Charles Fort & the UFO Sightings of Yesteryear

April 29, 2008 By Tom

I’m reviewing a book for the next issue of WIE called Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural by Jim Steinmeyer. It’s an utterly captivating portrait of Fort’s peculiar life and work, about which I knew very little before reading Steinmeyer’s book. Having weaned my fledgling imagination, as a kid, on Time-Life’s Mysteries of the Unknown series — a classic compendium of “Fortean” phenomena — I was dimly aware of Fort by his towering reputation in the field of occult research, and I became even more conscious of his extensive influence once my teenage studies of UFOs began in earnest. But I now wish I’d tried to find out more — and sought out his actual writings — years ago, because his skeptical approach to mysterious phenomena and humorous self-awareness of the absurdity of it all are qualities I would’ve resonated with completely, back when such paranormal interests consumed all of my waking (and dreaming) attention. These days the mysterious realm of Forteana is just an abiding background interest of mine, but I always experience the same old thrill and sense of wonder when reading accounts such as these:

Fort in a letter to T.P.’s Weekly
(Published June 6, 1925)

“Explorers from other Worlds?”

Sir,—

There are recorded indications that this earth has, from time to time, been visited by explorers from other worlds. In Nature (May 25, 1893) is published an account by Captain Charles J. Norcock, of the H.M.S. Caroline, of a fleet of lights in the sky, which he saw, upon the night of February 24, 1893, between Shanghai and Japan. These luminous objects, if not lights upon several vessels from some other world, moved, sometimes in a massed formation, and sometimes in an irregular line. Anything of a meteoric nature is excluded, because the duration was two hours. The next night these appearances were observed again, moving as if exploring, for seven hours and a-half.

Upon July 2, 1907, according to an account by Bishop John S. Michaud, published in the Monthly Weather Review (Washington), 1907, page 310, a “torpedo-shaped body” appeared in the sky, over the city of Burlington, Vermont. For a while it was stationary, and then it slowly moved away. “Tongues of fire” issued from the object. There was a terrific explosion. Because conditions were stormy at the time, an attempt was made to explain the explosion and something that was seen to fall in terms of “ball-lightning,” but the account is of a vessel which appeared, seemed to fire a projectile, and sailed away. There was no known airship of this earth that could have appeared in Vermont in July, 1907.

—CHARLES FORT (London).

You can find all of Fort’s books, letters, etc., reproduced in html form here. There’s also a nice new edition of Fort’s collected works just out from Tarcher/Penguin (published in conjunction with Steinmeyer’s biography).


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