Go Back Report # 4
00-00-1639

??-??-1639
       In this year one James [ Everell, ]2 sober, discreet man, and two others, saw a great light in the night at Muddy River. When it stood still, it flamed up, and was about three yards square; when it ran, it was contracted into the figure of a swine: it ran as swift as an arrow towards Charlton, and so up and down about two or three hours. They were come down in their lighter about a mile, and, when it was over, they found themselves carried quite back against the tide to the place they came from. Divers (sic-Diverse?) other credible persons saw the same light, after, about the same place.3 

[Blank.]
[deny]                                       [ 2Everett ]

       2. He was a man of reputation, activity and good estate in Boston many years afterwards. With his wife, Elizabeth, he had been received into Boston church 20 of July, 1634, being Nos. 239, 240. His will, made 11 December, 1682, proved 2 February following, is found in our Probate Registry, vol. VI. 400.
       3. This account of an ignis fatuus may easily be believed on testimony less respectable than that which was adduced. Some operation of the devil, or other power beyond the customary agents of nature, was probably imagined by the relaters and hearers of that age, and the wonder of being carried a mile against the tide became important corroboration of the imagination. Perhaps they were wafted, during the two or three hours’ astonishment, for so moderate a distance, by the wind; but, if this suggestion be rejected, we might suppose, that the eddy, flowing always, in our rivers, contrary to the tide in the channel, rather than the meteor, carried their lighter back.                                                                                                       
This reference: The History of New England from 1630-1649, from John Winthrop’s diary, published by Phelps & Farnham, Boston 1825, p. 290.

With thanks to Barry Greenwood for finding & forwarding this text.  

Note: There seems to be some confusion as to the actual date of the sighting in that some of the dates vary from 1638 to 1644.-CF-          

UFOCAT PRN – 79586 [DOS: ??-??-1938]

UFOCAT URN – 079586  Mysteries of the Skies by Gordon I.R. Lore and Harold H. Deneault.

                                        p. 41, © 1968 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

UFOCAT URN – NONE     U.F.O.s and Extraterrestrials in History by Yves Naud, © 1978, Book

                                        No. 2,  pp. 154-155.

UFOCAT PRN – 150940 [DOS: ??-??-1939]

UFOCAT URN – 150940 A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies by George Eberhart, © 1980         

North America – United States, Massachusetts

Charlton           Latitude 42-08 N, Longitude 71-58 W ( D-M )

Reference: http://www.astro.com/cgi-bin/atlw3/aq.cgi?country_list=&expr=charlton&lang=e

UFO Location (UFOCAT): Latitude 42.36 N, Longitude 71.06 W ( D.% )          

 



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