Case file · Sighting
Matthew Paris's ship of light, St Albans
In January 1254 a monk of St Albans recorded a large, well-shaped ship of light appearing in a clear, starry sky beside an eight-day-old Moon, then fading away.
1254 CE · 51.75, -0.34 · status: account
The account
The note is in the chronicle tradition of St Albans Abbey associated with Matthew Paris. It gives the date, the phase of the Moon and the clarity of the sky, which makes it one of the more precise medieval sky reports.
The sceptical view
Lunar haloes, paraselenae and auroral arcs can take ship-like shapes; the writer himself treats it as a portent, not a craft.