forward. One such observer was a postman from Sketty, Swansea, who saw what looked like a very bright light hovering over Clyne Woods on 21 January at 7 p.m. Four days later, a mysterious aircraft going at a speed of 25 miles per hour (40 km/h) was seen by several people in Liverpool. Although members of a local flying club had been in the air earlier in the day, they said that at the time of the sighting it had been too windy for an extended flight. On several nights at the end of January many witnesses reported seeing a bright light moving over Manchester, which puzzled them. The sightings of the airship, or airships, spread throughout the land to such an extent that a newspaper nicknamed the epidemic of reports 'airshipitis'. When MP Mr Joynson-Hicks was asked about Captain Lindsay's sighting, he replied: I don't doubt the report at all, for though our own aircraft can only do thirty or forty miles (50 or 65 kilometres), the Zeppelin vessels can cross the Channel. I believe, in fact, that foreign dirigibles are crossing the English Channel at will. It is a very serious matter. Yorkshire became a new focal point for the sightings in February. Two young people in Scarborough were the first to see anything unusual in the night sky. At some time early in the month, Mr Taylor and Miss Hollings saw a light hovering over Scarborough racecourse. They were attracted by the sound of machinery, which they attributed to the light. After a few minutes a conical beam of white light descended from the craft and was played upon the racecourse for six or seven minutes. The beam of light vanished and then reappeared briefly before the thing flew away towards Selby. Another Yorkshire sighting occured on 21 February, between 9 and 9.30 p.m., when two men on the sand barge Star were dredging the river Ouse at Beningborough, and saw a light in the sky. One of the witnesses, Mr Riply, said: 'It went round and round and then stopped. It stood stationary for a short time, and then went over Billington Locks. It stood there @4again for some time, and then went round and round as if surveying the country.' It repeated this activity several times before finally disappearing. At the same time in Selby, a solicitor named Mr March saw from his home a bright star over Hambleton. The star moved up and down, and backwards and forwards, as if surveying the area, or looking for something. After 45 minutes it rapidly sailed towards Leeds. It seems that 21 February must have been a busy night for the crew of the airship - if there was, indeed, only one - for not only did many people throughout Yorkshire report seeing its lights and hearing its motors, but it was also seen over Exhall, Warwickshire and Hunstanton, Norfolk. It was at this stage in the proceedings that the War Office began to take an interest in the sighting reports, and efforts were made to discover the identity of the mystery airship; the results of their investigations were, however, never disclosed. Hundreds of sightings were made at the end of February by people throughout the United Kingdom. Many of these observations were, however, explained as visions of Venus, or balloons sent up by jokers. This was, indeed, true in many instances. An impressive sighting that was not so easily explained was made by Captain Lundie and his crew aboard the City of Leeds steamer on 22 February at 9.15 p.m. As they were leaving the mouth of the Humber they saw high over the Yorkshire coast something that 'resembled a shark in appearance', said the captain. 'It had wings on either side, and we saw the tail of the machine. No lights were visible, but owing to the rays of the moon these were not necessary....We had it under observation for about five minutes. It maintained a high altitude all the time, and finally disappeared over Grimsby.' An intriguing sighting, possibly connected with the 'scareship' incidents, was made by a Mr Collins on board his yacht in Killary Harbour, Ireland. In late February he heard a droning sound above the bay, and saw an aeroplane coming from the direction of the sea. Suddenly it descended and landed inland. Mr Collins said: I ran to shore thinking they might want help or information, as it might be a breakdown. I saw it was of the bi-plane type. The occupants were three in number, and one apparently a mechanic whom I could not see, tinkering at the engines. The other two were foreigners pretty stout, with florid complexions, and very intelligent foreheads, apparently Germans. When he asked them, in German, if he could help them, one of the men answered him in French saying he did not understand, and then brusquely told him to go away as they had everything under control. Mr Collins did not see the aircraft take off again, but he did see a steamer on the horizon, which appeared to be waiting for the return of the aircraft and its impolite aeronauts. The sheer number of sightings made in @4the beginning of 1913 makes this wave difficult to research and analyse, especially since there are nearly as many explanations put forward by the pundits of the period. However, mystery still shrouds many of these sightings, though UFO researchers have made a determined effort to come to terms with this material. The result of these researches should have interesting implications for modern-day UFO studies, when the data is finally collated. end.