- Joined
- Nov 28, 2003
- Messages
- 159
I came across this account in "The Shell Guide to Wales", by Wynford Vaughan-Thomas and Alun Llewellyn, originally published in 1969 by Michael Joseph Ltd. It's under "Holyhead" in the Gazetteer section of the book.
Quote:
"Near the town of Holyhead lies Peibio, the scene of a recurrent phenomenon, well confirmed by contemporary evidence, that perplexed the sages of the 18th century, as much as it does those of our own day.
Some time in 1743, Lewis Morris, an experienced mining engineer, master of many languages and eminent antiquarian, had a report from Anglesey. This was made by a farmer whose steading lay near Peibio, a little place only a stone's throw from Holyhead. "Plowing" (as it was written) "with his servant boy in ye fields", he saw bearing down upon him a ship of 90 tons, rigged like a ketch, with its fore-tack at the cat-head and its pennant and "antient" flying. The day was described as indifferent and cloudy, but the detail of the ship could be clearly seen. It was "coming from ye mountains of Snowdon", not by sailing on the waves around Holy Island, but moving "about a Quarter of a mile High from ye Ground". The farmer called his wife. She ran from the farmhouse in time to see the ship in the sky retreating, its pennant lowered to the deck and all sails furled. It was steering "stern foremost", making for whence it had come, the mountains of Snowdonia.
Lewis Morris was not a man to leave such a thing unconfirmed. He hastened to Holyhead and interviewed first the wife and then the husband, separately. Neither had any doubt about the circumstances. The wife had not acquaintance with sea terms, but was quite sure of what she had seen; her only doubt was what the neighbours might think if she allowed Lewis Morris to publish the affair. Lewis Morris found the husband at an inn, visiting Holyhead on farm business. He had no doubt that the man was sober and sincere, with no trace of the "melancolick" disposition that might have led him to exaggerate or imagine. The ship had been plain to see, exact in every detail; the keel could be observed from below; the sails were distended with the wind; when the foresail was lowered it hung in a natural way over bow. In the end a cloud hid the vessel from sight, but not before the farmer, his wife, and his boy had had their observation supported by a flock of birds that assembled to examine the phenomenon and flew round it from all directions. When the vessel began its backward journey, the birds with one accord flew from it northwards in the opposite direction.
What finally persuaded Lewis Morris was the way in which the farmer - whose name, William John Lewis, is worth recording - assured him that he had seen another such ship exactly ten years earlier in much the same place, and that, ten years before then again, he had seen just such another.
The ships were in each case very like the old packet-boats that plied between Holyhead and Ireland; the very ropes of the rigging could be counted one by one. Lewis Morris was afraid that this series of phenomena foreboded some great calamity, and he strove to remember events corresponding with the ten-year intervals. His letter about this matter is hurried, not to say startled, and is either written from or addressed to the Ship Hotel in Dolgelley (as he spells the name of the town).
What attracts the modern inquirer is the recurrence of the visitation at such regular dates. No explanation can be found in early attempts at balloon travel; the first aeronaut to use this means was Montgolfier, and he did not make his first flight until fifty years later. The modern method of communication between earth and outer space is by flying saucer; and the appearance of these vehicles is also at regular intervals of ten years. It seems that extra-terrestrial visitors move with the times and have abandoned "Holyhead Packuet boats" for more advanced methods of flight. But, since the hill at Holyhead is the only height in Anglesey to face the distant loftiness of Snowdon, some trick of refraction may have been responsible for picking up vessels plying the Menai Straits and setting them, pennant and antient and all, to steer the skies above Peibio."
Does anyone have any more information? My Googling has failed to come up with anything.
Quote:
"Near the town of Holyhead lies Peibio, the scene of a recurrent phenomenon, well confirmed by contemporary evidence, that perplexed the sages of the 18th century, as much as it does those of our own day.
Some time in 1743, Lewis Morris, an experienced mining engineer, master of many languages and eminent antiquarian, had a report from Anglesey. This was made by a farmer whose steading lay near Peibio, a little place only a stone's throw from Holyhead. "Plowing" (as it was written) "with his servant boy in ye fields", he saw bearing down upon him a ship of 90 tons, rigged like a ketch, with its fore-tack at the cat-head and its pennant and "antient" flying. The day was described as indifferent and cloudy, but the detail of the ship could be clearly seen. It was "coming from ye mountains of Snowdon", not by sailing on the waves around Holy Island, but moving "about a Quarter of a mile High from ye Ground". The farmer called his wife. She ran from the farmhouse in time to see the ship in the sky retreating, its pennant lowered to the deck and all sails furled. It was steering "stern foremost", making for whence it had come, the mountains of Snowdonia.
Lewis Morris was not a man to leave such a thing unconfirmed. He hastened to Holyhead and interviewed first the wife and then the husband, separately. Neither had any doubt about the circumstances. The wife had not acquaintance with sea terms, but was quite sure of what she had seen; her only doubt was what the neighbours might think if she allowed Lewis Morris to publish the affair. Lewis Morris found the husband at an inn, visiting Holyhead on farm business. He had no doubt that the man was sober and sincere, with no trace of the "melancolick" disposition that might have led him to exaggerate or imagine. The ship had been plain to see, exact in every detail; the keel could be observed from below; the sails were distended with the wind; when the foresail was lowered it hung in a natural way over bow. In the end a cloud hid the vessel from sight, but not before the farmer, his wife, and his boy had had their observation supported by a flock of birds that assembled to examine the phenomenon and flew round it from all directions. When the vessel began its backward journey, the birds with one accord flew from it northwards in the opposite direction.
What finally persuaded Lewis Morris was the way in which the farmer - whose name, William John Lewis, is worth recording - assured him that he had seen another such ship exactly ten years earlier in much the same place, and that, ten years before then again, he had seen just such another.
The ships were in each case very like the old packet-boats that plied between Holyhead and Ireland; the very ropes of the rigging could be counted one by one. Lewis Morris was afraid that this series of phenomena foreboded some great calamity, and he strove to remember events corresponding with the ten-year intervals. His letter about this matter is hurried, not to say startled, and is either written from or addressed to the Ship Hotel in Dolgelley (as he spells the name of the town).
What attracts the modern inquirer is the recurrence of the visitation at such regular dates. No explanation can be found in early attempts at balloon travel; the first aeronaut to use this means was Montgolfier, and he did not make his first flight until fifty years later. The modern method of communication between earth and outer space is by flying saucer; and the appearance of these vehicles is also at regular intervals of ten years. It seems that extra-terrestrial visitors move with the times and have abandoned "Holyhead Packuet boats" for more advanced methods of flight. But, since the hill at Holyhead is the only height in Anglesey to face the distant loftiness of Snowdon, some trick of refraction may have been responsible for picking up vessels plying the Menai Straits and setting them, pennant and antient and all, to steer the skies above Peibio."
Does anyone have any more information? My Googling has failed to come up with anything.
