USS Supply's three red objects
Early on 28 February 1904, about 500 km west-south-west of San Francisco, three officers of the USS Supply saw three bright red objects come up below the clouds, fly in formation, then climb away.
1904 CE · 36.33, -127.60 · status: unexplained
The account
Lieutenant Frank H. Schofield, later commander of the Pacific Fleet, published the report in the Monthly Weather Review of March 1904, with the ship's position as 36°20′N, 127°36′W. The largest object looked about six times the size of the Sun.
The sceptical view
Meteors are the obvious first guess, but physicist Bruce Maccabee argued that the objects stayed in view too long and changed direction. Some writers suggest an atmospheric electrical display.
The researched reading
A naval officer’s report of three red objects at sea in 1904. A fragmenting fireball is likely, but the duration and motion leave room for an unexplained phenomenon.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Something known, misidentified | 40% | A bright fireball breaking into fragments low on the horizon can look like objects in formation; an earth-grazing meteor can travel for long durations. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 22% | Maccabee argued that the objects stayed too long and changed direction, which does not fit meteors. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 14% | Sun or bright planet reflections at dawn among clouds could produce glowing red shapes. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 14% | Ball lightning or other luminous atmospheric phenomena remain poorly understood and could match objects moving under the clouds. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 8% | Size and motion judgments at sea with no reference are unreliable. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 2% | Reported by a future fleet commander in the Monthly Weather Review. |
| Secret human technology | 0% | No aircraft existed in 1904. |
Official position: No official investigation; Schofield’s report was published in the Monthly Weather Review as “remarkable meteors”.