FT260

The first decade of the 20th century was a time of rapid scientific progress and great mechanical wonders. Gigantic gas-filled envelopes called airships flew through the skies. There were problems – they regularly crashed in anything stronger than a stiff breeze – but somebody was flying around up there… [1]

During May of 1909 mysteri­ous airships – dubbed ‘scareships’ by the press – were regularly sighted in the skies of Great Britain (see FT196:46–49; 198:48–50). They were popularly believed to be German spies. [2]

By July it was New Zealand’s turn. Over a two-month period, hundreds of New Zealanders saw strange lights which appeared to be attached to a dark cigar shape. There were also some daylight sightings of a cigar-shaped airship. The sightings started at the base of the South Island and eventually spread 1,750km to Dargaville, near the tip of the North Island, before suddenly stopping.

The first recorded sighting was on 11 July 1909 between 10:30 and 11:00pm by three residents of Stirling. One of the witnesses stated: “It first came into our view from the east and we thought it was a meteor or falling star, but the light grew in brilliance. It moved about the hills above Kaitangata, sometimes swooping down from a height of apparently 600m to about 300m and even lower. Then it would turn and make away toward the sea, or would dip completely out of sight behind the hills. It seemed to move with as much ease, and even grace, as a bird on the wing. The light carried was a strong and steady one, and whenever the ship, or whatever it was, turned, we thought we could see a dark opaque body… It was a marvellously mystifying sight. After [we watched it] for a good half hour, the ship moved off in an easterly direction, whence it had first come into view. I left my companions and made off home, and then a peculiar thing happ­ened. I had been walking for 10 minutes and chanced to look skyward, and lo and behold! There was the mysterious light, high up in the sky and moving off inland in a westerly direction towards the Blue Mountains.” [3]

At 11.30pm on 23 July, a Mrs May was woken by a dull, whirr­ing noise like a motor or threshing mill. Frightened, she jumped out of bed, and went to her veranda. A great vibrating noise came from above her roof. The sound passed overhead but she saw nothing. Two nearby families were also woken by the sound. The following night, a Mrs Ferg­uson saw a silent, dazzling red light above the Blue Mountains as she rode on her horse to Kelso, 20km north of Gore.

At 2am on 28 July, Mr McNeill, a Dunedin resident, was woken by a frightful noise that passed over his house. He hurried outside and saw a bright aerial searchlight at the base of which was a black body. He watched it for two or three minutes. That same night, at 6.45pm, at least 11 people (including the Rev. Thomas Paulin) saw the airship. It was like a very brilliant star, greatly magnified. Others saw a long, black body behind the light. [4] Also on the night of 28 July, about 200 people in the streets of Invercargill (210km south of Dunedin) saw a moving light that drifted south. There was speculation it might have been a fire balloon. [5]

Then there was a brief spurt of sightings at the other end of the country in Auckland. A local fireworks dealer claimed he had recently sold several fire ball­oons. This was unusual, as early November was the time of greatest demand. One fire balloon was described as made “of pink and white paper (similar to that used in Chinese lanterns), and measured 6m in circumference; a pad of felt is placed on a wire cross-bar at the bottom of the bag of the balloon, and saturated with methylated spirits. The balloon is thus inflated with hot air, and has been known to travel from 10 to 15 miles [16–24 km].” [6] The remains of a fire balloon were found on a vacant section in York Place, Dunedin, just after a bright light was seen in the sky. [7] Balloons, and bright stars or planets could explain some night-time sightings, but not all. Nor could they explain daylight sightings.

On 27 July, about 10am, Allan Mitchell and Alex Rich had been working near the mouth of the Pomahaka River when they saw, at a distance of roughly 4km, an airship as it dipped up and down in the sky. It was distinctly boat-shaped and appeared to have a long pole on top. It continued toward them before swerving left, crossing the river, and disappearing in the direction of the sea. [8] Three days later, two Gore dredge hands who worked the nightshift saw an airship that carried lights on both ends as it descended through the early morning mist. They claimed to have clearly seen two figures on board. [9]

An impressive daylight sighting occurred on Friday 23 July at Kelso. Several children and one adult allegedly saw the airship at close range about midday. Mrs Russell saw a black boat-like shape that came straight at her. It suddenly turned and swerved out of sight over some trees. At first it travelled swiftly, but slowed and came lower as it turned about 275m away. Mrs Russell was frightened beyond belief, and thought it was the end of the world. [10]

Thomas Jenkins saw the vessel as he was going home from school for lunch – it cruised around the nearby hills for 10 minutes. It was black, and he noted two supports on each side as it passed over him. He drew two sketches, one a side view, the other as seen from directly underneath. Thomas McDonald saw the ship twice, both going home and returning to school. The second time, about 10 minutes later, he had a better view. A propeller whirled at the rear. George McDuff, Agnes Falconer and Cyril Falconer also gave similar descriptions. [11]

On 29 July, there was a second spectacular daylight sighting by 23 children and their teachers at Invercargill school, 50km south of Kelso. The headmaster, Mr Alex Inglis, and a reporter interviewed the children. Two sketches showed a cigar-shape with a tapered rear. The children saw no people, passenger car or mast. It moved swiftly and they were adamant it was far too big for a bird. [12]

Decades later, doubt was cast on the Kelso school sighting when a newspaper printed comments from some of the witnesses, 60 years after the event. George McDuff (a Standard Three pupil in 1909, so presumably aged 12 or 13 at the time) said: “The children had been reading certain magazine art­icles [describing an airship] and daydreaming. I put it down very largely to that.” Cyril Falconer maintained he and his sister had seen nothing that day, although he did recall being taken outside by grown-ups to see strange lights in the sky. [13]

If the children made up their sighting, why did Mrs Russell corroborate their tale? Why didn’t the children claim more exciting details, such as seeing crewmembers? Perhaps, after 60 years, their memories had faded to the point where they were unsure if they had personally seen the airship.

By the end of July 1909, airship interest was at fever pitch. On the 30th, hundreds of patrons leaving Christchurch theatres watched a mysterious red light that they thought was the airship. In all probability it was the planet Mars. [14] Mr Wragge, an astronomer, stated: “These myst­erious lights are attributable to two causes – local secret airship trials and cosmic luminous dust of meteoric or cometary origin… Many people appear to have mistaken the planets Venus, Jupiter, and Mars for the lights of an airship.” [15]

The distance of the planet Mars from the Earth varies due to their relative positions in their orbits, Mars’s greater distance from the Sun and variations in each orbit. At certain times, Mars is particularly bright in the sky. At the beginning of August 1909, Mars was rising above the horizon at about 9pm and was very bright. However, author Murray Stott analysed over 100 reports from July and August 1909, and found that “around 80 per cent of all sightings occurred before Mars had risen… Mars was not as bright at the peak time of the ‘Airship’ sightings (28 July to 10 August) as it was to become at the time when reports… had stopped.” [16]

North Island newspapers made barbed comments about illicit stills and drunken hallucin­ations. These groundless remarks did not succeed in halting the airship’s steady advance north. On 3 August it was reported in Wellington, Fielding, and Napier. By the 9th and 10th, sightings were simultaneously reported in Australia and in New Zealand’s Coromandel and Waihi regions. There were a handful of new sightings in the South Island of New Zealand at the beginning of September, and then the reports
ceased for good.

Aside from light-hearted suggestions that Martians were visiting, the main theories were that the airship was flown either by German spies or a secret New Zealand inventor. The German yacht Sestern had disappeared somewhere between Brisbane and NZ. There were rumours that she was hidden off the Otago coast and had released an airship at night for spying missions (exactly what wonderful secrets the spies were supposed to find in the dark of the NZ countryside was never explained!).

A letter writer signing himself ‘Aviator’ suggested that “deflated ‘the thing’ may be quite compact, and the gas generator… remains on board when ‘the bird’ flies away.” [17]

There is no possibility that Germans (or anyone else) had secretly tested an airship in NZ. In 1909, only three working Zeppelins existed. They were still in the experimental stage and incapable of long journeys. These could not even have been responsible for the May 1909 British scareship sightings. ‘Aviator’ went on to cast doubt about the possibility of a local inventor having constructed an airship:

“The making of such a struct­ure locally is out of the question. First, there are the making and the transporting of a big gas generator to some secret spot, the production or importation and transportation of the fabric, rubber, silk, netting, and fittings for the huge gas envelope, the importation or making of the engine, the placing of a large order for motor spirit, extending over many months during construction and trials, and the thousand-and-one details that would be bound to come to notice. Moreover, one of the many workmen necessary to build such a structure would be sure to ‘give the show away’.” [18]

It would also have been pointless for a local inventor to have kept his success secret; many investors were ready to throw large sums of money at any successful airship. The only aerial devices being worked on in NZ were primitive short-range aircraft, few of which ever got off the ground. A Southland cycle dealer called Murie did manage to travel about 32km in a balloon with one passenger, but it is ridiculous to think he was responsible for the widespread sightings. It was far too dangerous to fly at night, and the daytime airships far outperformed the slow pioneer efforts.

Murray Stott’s analysis showed that 63 per cent of reports were made by three or more witnesses (making fraud less likely); 70 per cent were of nocturnal lights, 13 per cent of nocturnal objects, and 17 per cent of daylight objects. [19] New Zealand had a higher percentage of good daylight reports than similar waves in the USA (1897 and 1909), Canada (1909), and Great Britain (1909 and 1913). These are the hardest to explain, as meteors, planets, stars, and fire balloons can be ruled out.

Although it was not a daylight sighting, an airship report by two young Dunedin ladies is similar to many modern UFO reports: “The Moon was shining very brightly and a great blaze of white light was reflected back at them off the harbour. As they watched, the red light moved up the harbour very swiftly and came right over that portion of the harbour lit by the Moon’s rays. The object was thereby thrown into unusual prominence and the two young ladies distinctly saw a long opaque body with a brilliant red headlight at one end and a smaller ordinary light at the other. The thing came up the harbour, apparently only 20 to 30 yards above the water with extraordinary rapidity, and then rose suddenly, swung to the left and disappeared over the hills.” [20]

In light of all the evidence, it’s my opinion that at least some of the scareships were UFOs (in the true sense of “unidentified”) being interpreted in the mindset of the time as man-made airships – just as modern-day UFOs are interpreted as secret aircraft or alien spaceships today.

Notes
1 For example, the French airship République collapsed in mid-air and killed four people. Mercury (Hobart, Tasmania), 28 Sept 1909.
2 Michel Bourgard: “UFOs Throughout History” p24 and Nigel Watson: “Before The Flying Saucers Came” p27 in Hilary Evans (ed): UFOs 1947–1987: The 40-Year Search For An Explanation, Fortean Tomes, 1987.
3 Taranaki Daily News, 22 July 1909 (quoting Clutha Free Press, 13 July 1909).
4 Otago D.Times, 29 July 1909.
5 New Zealand Times (Welling­ton), 29 July 1909. Fire balloons were the early 1900s equivalent of the now ubiquitous sky lanterns. See FT255:39 and 256:33 for recent coverage.
6 Auckland Star, 29 July 1909.
7 Otago D.Times, 30 July 1909.
8 Clutha Leader (Balclutha), 27 July 1909.
9 Auckland Star, 31 July 1909.
10 Otago D.Times, 31 July 1909.
11 Ibid.
12 Southland Daily Times (Invercargill), 30 July 1909.
13 Otago D.Times, unknown date 1968.
14 Otago D.Times, 31 July 1909.
15 Otago D.Times, 2 Aug 1909 [quoting a correspondent in the Ensign].
16 Murray Stott: Aliens Over The Antipodes, Space-Time Press, Sydney, 1984, pp12–13.
17 Otago D.Times, 3 Aug 1909.
18 Ibid.
19 Stott, op. cit. p14.
20 Otago D.Times, 5 Aug 1909.