Our story revolves around a man by the name of Étienne Bottineau, who in the 1700s was stationed on the island of Mauritius with the French East India Company. He was mostly just a minor member and engineer, and there was not much special about him if it were not for a remarkable and very unusual skill that he claimed to have developed, which he called
nauscopy. This talent consisted of being able to predict the appearance of ships far from shore merely by looking at the horizon line, and not only could he allegedly accurately tell how many ships would arrive, but when they would appear, how far apart they were, and even how large they would be, and such was his ability that it is said he could see these ships coming from up to 900 miles from shore. It was all rather remarkable, especially since he needed no special equipment, just his own two eyes, and as this was an era before radar or powerful telescopes he began making a name for himself based on this strange ability.
Although he was loathe to tell anyone exactly how he did it, Bottineau would eventually explain the basic concept and how he had developed it, saying:
It appeared to me that a vessel approaching land must produce a certain effect upon the atmosphere, and cause the approach to be discovered by a practised eye even before the vessel itself was visible. Each boat produces “emanations” in the ocean. These emanations affect the transparency of the atmosphere. Therefore, meteorical effects are produced on the horizon and they can be seen and read by all men who know how.
After making many observations, I thought I could discover a particular appearance before the vessel came in sight: sometimes I was right, but more frequently wrong; so that at the time I gave up all hope of success. In 1764, I was appointed to a situation in the Île de France: while there, having much leisure time, I again betook myself of my favorite observation. The clear sky and pure atmosphere, at certain periods of the day, were favorable to my studies, and as fewer vessels came to the island, I was less liable to error than was the case off the coast of France, where vessels are continually passing. I had not been six months upon the island when I became confident that my discovery was certain.
He traveled to France to try and work out a deal to this effect with the Ministry of Marine in 1784, but this did not pan out, and with the coming of the French Revolution Bottineau packed his bags and went back to Mauritius empty handed. There he would spend the remainder of his days continuing with his predictions and even allegedly teaching some lucky few how he did it, but it is largely thought that the secret to nauscopy died with him in 1802, as he never did release a full explanation of how it all worked.
