Top 12 Most Famous Ball Lightning Sightings in History: The 5th Remains Unexplained to This Day

3. The HMS Warren Hastings Incident (1809)

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One of the most well-documented instances of ball lightning at sea, the HMS Warren Hastings incident of 1809 offers important new perspectives on the behavior of the phenomena under marine conditions. One November 4, 1809, the British Royal Navy ship traveled across the Indian Ocean and came into a strong rainstorm. Many crew members claimed witnessing many globes of fire traveling around the deck and ship rigging during this tempest. From a golf ball to a basketball, these brilliant spheres were seen floating through the air, rolling along metal surfaces, and even passing through solid things without causing damage. The length and frequency of the ball lightning events were most amazing about this observation; sources claim that several dozen of these blazing balls were seen for several minutes. A few crew members said the balls left behind a sulfurous smell and hissed. Carefully recorded in the ship's log and in personal tales of officers and sailors, the event gave academics a plethora of data about ball lightning behavior in a maritime environment. This event is especially important since it shows how ball lightning could interact with metallic objects in ways that contradict our knowledge of conventional plasma physics and show the possibility for occurrence in clusters. Meteorologists and physicists have examined the HMS Warren Hastings incident closely in order to develop hypotheses regarding the formation and spread of ball lightning in electrically charged surroundings. Moreover, this historical sighting has been very important in verifying other marine accounts of ball lightning, therefore establishing trends and commonalities in these unusual oceanic contacts with the phenomenon.